Here we go again.

I'm sitting here enjoying my peace and quiet earlier this week, and
suddenly my son phones.  He wanted to know how much I'd charge to take a
picture of his boss's truck for some auto show.  Being me, and never
knowing the answer to the "how much" question, I stalled by asking where
the truck was.  After all, travel counts eh :) I also asked if the guy
wanted digital or regular film prints.  If he wanted digital, if he would
want me to print them or did he want them on a disc.  All these questions
got rid of my son for a while.  I should have just said I don't wanna.

Yesterday he called back.  It seems the project has now grown.  I imagine
the truck picture was a personal project, but now the guy wants me to shoot
a gas station about 12 miles from me, two others about 40 miles from me
....after they get painted.....and possibly another one that is ....well,
considerably further.  Milage I don't have a problem with.  I know I can
get 35 cents a kilometer.  I still don't know a fair (let's say beginner)
rate for the actual shooting.  This isn't anything artistic.  I'm just
hoping I don't have to stand in the middle of a busy highway to get
whatever he needs.

According to my son, the guy said digital is fine and he'll take the
pictures on a disc.  Okay....that means he can make unlimited copies for
whatever purpose he has in mind, right?  That would put the price up,
wouldn't it?  I'm used to just selling a print, at a per print price.

Anyway, I'm still not sure if this is going to fly.  He knows he needs to
print at at least 300 dpi, and if I printed the pictures here, I would up
the res to that first (thanks to Bob4's tutoring).  But the pictures come
off the camera at just 72 dpi, so if I put them on the disc for him to take
where ever, I'm assuming the labs would adjust accordingly too.  I'd leave
them at full size....which translates to a 14 x17 inch print if I could
actually do such a thing here.  That way, I think he could likely get the
labs to print whatever size he  had in mind.  For the truck I know it was a
screwy size though.....like 4x5 or something.  Online services don't do
that...I looked. I mean, I would happily crop the truck picture down to
something that would translate into that, but then would he have problems
getting it done in a shop?  

I've never had digital prints made elsewhere for that very reason. Thanks
to all the encouragement to crop from you lot, I sometimes have pictures
that are not standard sizes, and from what I can see if I sent something
that was, say, 10 inches on one side and less than 8 on the other and
wanted an 8x10 printed, they would likely crop more off the 10 to make the
other sides fit their standard 8 inches instead of leaving the white space. 
I've yet to see where I can include instructions.   Maybe if I actually
took a disc to a print shop, I'd have more luck.  But that's not what I
came on here for....hahaha.....

Karen

--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5