Getting what you paid for

For the past few years, a Canadian TV network would hire five photographers to cover an annual live event that it hosted and broadcasted. The photos were used for its web sites, media handouts and its annual report. The photographers were each paid $2,000 to cover the four-hour event.

The photo procedure for the event is that full-resolution pictures, for third-party news media use, are posted online within 15 minutes after it happens. This occurs continuously throughout the duration of the event. Lower resolution images are also quickly posted to the TV network’s various web sites. Two photo editors and a card runner are hired to do this work.

Last year, someone at the TV network decided to save some money by hiring only two photographers and then filling the gap by using three of its employees. The TV network rented three pro cameras, three pro lenses and one pro flash for these employees to use. The cameras were set to auto-everything.

The network was trying to save $6,000, (or less if you include the cost of the camera rentals), at an event that cost many hundreds of thousands of dollars, or more, to produce.

Less than thirty minutes into last year’s event, the network’s director of communications came running into the photo room saying that “their” pictures were horrible: out of focus, bad flash and poorly composed. She was embarrassed by the photos and hoped that network executives and sponsors weren’t viewing their site.

The communications director demanded that two additional pro photographers be brought in *right now!* and she would pay them whatever they wanted.

Two photographers were called and they arrived as quickly as they could. They did the work properly, including reshooting some of what the TV employees had shot.

After the event, the communications director came into the photo room with a huge smile on her face. She said the network executives were thrilled with all the photos.

This year the TV network hired five photographers at $2,200 each.