Confessions of a freelance photographer

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Matt Dutile (25) recently visited Bermuda to shoot stock images for New York ad agencies. In the age where everyone is able to publish their own great images instantly and freely online, I was fascinated to learn how a young person turned a hobby into a full-time lucrative business. I sat down with him to ask him about his career.

How did you get started as a "paid" freelance photographer?

Almost all commercial photographers these days work freelance — though that’s probably the wrong word for this industry, contractors would be the closer business model. We’re generally solo business owners, some who own studio spaces and even one or two employees working under us.

For me this started out as a hobby. I picked up a camera when I was bored in a desk job and just found my calling. I began expanding my knowledge, finding what I wanted to shoot and putting together a portfolio and business. It started slowly with photography models, events and really anything someone would pay me to shoot initially. Then I built a client list and a niche for my style of imagery.

What was your best and worst assignment?

I’ve had a lot of great assignments taking me all over the world and meeting some really cool people. I’ve had plenty of the workhorse or creatively uninspiring shoots as well. Some you do to pay the bills, others because they’re creatively fulfilling and everything in between. Generally when production is smooth and there is a great creative collaboration — those are the best.

You make a full-time living from this. How do you get paid and is it feast or famine?

It’s definitely an incredibly tough industry to break into. No matter whether you’re more on the retail side of photography (weddings, families, seniors) or commercial side (advertising, editorial, publishing) it’s going to take some time to build a good client list. Making solid connections is as crucial as just being really, really good at capturing and creating images.

As a commercial photographer my income comes from ad agencies, magazines and newspapers, catalogues, stock sales and a few other sources. There’s a separate contract and scope of work for each client and pay can vary per job from as little as a few hundred dollars to tens of thousands. I try to get expenses covered up front, and then may see payment from a job within a week, but more often 30, 60 or 90 days later. You definitely have to know how to space out your income. There’s no steady check every two weeks. You’ve got to make the big projects last.

How many images do you take and of those images how many do you use?

In a controlled studio environment shooting beauty, I may take a few hundred. On an editorial assignment where I have two minutes with my subject I may only get off two dozen. Other days on travel or lifestyle work with a lot of action I may shoot as many as a thousand images or more. But there’s a hard whittle down process. Only a handful from a day like that may ever see the light of day. Many get deleted because the action isn’t quite in the right moment, or the perspective is slightly off. Out of a 600 day I’ll probably delete 300-400 right out, make a selection of around 50 and ultimately use only one to six.

There are a ton of factors that go into making a good photograph — both technically and artistically. It’d be hard to try to put that down in any short form. After shooting for a bit, it’s something you just learn to see.

You recently travelled to Bermuda. What are your best memories of the experience?

It’s a great island. So many friendly people, a great public transportation system and of course those magical pink sand beaches! Everyone I met was very accommodating — and when you’re shooting travel work that can make or break some assignments. With such a short flight from NYC, I’ll definitely be back.

To find out more about Matt, you can visit him at mattdutile.com. Lois Wilson is a local entrepreneur.

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