Blog

They say, “it’s not what you know, but who you know.” While that’s not entirely true – knowledge is power – and in order to be successful, photographers need to have ready access to all sorts of information.

Welcome to our new Find Photographers search page! After getting used to it, we think you’ll love the new features and functionality.

At Wonderful Machine, we’ve been producing photo shoots for a long time. Over the years, we’ve had the chance to work with excellent crew from all over the world.

Sometimes photographers reach a certain level of success and they feel the need to have that extra level of support that only a photographer’s agent can provide. When that time comes, our Find Agents page is a great place to start that search.

At Wonderful Machine, we divide all the people and companies in our industry into 5 categories: Clients, Photographers, Crew, Agents, and Resources. In our massive effort to reimagine, redesign, and rebuild our website, our Find Resources page is the last step in our data migration process.

With most photographer directories, your location is static. There is at least one directory that I know of that allows you to update your current location in real-time, which is nice. But we have taken that idea one step further by allowing our photographers to update their Travel Plans to show any number of locations into the future.

Besides making great pictures, finding clients is probably the single biggest challenge for any commercial photographer. At Wonderful Machine, we’ve been collecting information on publications, agencies, and brands for nearly 15 years.

Wonderful Machine members often receive emails with fake commissions. CEO Bill Cramer details how to recognize and protect yourself against them.

What does a photographer rep do? How do you find a rep? How should you contact a rep? We explain everything about finding a rep.

Spurred by the protests over the killing of George Floyd by police, we decided to focus this week’s open house on racial injustice in America and what it means for creatives.

Photographer Mary Beth Koeth is featured this week in a discussion about self-assigned projects, covering both her projects “Off-Season Santas” and “Porn Moms.”

Last Friday the Wonderful Machine stock photo staff sat down with member photographers to discuss stock photography and some interesting proposals for the future.

It seems like everybody in the world is talking about SBA loans, but nobody knows where to go to get them. Bill Cramer shares what he’s found during his research on the matter.

In early February, we went up to New York to meet with creative director Socrates Gomez and publication/production agency Roads & Kingdoms.

A regional fashion magazine needed advice on photographer and photo director contracts, and how to make the agreements more agreeable.

Ditlo is a stock photography company that works with photographers and celebrities to license content to clients. Here’s a sample contract.

Email correspondence between a graphic designer and an experienced photographer, concerning an annual report shoot for a medium corporation.

For about six years now, I’ve been shooting for AARP. I’ve mostly worked for their member newsletter, but also the AARP Bulletin and website.

Everywhere I turn lately I see people giving “incentives” for others to do business with them; even one photographer offering an iPad.

Fast Company Assistant Photo Editor Lisa Parisi asked me to photograph a computer scientist at Carnegie Mellon for a story on robots.

Here’s a project that spanned seven years and just finished. I got a call from a landscape architecture firm for a nature preserve guidebook.

Wonderful Machine began as a small cooperative, which was great for developing client relationships that we couldn’t tackle on our own.

I’ve gotten used to the name Wonderful Machine over the years, but I can remember how silly I felt the first time I answered the phone, “Wonderful Machine, this is Bill!”

Some magazines have their own rates and terms, others don’t. Either way, it’s good for photographers to have a contract template on hand.

I recently had an interesting experience negotiating the terms of a contract with a new magazine client for a cover shoot. Here’s the process.