4 ms·

More like a race to a more appropriate level. $2K a day is $500K a year. For something that apparently a lot of people can do.

Retric 8y ago
That assumes you can get a full year into it. Wedding photographers are fairly well compensated in part because of how weddings mostly clump up on a few days of thew week and months of the year.
- ghaff 8y ago
  Of corse it’s ultimately what the market will bear. But a lot of gig jobs of this type might be 100 days per year and often a lot less. And they need backup equipment, marketing, etc. In a previous role, I could bill out for up to $10k per day but that didn’t include travel time and were very intermittent types of jobs that I had to do a lot of free/lower rate work to be in a position to land.
  - exikyut 8y ago
    I'm really curious what could demand $10k per day :) not at all because I don't believe it, but because that sounds very very nice... Vaguely speaking, the impression I get is maybe you were doing senior-level "emergency fix the unfixable" type work, like recovering a petabyte-sized Oracle database that had chewed itself, or PMing an 11th-hour restructure of a 50% finished 10M-LOC project due in 4 hours. (I recall an uncitable story I read/heard somewhere about a bank that nearly missed a deadline and had 1000 developers working simultaneously to get the work done at the last minute) (I can't figure out/guess what the lower-rate work might have been.)
    - stretchwithme 8y ago
      Probably advising senior executives.
      - ghaff 8y ago
        That’s correct. Product strategy and messaging from a team that also has a significant technical background. Also giving industry landscape/perspectives at customer and sales events. To parent’s point, very specialized and experienced engineering consultants can make a lot. Even something like an expert witness report can be $4-5K per day. But to repeat these tend to be gigs where this sort of click is running for a very small portion on 200 days per year. It’s not at all like regular contract work.
bennesvig 8y ago
Flying a drone is much easier than most people think (at least drones from DJI or even the GoPro Karma). To not become a commodity, you have to provide something on top of just flying a drone to produce photo/video assets. For example, combining drone flying with storytelling (and ground footage) to create a video with a narrative is much harder, thus lucrative.
- FireBeyond 8y ago
  Right. A lot of people posting "pro/semi pro" drone footage on YouTube etc., have _really_ got to master the art of "planning a shot", so you don't have jerk-stop-jerk panning, zooming etc. The tools are there, the technique is learned. Just as buying an EOS 1D and some L lenses won't win you photography awards by themselves.

Retric 8y ago

That assumes you can get a full year into it. Wedding photographers are fairly well compensated in part because of how weddings mostly clump up on a few days of thew week and months of the year.

ghaff 8y ago
Of corse it’s ultimately what the market will bear. But a lot of gig jobs of this type might be 100 days per year and often a lot less. And they need backup equipment, marketing, etc. In a previous role, I could bill out for up to $10k per day but that didn’t include travel time and were very intermittent types of jobs that I had to do a lot of free/lower rate work to be in a position to land.
- exikyut 8y ago
  I'm really curious what could demand $10k per day :) not at all because I don't believe it, but because that sounds very very nice... Vaguely speaking, the impression I get is maybe you were doing senior-level "emergency fix the unfixable" type work, like recovering a petabyte-sized Oracle database that had chewed itself, or PMing an 11th-hour restructure of a 50% finished 10M-LOC project due in 4 hours. (I recall an uncitable story I read/heard somewhere about a bank that nearly missed a deadline and had 1000 developers working simultaneously to get the work done at the last minute) (I can't figure out/guess what the lower-rate work might have been.)
  - stretchwithme 8y ago
    Probably advising senior executives.
    - ghaff 8y ago
      That’s correct. Product strategy and messaging from a team that also has a significant technical background. Also giving industry landscape/perspectives at customer and sales events. To parent’s point, very specialized and experienced engineering consultants can make a lot. Even something like an expert witness report can be $4-5K per day. But to repeat these tend to be gigs where this sort of click is running for a very small portion on 200 days per year. It’s not at all like regular contract work.

bennesvig 8y ago

Flying a drone is much easier than most people think (at least drones from DJI or even the GoPro Karma). To not become a commodity, you have to provide something on top of just flying a drone to produce photo/video assets. For example, combining drone flying with storytelling (and ground footage) to create a video with a narrative is much harder, thus lucrative.

FireBeyond 8y ago
Right. A lot of people posting "pro/semi pro" drone footage on YouTube etc., have _really_ got to master the art of "planning a shot", so you don't have jerk-stop-jerk panning, zooming etc. The tools are there, the technique is learned. Just as buying an EOS 1D and some L lenses won't win you photography awards by themselves.