A twenty-five cent photo.
I have four grown kids ranging from thirty to thirty-eight and four grandkids ages one month to thirteen and have been taking pictures of them most of their lives. Not so much with my three daughters and one son as they all have “flown the coop”, and leading grown-up lives!!!
There was a time when I took lots of pictures of them, and my fellow photographers that have taken my online course with the BPSOP, and my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshop I conduct around the planet always are amazed when I show them some of mine in response to some of their submission they always have the same disclaimer…”It’s all they would let me take”, or “After one shot they wanted to quit”, or “This is the only pose they would give me”, or finally, “They had a complete meltdown when I asked them to smile”.
“What’s your secret”? They always ask.
It’s easy, pay them!!!!! I’ve always felt that if you were going to take them away from what they were doing, it seemed only fair to pay them for their time; and it has ALWAYS worked.
When my kids were just past the walking for the first time stage in their life, I was taking their pictures for family personal use as well as using them for some of my jobs. At first, they wouldn’t hear of being photographed. Covering their eyes and laying on the ground was their way of saying no. So, I offered to pay them twenty-five cents. It worked like a charm. Then as they got a little older, it went to fifty cents. Around the age of ten, it became a dollar, and that meant they agreed to be photographed for as long as I needed because it was mostly for my work.
By this time, they were as good looking and better all-around models that took direction better than any model their age a client could pick. This held true for all the modeling agencies in Houston.
The dollar became five, then twenty-five, fifty, and finally one hundred dollars by the time they were teenagers to young adults. You ask why? When a client wanted to look at model portfolios, I would always put in whichever of my kids would fit the profile of who they were looking for. If one of them was picked, I would tell them it was one of my kids and the rate was one-hundred dollars for whatever use they wanted. A price my kids gladly agreed on.
The difference in price between a model registered with an agency and one of my kids could be quite a lot. One of my kids charged a hundred dollars and the modeling agency would easily charge a thousand dollars or considerably more depending on all the different places the photo would be seen. There was never an issue concerning Nepotism with the advertising agencies. It was always about the money.
So, next time you want to photograph your kids, pay them for their time. A quarter can go a long way, which is exactly what my daughter (photo shown at the top) charged to get on the teeter-totter with our dog Lucy.
A fifty cent charge by another daughter.
Visit my website at www.joeBaraban.com and check out my workshop schedule. Come shoot with me sometime.
JoeB
What a great idea Joe. I have a lovely five year old granddaughter and would love to do some photoshoots with her but she hates to pose and if she does, she makes faces and sticks her tongue out. Will surely start offering her some dough in the future.
Cordia,
Make sure to pay afterwards!!!
JoeB
loved the idea. My story is a bit different. I have three kids. 24, 21 and 13. I used to take their pictures all the time (the older ones). I thinks that is what I have photographed the most and what got me into photography. They were never posed. When they got to be teenagers they started shooing me around so I stopped, luckily I had the small one to work on. About two years ago, they asked me why I had stopped taking their pictures! So now I am back. But I love the idea of rewarding them so they can now pose and I can get even better photos!!! great tip
Andrea,
With enough incentive, they will even put on specific wardrobe for you.
JoeB