Fantastic

If a publication wants photos, it needs to supply photo equipment to its staff or hire an outside agency to acquire the photos. In this case, it sounds like the publisher doesn't believe photos are necessary. You're nuts to go out of pocket to supply something that, according to your boss, adds no value to the publication.

 

They're likely to argue that they DO provide you a camera-- the pool camera you mentioned before. My suggestion, then, would be to shoot whenever it's available, and don't when it's not. Then, you are making the best use of the resources they have provided, and the readily-apparent problem is that they haven't provided you adequate resources.

 

I know to get out, 'm working on it. Hard to do when you have rent and loans to pay and I don't want to leave the area until the summer


As for the camera, my pub said they'd front me the money to get it fixed but then would take it out of my paycheck. Fuck that...I just won't get it fixed. I'm going to use the 'paper's' camera when I do indoor or night stuff for now. She bougt the 'pool' camera after I forked over $2K for my gear and now the other reporters just use the 'pool' camera when it's around, which is all the time. Seriously, everyday I hate the place more and more..which is hard because I like the people I work with.

 

You're not doing yourself any favors using your own gear. You're depreciating it's value for no good reason.

That's a lesson I had to learn the hard way.

 

I went from news reporter to sports editor.
Needed some camera gear because there was no 'pool' camera or gear.
Madhavok went and spent 2K on his own dime for it. Paper writes me a phat check. Paper then proceeds to take the 2K out of my paycheck slowly.
New Pub buys a effing sweet DSLR a few months after I get my gear.
Boo

 

For a while, I used my personal laptop for work. Kept it on all the time, wrote with it, fact-checked with it, surefed the Internet with it. You get the picture.

A few weeks ago, my shop got four new laptops, primarily for the sports staff, though we do have to drop them off every now and then in case someone from news needs to use them. I use the company's laptop all the time now for work, and use mine only for surfing the Web at home. No need in wearing down mine if I don't have to.

Point: Use the company's stuff if they let you. And Madhavok, your situation sucks. Best of luck.

 

if a person is at a place that won't spend the $$$ to supply proper equipment i really doubt the salary is good enough to itemize on taxes so there goes your business expense deduction.

 

Just curious, have you checked out local camera repair shops? They can be a lot cheaper than sending it back to Canon, and it might be something fixed pretty quickly.

However, it still sucks. I assume you have to sign something for them to take the money out of your check. Don't do it. I sure as hell wouldn't have spent $2,000 on camera gear for a job like that. I had to shoot my own stuff when I started out, but my Pentax did fine.

And get that resume fixed up.

 

End Of Thread.(TM)

 

It's difficult enough shooting and covering games, at the very least they should provide you the equipment (and necessary repair work) to do your job.

Aside from appearing extremely cheap, it shows what little importance they place on consistently churning out a quality product.

Hope you have headshots -- and an updated resume/cover letter -- ready to go.

 

I've had my resume ready to go for a few months now. I've actually discussed my situation and what I want to do a few times in the past on this board. I wish I didn't have a car payment, it'd made everything so much easier!

Thanks for the suggestions everyone, I appreciate it!

 

Sorry for the double post, but instead of making a new thread I figured to just keep it in here.
Apparently I have a meeting with my pub and one of the suits (ad exec) about the special tabs today. I guess they (the ad people) weren't thrilled with it and blah blah blah blah blah.

Getting closer to the breaking point.