The Pentax P30 camera

I’ve spent a lot of time in my career as a freelancer and I’ve also spent a good period of time having to hire freelancers; the question of hourly rate always crops up.

The problem is that hourly rates are kinda flawed.

But, before I get into that, I want to tell you something about cameras*

(*bare with me).

Warning: Long Winded Metaphor Coming Up!

At the top of the post is the Pentax P-30 film camera; a classic. When I used to shoot film I had loads of these babies; they are simple & effective; a veritable work horse (in fact, I’ve still got a couple somewhere).

Cameras work by exposing an image onto light sensitive material; in the case of the P30 that light sensitive material is the film you load in the back (modern day digital cameras have a light sensor instead).

The key with photography is getting the exposure right.

To simplify things let’s say that the exposure is controlled by two main devices; shutter speed and aperture. Shutter speed says how long the exposure lasts; setting 1/25 means we open the shutter for 1/25th of a second, allowing in light for that duration. Aperture relates to the internal iris mechanism in the lens itself; this controls the amount of light which passes through the camera; throw the iris wide open with (say) F1.2 and you’re letting light flood in; close it off to F22 and only a small amount trickles through (albeit through the sharpest, middle part of the lens).

So, the exposure is a balance of your shutter speed and your aperture. This means that there is more than one exposure value possible.

I.e. you could expose correctly with any of the following aperture/shutter combinations:

• f/8 at 1/125 sec
• f/5.6 at 1/250 sec
• f/4 at 1/500
• f/2.8 at 1/1000
• f/2 at 1/2000

…as they all result in the same amount of light hitting the film; cool eh? Where a combination with a fast shutter speed allows you to freeze action, or a combination with a higher F number is better for landscapes and detail.

Why the HELL am I telling you this?!

Ok, that’s a fair enough question.

My point is this: as a supplier your hourly rate is a very rough gauge for how good you are; I’m more interested in whether you can do a good job done in a reasonable amount of time.

If you wade in with (say) an hourly rate of £100 then, if everyone else is £50, that’s a big ask. You may be amazing and the job may have taken you an hour (whilst someone at £35 may have taken 2 days!), but I won’t know that as that big rate may have scared me off. So, how about this, why not quote a more average rate; and then get what amount you want by upping the time you bill?

Crazy eh?

You might be reading this and thinking I’m saying that you should fleece people or be dishonest; nah, that’s not really where I’m coming from. I’m just saying that if you are losing work all the time (because of your hourly rate) then why not try lowering it but bill the time to make the rate you want? Chances are, if you are good and do things in a reasonable amount of time anyway, then the supplier won’t care two hoots. You get the rate you want, the supplier gets the work they want.

If the supplier doesn’t like the work you do or thinks it takes too long then you’ll go your separate ways anyway. If the supplier is happy, then you’ll carry on working together. If you feel bad about overstating your hours then ask to up your hourly rate after a while but, of course, now you can state your hours correctly and, ultimately, you’ll be billing the same amount – fair enough?

Take this with a pinch of salt but, at the same time, remember that to win new business we sometimes need to have some low hanging fruit which allows people to taste our services in the first place.

Joel