Making an income as a freelance photographer during Covid-19

I’ve been a freelance photographer for 10 years, and other than moving to a new city, this is definitely the toughest challenge I’ve seen. How can we now make money as a freelancer?

For the last 2 or so years, my main work has been taking news photos for an image agency who subcontracts me to newspapers, taking portraits for people to use on their Tinder profiles, photographing musicians and making music videos for them, photographing and filming performing arts, and making corporate training videos.

Last week that stopped. My last booking the calendar let me know they would be rescheduling their shoot until later in the year, understandably. The weeks before that saw my work traveling to indigenous communities put on hold, as remote regions rushed to stop the virus from entering their area. People have stopped going on dates and don’t need a new tinder profile photo.

So after sleeping in a bit too long, I thought; “what about all this stock drone footage I have?” Although I haven’t been flying it a lot lately, I was getting up before dawn quite often to go and film Sydney beaches on cold winter mornings. I’d also take the drone with me any time I travelled. I’ve literally got hours of 4k drone footage from different parts of Australia.

So here goes, I’m starting to organise and sort through the archive and have given Adobe stock a try. I was going to try Shutterstock but I hear the sign up process requires a scan of your passport, so I might just give them a miss.

I’ll post back with a review of Adobe stock once I get going a bit more on it.

Stay safe out there, and stay sane,

Jordan

Baked by Keiran

Transitioning to an online business

If you’re venue based food and drink business such as a bar, restaurant or cafe, then chances are business is very tough right now. Many businesses are currently trying to find new ways to operate and get their products to customers. Small bars in Sydney are now able to deliver alcohol to their customers, and delivery services are really taking off due to the Covid-19 restrictions. To get your business online you need a few things: a social media presence, a website with e-commerce capabilities, professional photos of your products, and a method of delivering your product to your customers.

Although I’m not in the business of delivering (yet!), I can help your business with social media management and setup, website and e-commerce setup (so you can manage it yourself), as well as product photography and video. I have a garage studio based in Leichhardt where you can safely drop off your products, and can then send your photos to you via dropbox or google drive.

If you’re looking to expand your online presence and get new ways of getting your product into people’s lives, get in touch today, and let’s get the wheels turning again!

Also if you’re in the inner west of Sydney, check out Dully Locals, a great initiative which is connecting local makers with their customers through online commerce and delivery options. I took some photos of the fine products on offer from Baked by Keiran, The Sausage Factory, Kombu Kombucha, among many other amazing artisan products, thanks for having me onboard!

A message from Chrissy Flanagan, owner of The Sausage Factory

 

Hillbilly Thriller

Hillbilly Thriller is a new immersive physical theatre piece by Sydney based company Legs On The Wall and directed by Joshua Thomson.

It is a thriller which takes you into a strange world around a camp fire.

I was lucky enough to be commissioned by Legs On The Wall to cover all of their program during Sydney Fringe, so I got to see the show and audience reactions every night. It was really a fun world to be a part of for a week. Great work by everyone involved!

Spring News

Hey all, it’s been quite a busy few months! Music videos, news, as well as Sydney Fringe. The cover photo is from Catherine Wait’s “Void, the call and response” at Legs On The Wall.

I’ve also recently been quoted in British GQ about what makes the best tinder photos.

From David Levesley’s story:

While professional Tinder photographer Jordan Shields also says to avoid group shots, he suggests you replace them with photos where you’re doing activities “that perhaps the other person could see themselves doing with you. Sell yourself as the dream guy that someone wants to spend time with, [doing] whatever it is you do.”

 

“Do wear new or dry-cleaned clothes, no faded polo shirts,” adds Shields. “Even a new white T-shirt looks nice.” Dress to impress and make sure your grooming is up to snuff too. “Do neaten up your beard or facial hair, or go clean-shaven,” says Shields. “It can’t be somewhere in the middle.”

 

For Jordan Shields, some things are pretty dependable: “medium shots, basically portraits from the waist up” are best, he says. For day looks appear relaxed, for evening shots make sure you’re dressed up for a night on the town.

Other things, however, are far from gospel. “It really does differ from guy to guy. Some men get better results smiling and looking at the camera, some find looking away and being more serious in their photos works better, but I’m sure that says more about what others are attracted to, so why not try both?”

I will update the blog with a whole bunch of photos from Sydney Fringe, once I get through editing them all!

Jordan