Boyd Norton

freelance photographer (fre-lans fo-tog-ra-fer) n. a person with a camera and a spouse who works

I started selling my photographs to magazines and book publishers in the mid-1960s while I was still hustling neutrons and gamma rays for a living. At the time I had no plans to freelance, but I was certainly attracted to the idea of making a living as a photographer, particularly if I could specialize in what I loved most -- wilderness, wildlife and adventure travel.

When I started submitting pictures and stories to magazines, I had no idea how to do it. I just did it. Sure, I made a lot of mistakes, but it was a good learning process. And in that process I made a lot of friends in the publishing field, editors and picture buyers who still call, from time to time.

In many ways, starting when I did had certain advantages. There were far fewer photographers who specialized in my fields of interest. In fact, there were not many freelance photographers at all in the late 1960s and early ‘70s.

It’s a different ballgame today. Nowadays, it seems, everyone who picks up a camera has dreams of making it into print and making money at it. The competition in the nature and wildlife field alone is enormous. And yet, there are those with enough persistence who make it. That’s what it takes today, persistence, plus a lot more savvy than I had when I first started.

Computer technology has been the single biggest factor in making possible a highly efficient, small scale freelance business. With the right hardware and software, a one or two person operation can compete reasonably well with larger stock photography businesses, including stock photo agencies. As an example, it once took a large investment in color printing to make catalogs of images available to photo buyers. Now, inexpensive, photo quality inkjet printers make do-it-yourself promo printing a breeze.

The Internet also makes it possible to give yourself widespread exposure – if you go about it in the right way. A website gives a photographer great opportunity of displaying his or her work to thousands of potential picture buyers worldwide.

Organization is the key to it all. When I first started, it sometimes took days to fill a picture request. (Let’s see, where are those wildflower pictures? And where did I put the black bear photos?) I can remember well the drudgery involved before computers – typing caption sheets on a typewriter (with a large bottle of White Out nearby), writing caption information in tiny letters on slide mounts by hand, keeping a handwritten log book so that I could find what pictures were out on submission, who had what, for how long, typing delivery memos, cover letters, invoices (and keeping carbon copies of everything) …. Arghhh.

This is why, more than a decade ago, I began the task of writing a computer program to organize it all. It’s still not perfect. And I’m still perfecting it. So look for more innovations in NSCS Pro in the future.

I. Quitteth not thy day job. But if temptation smites thee, seek atonement: Marry thyself well (doctor, lawyer,...) or win thyself a lottery

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