4 Reasons Why It’s Necessary for Every Photographer to Donate Some Work to Public Domain
Reasons, why every photographer should donate some work to public domain – Working for free in any given career path, has a huge stigma attached to it. If you don’t know the scenarios that require you to work for free people will take advantage of you and devalue other photographers’ work in the process. That’s why there are only a handful of reasons to work for free. When you work for free, you need to try and always put yourself in the best possible position to gain something from work. Whether you’re just putting new work in your portfolio or you’re adding to your network, you need to realize that working for free can benefit you, especially early in your career. The following are some few reasons one could choose to post their work on the public domain.
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Personal Projects
These are your projects that you put together, and they’re the best “work for free” moments. You get the best work possible that fits your style when you do personal projects. Personal projects show off your style and skill more than anything else. You have full control over everything because in the end these are specifically for you. Posting your projects allows you to get unlimited exposure as people will use your work from the public domain. The free domains also help you cut costs when you are starting out as a photographer for they don’t charge when it comes to posting your work.
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TFP/Trade for Print
These are collaborations between you and a selected free domain. You get the point: It’s not all about you, it’s about everyone as a group. Usually, these are works you’ll do and give the public domain in exchange for an agreed favor or compensation. This is great, especially when you first start because it helps you build a rapport with clients from various areas and gets your work out to everyone else through multiple people sharing it
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Working For Free
This type of posting is a real risk that you as a photographer can take. You have to be sure the work that comes from free posting can lead to either more paid work, or add significantly to your network. Regardless, you are pretty much sharing your talent with the domains for free, no strings attached. It can be beneficial if you play your cards right as you never know who visits these public domains. The gamble is hoping for these people to recognize your talent and contact you for future paying work.
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Charity work
Instances, where you decide to accept to do work for charities, should be the only time you work without pay and within restrictions. Helping others could be your way of giving back to the community. Watch the amount of free work you accept though as they tend to be too demanding and as you know, you don’t get paid. Even though you work for free be sure to deliver quality work as they need it to further their charitable agendas. It also ensures they contact you for future work and may even pay you.
Sharing your images has never been easier, check out:
http://www.publicdomainphotography.com/
Main Image Source : Pixabay
