I've often wondered this, although I've never had to do it...
I'm just curious how you have (or think you may, in the future) set up a replacement photographer just incase you can't make it for whatever reason...

I'm looking for details, such as

- do you pay them everything your clients have paid you?

- if not, what kind of percentage DO you pay them?

- does that photographer completely take over your client's business (meaning, not just the shooting, but the editing, album design, getting credit for everything, etc?

- any other pertinent info you can all give would be great.

i know there are some phtoogs out there who have been wanting to ask this, so I figured I'd get it out of the way:)

I don't even want to think about that. Thankfully I've got a strong network of other shooters I know here in Austin, and I know they would pick up the slack.

that's what i mean... if you had a group of local photogs who you could trust,. etc... how do you go about getting them to take your place, plus all the other questions i asked:)..


not a stranger

Eric - hope you're counting me, buddy. I'm here for ya!

I have a few people I would call in case of emergency, but the way I see it, I'm not calling unless I'm dead and then..........I'm not calling (?)

You know it Stacey -

But as far as meeting other shooters in your area, it's not easy to do right now, but I'm hoping to make it easier...

Eric

Hi Amy,

I am in Greenville and would love to meet and talk with you in case I ever need a back up as well. I have often thought about what I'd do too, so maybe we can see if we can help each other out.

Jana

We have a little network here where we have most of this worked out... I think there are 4 or 5 of us?



No.



$50-$100 per hour with a maxium of half of the profit (I think is what we worked out?). We kinda decided it would depend on the package price and the profit margin.



No. After discussing it for several hours we all determined that it would be best if the replacement photographer *just* shoot and the originally booked photographer still handle everything else if possible. Since the client booked the original photographer based on their photography, albums, editing, and other offerings we felt it would make the client happiest to still recieve a product as close to that as possible. So the backup photographer is essentially just a hired representative of the company that was initially booked.



That's just a basic guideline of what we worked out over a very long dinner one night. That said - if a local photographer called me in a panic because they needed help I'd go if I could, in a heartbeat, not worried about anything they may or may not pay me. I'm sure they'd return the favor as well. We worked out what we thought would be fair but in reality I'd do anything I could to help out a fellow photographer - not expecting any sort of payment in return.

That's the kind of answer I was looking for
THANK YOU Mel:)

Amy, you just call me of course if I'm not booked already! Jana, you Amy and myself need to get together for a pow-wow session.

I have filled in emergancy 3 times for other photographers.

1. The photographer got a detached retina, and the couple sought me out 1 week before their wedding. So, I took over everything, and charged my prices. (not sure who he was or what he charged....)

2. The sister in law of someone my husband works with is a photographer. I never met her. She went into Laber at 26 weeks, two days before a scheduled wedding. My husband volunteered me to shoot the wedding. I went to the wedding, no questions asked. I talked to the bride, and told her not to worry about it, I would work it out with the other photog. I did not know how much I was going to get paid, or if I was going to take the whole job or hand over the images. To me it didn't matter. I just new I had to help out this poor bride and this poor photographer. It turned out that the other photographer didn't shoot digital, and didn't know what to do with digiatal files. So, I just finished the job with the bride. I took what she had paid as payment, and charged the same reprint prices as the other photograher (very similar to my prices anyway.)

3. Just last Friday I shot a wedding for a very good friend photographer of mine who lost her baby at 6 months of pregnancy. She had two more weddings scheduled before her maternity leave. I will be helping with the other one this week as well. She will pay me for shooting the event, and she will finish everything else... all editing and albums.


If it happened to me, I do have some people to call on. I have several photographer friends who have vowed to help eachother in an emergancy situation if possible. I would hope anyone of my friends would help me out, without questions or worring about how much they are getting paid. I know I would for them. I would like to finish with the client if possible, but if not possible I hope the other photographers would.

thanks everyone for your input...
jana, i don't know how, but i completely skipped over your reply-- sorry... so yes, you, jason, and i (and anyone else close by) definitley need to meet up to have some back up ideas schedule "just in case".

i love the idea of taking over just the images part, handing them back to the "original" photog, and letting them handle everything else...
i think it's also a very admirable thing to jump right in for someone else and not worry about whether or not, or HOW you'll get compensated. It's all about helping each other out, and the favor WILL be returned:)

We would shoot for another photographer for no cost at all... we'd just give them back the files, and one we would go!

We have had LOTS of photographers help us since I broke my arm... and none of those photographers have wanted payment either!

I think if I was free, I wouldn't let anyone pay me!

Pay it forward!

Love this woman's mindset!