Wouldn't It Be Great, To Source Photography Work Overseas?

Today I was asked (tongue in cheek) by a friend living overseas if I didn’t mind, just popping over quickly and taking some photographs of her kids, because she really liked my work.

Well that’s a really nice thought, and I thanked her for her compliments, and then proceeded to indulge myself in a good quality, highly realistic, full colour daydream of how nice it would be if I could just hop on a plane, dash over and do the assignment and come home again.

…

Then I got to thinking… What exactly would it take, for that type of business to become ordinary for me?

What sort of rates would I have to charge in order to make that kind of dream, a reality in my work?

Most importantly I suppose, would be, how to source clientele of such great means to justify those rates?

Given the current (horrific) exchange rate, I reckon I could do that kind of work for about $3500 (USD). That would get the client, me (!), for say 3 days of undivided attention, being able to shoot, edit and produce all the photos they could want, while I’m there.  I came up with some bullet points of what I would need to do to prepare for such an assignment (come on this is fun, indulge me!).

• Source reasonable airfare using One World Alliance Partner Airline (I’m a member), and so far the cheapest fare I’ve found is about $1500 with BA. Although, flying with them, I’d have to repeatedly take the best diet pill possible, in order to squeeze into the economy class seats, clearly designed for emaciated models.

• Source local supplier, able to produce good quality prints within the correct time frame so that final delivery could take place before I leave.

• Obtain the necessary visa

• Declare my camera equipment, trusty Macbook and graphics tablet at customs so that they don’t charge me import duty on them. I’d only need to take my Canon 30D, 50mm F1.8, 18-55mm F4-5.6, and tripod.

• Enjoy the trip!

• Provided my costs in-country don’t run to more than say $1000 for print production, accomodation (remember I’m only there 3 nights) and the odd bit of internal transport, I’d still turn a profit of $1000 which in our local currency is R10207.00, and ample for 3 days work (plus 3 days travel time there and back).

Okay, now I have the ‘how’.  Any takers? Anybody want a great portrait session, or have a wedding planned? If I’m there for 3 days I’d be happy to see 2 or 3 clients for portrait sessions if they wanted to book together.

Cough…eh hem…I really am that good, plus I never get jet-lag, so I could hit the ground running… Let’s not think about ecology for now, and what my carbon footprint would be if I kept jetting overseas okay. Let’s not think about that.