Chapter 35 — Exercises

The business of photography is learned the way the craft is: by doing the real thing in low stakes before you do it for money. Many of these exercises ask you to write — a price, a license, a clause, an email — because writing is where vague intentions become real decisions. There is no wrong camera here, and several exercises need no camera at all. Difficulty is marked ⭐ (warm-up), ⭐⭐ (core), ⭐⭐⭐ (stretch). Do the starred and odd-numbered ones at minimum; model answers and critiques for those are in the book's Answers to Selected Exercises. Keep every document you draft — the licenses and agreements here become templates you will reuse for years.

Part A — Naming the model and the asset (Read the Frame, business edition)

Exercise 35.1 ⭐ — Which model is this? For each of the following five real-world scenarios, name which of the four business models (§35.1 — service, license, print, teaching) it is, and state in one sentence what the buyer is actually paying for: (a) a couple hires you to photograph their wedding; (b) a travel magazine emails to use a landscape you posted; (c) someone at a craft fair wants to buy a framed copy of your photograph off the wall; (d) a community center asks you to run a Saturday phone-photography class; (e) a national soft-drink brand wants your street photo for a billboard. Then say which one of the five is most often underpriced by beginners and why.

Exercise 35.2 ⭐⭐ — One photographer, four streams. Pick a specialty you'd want to work in (portraits, food, weddings, real estate, nature — your choice). Sketch how a photographer in that specialty could earn from all four models at once. Be specific: what's the service, what could be licensed, what could be sold as a print or object, what could be taught? Then write one sentence on which stream best protects them if they were injured and couldn't shoot for two months.

Exercise 35.3 ⭐⭐ — Spot the scarcity. For each model, the price tracks a different scarce thing (§35.1's "Why It Works"). Name the scarce thing for each of the four models, then explain the classic pricing disaster that happens when a photographer prices the wrong scarcity — specifically, the photographer who quotes a "day rate" to license one existing image for a huge campaign. What did they misprice?

Part B — Pricing from the cost of doing business (Settings Drill, business edition)

Exercise 35.4 ⭐⭐ — Build the iceberg. Take a hypothetical "two-hour" portrait shoot and list every hour and cost it actually involves, above and below the waterline (Figure 35.2). Include the unbillable time (inquiry, planning, travel, culling, editing, delivery) and at least eight cost-of-doing-business line items. Then estimate: if the photographer charged "two hours at $40/hour = $80," roughly what is their real effective hourly rate once all the hidden hours are counted? The number should disturb you; that's the point.

Exercise 35.5 ⭐⭐⭐ — Price your own floor. Do the §35.2 backward calculation for yourself as if you went pro tomorrow. Estimate (honestly, completely): (1) your annual cost of doing business including a livable salary and taxes; (2) the realistic number of complete jobs you could shoot and edit and deliver in a year without burning out; (3) divide to get the average revenue each job must bring. Show your work. This number is your floor. Write one sentence on how it compares to what you imagined charging before you did the math.

Exercise 35.6 ⭐⭐ — Package, not meter. A client asks "what's your hourly rate?" for a headshot session. Rewrite your answer as a package price for an outcome instead of an hourly rate. Define the scope clearly (what's included, what's extra, what they receive). Then explain, in one or two sentences, why this framing protects you from the client trying to negotiate the clock.

Exercise 35.7 ⭐⭐ — The exposure offer, audited. You're offered a shoot with no money but "great exposure — we'll tag you to our 80,000 followers." Apply the §35.2 test ("would I do this for free on its own merits?"). Write the two or three questions you'd ask to decide whether the exposure is real or worthless, and state the one condition under which you'd say yes and the one under which you'd decline.

Part C — Writing licenses (Recreate It, document edition)

Exercise 35.8 ⭐ — The six dimensions. From memory, list the six dimensions every usage license must specify (Figure 35.3), and for each, write the single question it answers. Then mark which two dimensions, if a client quietly maximizes them in a contract, most expand the rights you'd be granting (and therefore should most raise the price).

Exercise 35.9 ⭐⭐ — Three licenses, one image. Choose one photograph you own. Write three complete one-paragraph usage licenses for it using all six dimensions: (a) a small, cheap use (a friend's blog, web only, your country, one year, non-exclusive); (b) a medium use (a regional business's website + printed brochure, your country, three years, non-exclusive); (c) a large use (a national ad campaign, worldwide, all media, two years, exclusive). Don't set dollar figures — the point is to feel the same image become three different products. Rank them by value and justify the ranking from the rights alone.

Exercise 35.10 ⭐⭐⭐ — Catch the rights grab. Here is a clause a client sent: "Photographer grants Client all rights to the images, worldwide, in perpetuity, in all media now known or later invented, including the right to modify, with no further compensation." Diagnose exactly what's wrong with signing this in exchange for a small website-use fee. Then rewrite it as a fair license that grants the client what a website use actually needs and no more, and write one plain-language sentence you'd say to the client to explain the change.

Exercise 35.11 ⭐⭐ — License vs. ownership in plain words. Explain to a non-photographer friend — in writing, in three sentences, no jargon — the difference between licensing the use of a photo and selling the photo. Use the apartment-rental analogy. The test of understanding is whether your friend could correctly answer: "if I license my photo to a magazine, can I also license it to someone else?"

Exercise 35.12 ⭐ — When do you own it? Answer in one sentence each: (a) At what exact moment do you own the copyright to a photo you make? (b) What must you do to acquire that copyright? (c) What does registering the copyright add, and is it required?

Exercise 35.13 ⭐⭐ — Three stakes, one photo. You photograph a friend; the friend buys a print; a magazine later wants to use the image. Map the three stakes from Figure 35.4: who owns the copyright, who owns the print, and who (if anyone) holds a right of publicity — and what each can and cannot do. Then resolve this dispute: the friend says "I'm in the photo and I bought the print, so I can post it to sell my new business." Are they right? Why or why not?

Exercise 35.14 ⭐⭐⭐ — Hunt the work-for-hire clause. Write a short, realistic freelance-contract paragraph that looks friendly but is secretly a work-for-hire / copyright transfer (the kind a busy photographer might skim past). Then write the one or two sentences a careful reader should flag, explain what signing it would cost the photographer (name three things they could no longer do), and write a plain-language counter-proposal that keeps the copyright with the photographer while still giving the client the use they need.

Exercise 35.15 ⭐⭐ — "But I paid for it." A client insists that because they paid for the headshot session, they own the photographs and can do anything with them. Write the calm, professional reply you'd send. It should (a) correct the misunderstanding without condescension, (b) explain what they did buy, and (c) point to the single document that settles it. Keep it under 120 words — brevity is professionalism here.

Part E — Contracts, releases, invoices (Shoot This → Paperwork This)

Exercise 35.16 ⭐ — The clause checklist. From Figure 35.5, list at least eight clauses that belong in a one-page photography agreement, and beside each write the one-line "disaster it prevents." Then circle the two clauses §35.5 says beginners most often omit and regret.

Exercise 35.17 ⭐⭐ — Draft the one-page agreement. Write a complete one-page client agreement, in plain language, for a real or imagined portrait or event shoot. Include: parties + date, deliverable/scope, fee + what's included, payment terms + deposit, license granted, copyright retention, cancellation/reschedule, and a kill fee. Make it something you'd actually be comfortable sending. Keep it — this is a template for life.

Exercise 35.18 ⭐⭐ — The deposit conversation. Write the short, friendly message you'd send a new client explaining your deposit and payment terms (deposit to book; balance due before delivery). The challenge is tone: it must protect you firmly while sounding like a normal professional practice, not an accusation. Then write one sentence on why "final payment before delivery" matters most for a wedding specifically.

Exercise 35.19 ⭐⭐⭐ — Release or no release? For each scenario, decide whether you'd need a model and/or property release before using the image, and say why: (a) a candid street photo of a stranger, published in a documentary photo essay; (b) the same photo, used in an ad for a clothing brand; (c) a photo of a distinctive private home, sold as a fine-art print; (d) the same home photo, used in a real-estate company's advertising; (e) a friend who verbally said "sure, use it however" for a commercial campaign. Note where the use (editorial vs. advertising) changes the answer, and where a verbal yes is not enough.

Exercise 35.20 ⭐⭐ — Build a complete invoice. Draft a complete invoice for the shoot you priced in Exercise 35.5 or 35.17. Include every element §35.5 lists: your details and the client's, an invoice number and date, line-item description matching the agreement, amount due with deposit subtracted, payment terms and methods, and a restatement of the license granted. Then write one sentence on why restating the license on the invoice is a smart habit.

Exercise 35.21 ⭐⭐⭐ — Consent beyond the signature. A teenager (with a parent present and signing) agrees to be photographed for a community project, and the parent signs a model release. Months later you have a chance to license one image for a commercial campaign the family never imagined. The release technically permits it. Drawing on the §35.5 "Connection" to Chapter 32, write half a page on what informed consent (as opposed to a valid signature) would require you to do here, and what you personally decide. There is no single right answer — defend yours.

Part F — Finding clients & sustainability (Eye Training, market edition)

Exercise 35.22 ⭐⭐ — Study five businesses. Do the §35.6 field assignment: pick a specialty, find five photographers near you who work in it, and study their business (presentation, specialization, how they package/price if visible, how they make themselves findable and trustworthy). Write half a page of findings plus one specific thing you'd do differently.

Exercise 35.23 ⭐⭐ — The client loop. Redraw or describe the "client engine" loop from Figure 35.6 in your own words. Then explain, with a concrete example, why how you treat your last client most determines how easily you'll find your next one.

Exercise 35.24 ⭐ — Findable, trusted, remembered. For each of the three pillars (findable, trusted, kept-in-mind), write down two specific, concrete actions you could take this month — no money, no fame required. Be specific enough that you could actually do them.

Exercise 35.25 ⭐⭐⭐ — Your sustainability plan. Write a one-page plan for surviving as a photographer for ten years, addressing all three §35.6 habits: how you'd diversify income across the four models, how you'd manage money (taxes, separate finances, slow seasons, gear replacement), and how you'd protect against burnout. Name one personal-project idea (looking ahead to Chapter 38) you'd keep purely for yourself, and say why that protects the business.

Part G — Interleaved (mixing prior chapters)

Exercise 35.26 ⭐⭐ — Workflow meets copyright. Connect §35.4 to Chapter 30. Describe how your ingest workflow could automatically embed copyright and contact metadata into every image, and explain why this matters both for protecting your rights and for the "I didn't know I couldn't use it" problem. (No software steps — the principle and the why.)

Exercise 35.27 ⭐⭐⭐ — The whole portfolio, as a business. Pull together Chapters 31, 32, 34, and 35. Take three images from your portfolio and for each write: one sentence of honest self-critique (Ch.31), one ethics note about consent or representation (Ch.32), where it would sit in a sequence (Ch.34), and a one-line license + price (Ch.35). The exercise proves your portfolio is now defensible as both art and business.

Exercise 35.28 ⭐⭐ — Pricing the decisive moment. You captured a genuinely once-in-a-lifetime news-worthy moment in public (think of the §35.1 "ten seconds to shoot, enormous value" idea). Explain why this image could be worth far more licensed than your day rate would suggest, which licensing dimensions (Figure 35.3) would push its value highest, and what ethical release questions (Ch.32) its commercial use might raise.

Stretch challenge

Exercise 35.29 ⭐⭐⭐ — Run a mock inquiry, end to end. Have a friend role-play a client who emails: "Hi! I love your work — what would you charge to photograph our event next month?" Take it all the way through: your reply gathering scope; your package price built from cost-of-doing-business reasoning; a one-page agreement with deposit, license, and copyright clauses; and a sample invoice. Then have your "client" try one rights-grab and one late-cancellation, and handle both in writing. Keep the entire paper trail — it's the closest thing to a real job you can do without one.

Model answers and critiques for the starred and odd-numbered exercises appear in the book's "Answers to Selected Exercises." Draft each document yourself before reading them — in the business of photography, as in the craft, the attempt is the lesson, and a license you wrote yourself is worth ten you only read.