Should I settle??

[N1C0L3]

Has anyone heard of a company called Bella Baby Photography? I applied to one of their postings on Craigslist, and I'm scheduled to go in for training on Monday, but I'm not sure if its worth it. The company hires freelance photographers to go into hospitals and take pictures of the newborns before they go home. The photographers have to work for free, but you get 40% commission on what you sell. The parents can buy a CD with 20 images with all copyrights for $125. Do you think this job is worth it? How many people actually buy the hospital photography??

 

[rhondag]

YES---parents buy newborn hospital pictures.

Do you know if you will be the sole photographer? How many births the hospital has? If you are the sole photographer, I would assume that they would want you to come several days a week & do multiple babies on each trip.

Just depending on the size of the hospital & the # of Bella Baby Photographers that will service them---that will determine the amount of business that you will generate.

 

[uberben]

Are you responsible for the editing as well? On average, How many families are having babies on the days you will be there to take photos. Will there be a lot of downtime? Are you editing on location and then burning the disc right away? Freelance usually means you have to pay your taxes as a self employed person...which means you have to pay SECA Tax on top of federal and state taxes. You will also probably want to at the very least care some liability insurance since you'll be working with babies and should something bad happen, you want someone to have your back.

lets say best case scenario you sell 1 CD per family.

40% of $125 = $50 Gross

$50 - $15 for taxes(15.30% seca tax + 15% federal) = Your taxes could be more too if you have to pay more in federal and state.

Take Home: $35

there will be costs involved and sure you can deduct most of them for tax purposes. but this is just an example of what you'd be looking at.

Also factor in the time involved and see if it really is worth it on a per hour basis. Do you have good gear? I know when I shoot newborn shots for friends, I'm shooting in poor lighting and with people that are strung out from lack of sleep. Flash can bother infants, so I shoot in natural light a lot and that means I use very fast lenses and camera's that shoot clean at high ISO's.

Personally, I don't think every family would buy one. I would say 1 in 5 at best. I know most people have point and shoot cameras and they are happy with those. If you want to get into baby photography, set up a business model that does that right after they go home. You charge what your worth and you take home all of the profits instead of giving most of it to a parent company.

 

[N1C0L3]

Yes, I would be responsible for editing pictures for every family I shoot, even if they have no intention of buying the images. (I have to use my own laptop too) Then I must leave my laptop with the parents while they look at the slideshow that I will put together for them. It seems like I would be photographing about 10 babies a day. They only have one photographer working at a time, but there are 3 others for the 2 hospitals I'll be covering.

 

[Plato]

This guy thats in charge sends me 10 emails a day and it's kind of obnoxious.

Do I hear "SCAM?"

 

[Big Mike]

my business partner and I are just out of college so business will be a little slow until I get some more exposure.

Will you be allowed to promote your own business while working for them? If so, then it might be a good way to get that exposure. If not, then you might be better off with something else.
Getting the work and the experience is good...but it doesn't sound like enough money to make it worth your while.

 

[N1C0L3]

I can promote my own business, but I need to get the company's written consent for each job that comes from meeting someone in the hospital.

 

[uberben]

if it was me.... I'd bail.

Just sounds like a big waste of time to me.

 

[SpeedTrap]

I would run, not walk, RUN away from this.

You have to use your equipment, your computers, your time and you have to do all the work and you are only getting 40%?

Plus you need thier permission to book sesions outside of the hospital!!

RUN

 

[KmH]

RUN FOREST, RUN......

This deal is fully tilted to Bella Baby's advantage.

 

[tirediron]

I would run, not walk, RUN away from this.

You have to use your equipment, your computers, your time and you have to do all the work and you are only getting 40%?

Plus you need thier permission to book sesions outside of the hospital!!

RUN

Yep, agree with this advice. This sounds to me like something that should be advertised on the back cover of a comic book. If you're not getting a good feeling about the boss, it's time to leave.

 

[IgsEMT]

I know them, they shot my kid when he was born in hospital. THE ONLY reason why we suckered into $175 for CD is b/c their were few nice shots and bying those prints (about 5-6) at $30/print, its worth getting the cd already.

 

[msf]

I think ive seen these ads on craigslist for my area as well.

Heres a thought, skip the company, and do it yourself. Why give someone 60% of the cut if your doing all the work, unless they have a contract with the hospital that doesnt allow you to go in to take photographs.

Contact the hospitals in your area and find out if they have a contract with anyone preventing you from doing this, and if not, do it yourself.

I should take my own advice here, I wonder who the best person to contact in a hospital is. I think the one hospital near me has a staff photographer though

If you get in with a family with a baby, you can possibly get future Christmas pictures, birthday pictures, eventually senior pictures and maybe even a wedding, thinking long term

 

[rhondag]

There is NO way that I would leave my personal laptop with a complete stranger---nor even a normal client.

 

[uberben]

so what did you end up doing??