Several months ago my co-worker and friend Alex Cone introduced me to the concept of free. Alex felt motivated after reading Chris Anderson’s Free to try the concept of doing services he felt talent in for free. The ultimate goal here is for someone to hire him based on the services he freely gave. These services were directed primarily at non-profit organizations to help further advance their cause. Overall a great move by Alex and helping people at the same time.

I decided to give this a try for myself. Between work and grad school I did not have the ability to offer the full range of my talents for free, instead I chose to focus on something I enjoyed doing anyway, photography. I offer my photography skills up to anyone who wants to utilize them as time allows. I am just as happy taking some photos for non-profits as I am for people. I do not slack on the quality of the work, and will proudly promote whatever I have done.

In my free project I never expect any form of payment; I enter every photo shoot expecting to do it for free. If people want to pay that is fine, if not then that is perfectly fine as well. The quality of service remains the same regardless of payment, that is the nature of being free.

So what has come so far out of this experiment? First I have been able to increase my own skill by doing photography that I would at the time have otherwise been unable to do based on my portfolio. People I have found are far more willing to take a chance if there is zero risk involved to them. Second I have been able to grow my reputation for photography. I have been able to go from a complete unknown to someone who people actually recognize in the field in a relatively short time. Third and most importantly, I have been able to get to know some really cool people. There is something intimate about walking around with someone shooting photos of them; of course it might be the lens a foot from their face. This has allowed me to really get to know some fun people in ways I would have likely never been able to do.

My time working for free has been extremely valuable, so much so that I am going to continue it and hopefully take on even more projects in 2010.