What’s the process?

If you’d like to hear more about what I can do, brainstorm about your photography needs, or are thinking about hiring me, please get in touch! Email me with your ideas and questions, and I’ll either ask you a few more questions or for a short phone call. Then I’ll send you quote, and when it meets your needs and budget we’ll turn that into a contract with your picture day and a rain date scheduled. You’ll receive your photos along with an image license 6-8 weeks afterwards via digital download or a thumb drive (your choice).

What if I’m working with a grant?

I work with farmers using VAPG, TA, and other grant funds all the time. Some grants are very straightforward, but others require several hours of extra communication and reporting on my end. Please let me know if you’re planning to use grant funds to pay me so that I can make sure I’m able to provide you with the documentation you need.

What happens if it rains or I have an emergency?

When we plan our picture day, I always hold at least two days in my calendar for you. The week before our day, I’ll look at the forecast and check in with you to confirm or change it, and we’ll go from there. Being a full-time, dedicated farm photographer means I can be flexible and make last-minute changes to accommodate the many variables of farm life.

Do you offer discounts or specials?

Yes! The more I get to know you and your farm, the easier it is for me to produce great work for you:

• If you hire me for more than one visit within the same year, I knock $100 off your fee.

• Recurring clients from the previous year stay one year behind on my current rates, so if you hired me last year, you won’t see a regular increase in my fee until next year, when it will come up to this year’s rate.

Finally, if you’re more than 2 hours away from my home base in Freedom, ME, I can waive travel fees if I can add another job, big or small, to the trip. Maybe you’ve got some farm friends who need family pictures, or your farmers’ market could use some fresh photos.

So do you do a lot of weddings, then?

Most of my income is marketing and documentary work for farm businesses, food security organizations, and occasionally stores and restaurants who partner with farmers. About a quarter of it is magazine assignments, and then I do a little bit of consulting and doing talks on farm marketing and photography in the winter. So I really am a farm photographer.

My business works with farmers. Can I license some of your photos to use on our website?

It depends. If you’re looking for beautiful photos of what Maine farms and local produce actually look like, I can usually find something to license for your use. Sometimes I work under an exclusive license contract, which means no one except me and the business who hired me can publish the images anywhere. Please email me with specifics of how you want to use my image and have a budget in mind.

We’re running a magazine story about a farm topic and we love the photo of (farmworker who is an actual person and not a stock photo), can we use it?

Again, it depends. I retain copyright to all my images, but sometimes clients hold an exclusive license. Unlike many commercial photographers, I won’t license my photos of actual people to just anyone who will pay. (Have you heard the one about the Maine farmer who ended up on a billboard on the New York Thruway in a health insurance ad?) I’ll need to check in with the person who’s face is shown, possibly the owner of the farm where the photo happened, and I’ll consider how the photo will be used. And! I’ll expect a licensing fee for my time, talent, and care.

What’s the pricing breakdown?

Like farmers, I have to factor a lot into the customer’s price that relates to the sustainability of my business, not just the finished deliverable. Freelance photographers pay more than 30% of income to taxes, and I’m responsible for all the “benefits” business owners bear: health insurance, office space and utilities, equipment maintenance and insurance, business liability insurance, and updating camera gear.

Then I try to factor in the time I’m putting into each job—the emails, the planning, phone calls, forecast checks, archiving, editing, exporting, cleaning and charging equipment, and uploading. I actually live in an agricultural area, and the side effect is that my internet sucks. I drive 25 minutes one way to a public library to upload finished full-resolution images. From what I can tell, all this adds up to at least 2-3 days of work in addition to each day I spend driving to a job and actively photographing. I am on the job photographing an average of 130 days a year.

The final thing you’re paying for when you hire me is my availability. I dedicate at least two days of my calendar to your pictures—one as a first choice and one as weather/farm disaster backup. Before I went full-time into photography, the biggest obstacle to being able to take jobs was availability. You can’t work a scheduled job and also be available for weather-dependent assignments.