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10/03/2007 11:11:13 PM · #1 |
Okay so reading other forums and some really big magazine articles lately, I'm surprised to have never seen Bella brought up here.
Wanna shoot weddings, don't wanna market & find contacts.. hate the admin work? They do it for you. They pay you a small percentage of their fees and move on. But you can market the images & yourself any way you want outside of Bella's space. It sounds like a win-win.... but also could be the McDonalds of wedding photography. Have a look at the Career section at the bottom of the page: //www.bellapictures.com
Thoughts? Experiences?
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10/03/2007 11:24:01 PM · #2 |
There was a discussion about them over at FM. the owner/originator joineed FM to reply to some of the, umm, accusations. Apparently some in the pro community are not too keen on the bella philosophy...
You can get bella's pricing for your area right from their website. they are not cheap. Locally $2000 is about the average price, and they are perhaps 50% more than that.
they CLAIM to pay photographers up to $1200 or some such figure. I'm sure they have 1 or 2 that make that, but the OWNER of bella stated the AVERAGE they pay a photog is $275. yep, for 8 hours of shooting. using your gear, and you have to shoot with one of their certified photogs before you get any weddings of your own.
If i need a wedding shot I pay $50/hour, but bella only pays, on average, $35/hour.
$35 an hour, for a part time job, isn't going to get the best talent, or attract successful photogs to use bella to fill in empty dates (one of bella's so-called attractions to wedding photogs). it's not really a training ground either.
I provide better service, and IMO better images (I at least shoot RAW - bella want the photog to shoot jpgs only) for less cost to the bride.
Bella sounds good until you read teh fine print, see the reality of it.
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10/04/2007 09:41:05 AM · #3 |
Saw the article in teh PPA mag about bella - did you notice on the first page in teh upper right? All images copyright Bella Pictures. That infers that if you shoot for them you are giving them the copyrights to your images.
I would also assume they'd want to show the best images - this is read by pros, and they (bella) would be wanting to attract them, so what's up with the bad fire truck pic? One guy has his eyes closed, most are squinting, and the ones are top are all figleaf posed...something any self respecting wedding photog shouldn't ever do - and the rest are all inconsistently posed as well.
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10/04/2007 09:46:13 AM · #4 |
Originally posted by Prof_Fate:
Saw the article in teh PPA mag about bella - did you notice on the first page in teh upper right? All images copyright Bella Pictures. That infers that if you shoot for them you are giving them the copyrights to your images.
I would also assume they'd want to show the best images - this is read by pros, and they (bella) would be wanting to attract them, so what's up with the bad fire truck pic? One guy has his eyes closed, most are squinting, and the ones are top are all figleaf posed...something any self respecting wedding photog shouldn't ever do - and the rest are all inconsistently posed as well. |
I read the article too. I know from their website & from another forum discussion that they do NOT take copyright - those must have been images that belong to "them". You're right though, even on their website none of the photography is particularly great. I could see how their business plan would help new or struggling photographers, but at $500 - $1000 per wedding for their best shooters, a pro just couldn't live that way.
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10/04/2007 11:26:58 AM · #5 |
I signed up with them a year ago but they don't work here in AZ yet. I'm not sure if I would still do it now. I think that I wouldn't have time but all it is is the one day so maybe I would. Ah well, another discussion entirely...
The few bad things I've heard is they would use other photographers name's as keywords (basically stealing their traffic). I mean, no it's not technically illegal but it's very bad business IMO. The other complaint was from a girl who had a bad mentor (you train with someone for a while before getting certified) but I'm not sure you can really blame Bella for that. No you don't hand over your copyright :0)
EDIT...
It was odd- Bella emailed me the day after this thread was posted and I wasn't sure what to do, to work for them or not. Then I saw this post on another forum I belong to and I COULDN'T BELIEVE IT!
I just want to bring it to anyones attention who may be thinking about Bella so they can make an informed decision...
//www.opensourcephoto.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=19655&st=0
I will not be working for Bella.
Message edited by author 2007-10-12 14:33:48.
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10/12/2007 08:52:00 AM · #6 |
Quoted from a recent FM post:
"Bella is an unscrupulous parasite - sucking the marrow from naive fools who decide to accept their pennies and shoot some weddings for them.
This is a soul destroying experience all the way around. A veritable rape without any of the generous foreplay or accommodation to decency. It is a mistake and a tremendous blight on your reputation and integrity of you get in bed with Bella."
If that doesn't clearly infer we should stay away, then I'm just wasting my breath. Their are posts on tons of forums (Fred Miranda, Digital Wedding Forum, DGrin, etc.) that clearly state multiple reasons to not "defecate where you eat" {pardon my french}. Do your own research, but I would sell my daughters into slavery before working for such demon-spawn.
Maybe start your research here - FM posting about Bella
Message edited by author 2007-10-12 09:00:55.
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