Work for nothing?

Nice
NB: click above

Simples

Excellent!

what goes around comes around!

Same for plumbers some people are really taken aback when i tell them i am not a registered charity or credit broker.JOB DONE NOW PAY ME.

Love it! Going through the comments I came across youarenotaphotographer.com which is worth a look!

Exactly.

I carve wood (including house signs)

I always suggest a charge, which usually goes along the lines :-

Preparing the wood and research (graphic design of the font) takes about an hour or so.
Each letter takes about 20minutes to cut
Finishing (sanding, oiling/varnish) takes another hour or so.
Cost of materials depends on the timber and finish required.
Time spent getting to/from suppliers
I will charge you cost price for the materials
How about you pay me for labour at the same rate per hour as you get.


It's amazing how many BMW/Porche/Smart 4x4 drivers suddenly plead pitiful salaries.

I was caught out by one of the above who had promised to pay when I'd finished. He renaged hoping to get a better price. I cut it in two and put in on the fire in front of him. After that he pays a material cost & deposit up front for any work he wants.


I would rather, and have frequently, given them away to friends as presents.


As yet I've not been paid for photography. I don't think I'm good enough yet, but I'm happy to accept invitations to birthday parties and weddings from friends and my prints are given in friendship.

regards
Bernard

It's not always the customer's meanness. Some cannot see beyond the prices they'd expect to pay for a factory product or cannot use their imagination to see that what might be a pastime for them is a livelihood for someone else (nor can a few appreciate the significant difference in result). If I were to make a table, say, I often won't be able to buy the wood at a lesser price than Ikea charge for a finished article. (There I hope the comparison ends.). It's why so many professional woodworkers and photographers find themselves teaching courses etc -- and I am glad they do. But I suspect it points to an existence that can sometimes be precarious.

Yes I agree , I have always made things and fixed stuff as a "hobby "for want of a better word, and as a career I spent many years working in Theatre making and designing and fixing stuff.... I think that some folk who have never made anything don't have a grasp of the process involved in making stuff,... photographs ,furniture,drawing ,whatever. They just see it as what you do,your talent,or your skill... and it remains the freelancer's problem to help them to part with their cash... jeff

As anybody who works in IT knows, people break their home PCs and seem to think that you somehow enjoy fixing them for free and don't understand why you get hacked off when they come back to you a few weeks later having broken it again.

And when you tell them they need to install an anti-virus program they seem to think you will buy it and install it for them for free!

The biggest problem is that everyone assumes because you work in IT that you spend your day fixing PCs. When I explain to them what I actually do their eyes tend to glaze over!

greynolds999, you've hit the nail on the head dead centre. I also work in IT and get this all the time.

I do enjoy my job and have recently purchased my K-x so that i don't need to spend the rest of my day not at work fixing PC's and other IT stuff.

I suppose if you can be upfront at the start and say this is what it will cost you then people can say yes or no and not waste anyones time and effort.

Frogherder, Welldone you i would have loved to see the look on their face as you chopped up the wood and burned it.

Will

Its no use discussing the subject folks, its a well known fact of life that people who want stuff doing for free often have no skills to offer in return.

PS; if any forum member knows a good Roofer who wants some portraits doing let me know