Marc Ortiz, shot on film, before I started shooting digital.

It was close to 20 years ago that I was playing around with digital sound files on a computer.
I was using software to edit a wave file. I wanted to use my own sound files in a video game, and I needed to piece together several sound clips. It was surprisingly easy to not only edit the clips, but mix them together with no added noise.

As someone who had played with recording onto tape, this was a major revelation to me. It was now possible to record onto a lossless medium where no perceptible noise would be introduced. You had a digital mixing studio in your home. The implications for the recording industry were clear. Record companies no longer held a stranglehold on the medium. If anyone could record a song, then bands didn’t need to sign record contracts that forked over future profits in exchange for studio time. If the record companies didn’t adapt, they would soon be dinosaurs.

A few old school photographers are having a similarly hard time adapting to the digital age.

The old school way of doing business for a photographer was to charge the client a fee for the shoot. The photographer would also tack on additional fees for film and processing. Parking. Gas. Assistants. Makeup artists. Models. Etc.. Don’t get me wrong.. these were all legitimate expenses. But some photographers would purposefully jack them up. Then the photographer would give the client proofs. If the client wanted reproductions of any of the images, they had to pay an additional fee. In some cases, photographers would charge for each use of each image. If you wanted to get headshots done, some photographers would charge you every. Single. Time. That you had reproductions made of your original 8 x 10.

This was the accepted practice.

Alana, shot on film. This image also appeared in my ad in “The Book”

When I started shooting, I ended up taking a side job for a photographer. She had just shot an event. She was charging each person at the event – who wanted pictures – a couple of bucks for a 4 x 6 photo. More, if they wanted a larger one. Of course, she didn’t want to spend her entire day sorting through negatives, so she hired me. It was my job to match the person to the negative, fill out the photo processing form, and mark it so that she would know who the image would go to.
She didn’t know it, but she was the one who convinced me to never-ever-ever do business in that kind of a piecemeal way. I wasn’t interested in nickels and dimes. Or even a couple hundred dollars, if it took me that much time sorting through negatives. I wanted to take photos. I didn’t want to waste my time on paperwork.

As a film photographer, I charged people for my time, film, and processing. That was it. I was often lucky in the sense that the client often had the equipment. I would literally go to their facility, use their equipment, and charge them for my time. This, was awesome! I didn’t spend any of my time processing images or doing paperwork. That was their job.

And then digital came.

I was already charging clients a flat fee for headshots. But digital made it sooo much easier. Now I could give the clients all of their images. When a client asked me how many frames I took, I could give them a rough idea. But I didn’t have to limit myself to 72 shots, or two rolls, for the sake of the cost of film. Yes, there is extra wear and tear on my equipment. But its negligible when it comes to getting the image right. And that makes all of the difference to me.

Now why do I bring this up?

Not too long ago, I was contracted by a photographer to do a corporate shoot. I would be photographing a lot of high-profile employees… people who’s salaries were easily in the six figures. While speaking to the photographer, I was told that if they wanted more then 6 frames of each employee, they would have to pay extra for it.

I stood there, with my mouth agape.
I wasn’t a grade school photographer, shooting kids for 2 minutes. This was a corporate shoot. I was getting paid good money to be there and show the client in their best light. Because in this case, the client’s image is a good portion of their business.

And the Photographer wanted me to shoot 6 frames of each person?
I balked. I told the photographer that I shoot until I get the image. That’s it.

Much to the photographer’s credit, they let me do the shoot my way. I shot images until I knew that the client would be happy with the pictures. -And the client loved me. Go figure.

But this wasn’t the last problem I had with this photographer. After the shoot, the photographer didn’t want to give all of the images to directly to the client. (After bragging on their website that they get the images to the client on the same day.)

Why? Because the photographer was old school. They didn’t adapt. They haven’t figured out the impact of the digital age, and they haven’t realized that they are the record company executive telling the songwriter that they won’t get studio time unless they sign with them.

I am no longer a young man. But I’m proud to say that I’ve been ahead of the curve when it comes to the digital revolution. I was giving people CDs (now data DVDs, because of increased image size) of their images before most photographers figured out that it was a thing that they could do. My latest website is somewhere around its 4th revision. I coded it, every time, myself. I didn’t use a template.

I modified this blog software to fit my needs.

There are a lot of photographers who fear the digital revolution because it makes it a lot easier for anyone to take a great image of their friend. But I don’t fear it.

Painters were worried that photographers would make them extinct, but people still pay tens of thousands of dollars for works of art. The first generation of photographers were worried that the Brownie would put them out of business. It just made them raise their game. 35mm cameras threatened to put another generation of photographers out on the streets. Those photographers adapted.

Yes, you can now take an awesome shot with your iPhone. But here’s the catch: you don’t obsess on it like I do. Its not the camera. It never has been. The camera is a tool. Its the person behind it that notices the details.

And we have to adapt, just like everyone else. Otherwise, we’ll wonder why the musician doesn’t want to fork over half of their profits for 7 days of studio time.