Everyone loves free because there’s no risk involved. If it’s free, I’ll take it! If it turns out to be useless, then throwing it out can be done without any hesitation or regret.
It’s free and priced to sell.
Free means you don’t have to make any judgments or decisions. Good photography? Lousy photography? Who cares, because it’s free! Free becomes the most important feature of the photography and not the quality of the work.
I wouldn’t buy anything that I have to pay for.
But viewers of the photography don’t care what it cost. They care only about the quality. So there’s a serious disconnect between a business that tries to get free or cheap photography, and its customers who want good photography.
I wouldn’t pay for anything unless it’s free.
People always assign a value to the things they buy. If something is acquired for free, they assign a value of $0. For example, if someone loses their $75 sunglasses, they’ll moan, “Oh no, I’ve lost my $75 sunglasses! Help me find them!”
But if they lose a free (or cheap) pair of sunglasses, that person will just say, “Don’t worry, I got them for free. It doesn’t matter.” The cheap sunglasses are disposable and not worth any effort.
For the photographer who does cheap or free photography: is your work disposable?
For the business that tries to get cheap or free pictures: is your business image disposable and not worth the effort?
Tags: corporate image, value
Here’s an article about a recent craiglist ad from a company looking for a free photographer:
http://photobusinessforum.blogspot.com/2010/07/us-open-craigslist-pr-company-idiocy.html