product photography for insurance?
GerryDavid
Registered Users Posts: 439 Major grins
I was just wondering if anyone does this, or thinks this would be a good service to offer?
I was thinking people may want their valuables photographed for insurance reasons. For a fee, the photographer could go to the house, and photograph each item using a light box or what have you.
I was thinking for security reasons, of just handing over the memory card to the client, that way you the photographer would not have a record of what they have except for memory.
But that raises another question, if something happens, you'll be a suspect until ruled out. So is it even worth the effort.
A thought would be it would be a good idea to get bonded, or what ever the American equivalent is. But theres still the suspect problem.
Does anyone do this? What are your experiences?
I was thinking people may want their valuables photographed for insurance reasons. For a fee, the photographer could go to the house, and photograph each item using a light box or what have you.
I was thinking for security reasons, of just handing over the memory card to the client, that way you the photographer would not have a record of what they have except for memory.
But that raises another question, if something happens, you'll be a suspect until ruled out. So is it even worth the effort.
A thought would be it would be a good idea to get bonded, or what ever the American equivalent is. But theres still the suspect problem.
Does anyone do this? What are your experiences?
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i di this for sometime in the late 70's early 80"s....then it sorta dried up...no one wanted to pay to have it done.....that is what I have run into in the past 6 or so years....and with digital .......well you see
where i am headed........for insurance you do not need portrait grade photos just to prove you owned something...........
It could be very different where you live
Just wondering if its worth it with the possible headaches.
i would just figure out an hourly or a flat rate and include 3 disks of images...1 for insurance co, 1 for safety deposit box and one for home safe.......
things to remeber you are working isnde some ones home with their personal valuables and this includes wedding rings they wear and other jewelry they wear daily.....so you need to be insured and bonded...
Since you are interested talk with YOUR insurance agent to see if he will spread the word about your endeavor...that is how I started out and then offer to come back in 6months to shoot any newly acquired items and make 3 new disks......but only charge for time doing the work and the Cd so if you ahd to shoot 5 to 10 new items the next time charge like $20 - $50 You could even use rewritable disks and let them know you will need them back and will replace them with new ones....no need to tell them they are rewritable.
cost of living and cost of doing business are both pretty low for me. I figure $30 to $50 an hour is my goal, so I was thinking of starting off with $50 to visit and do the pictures, and then $3 per item to be photographed with a minimum of 20 items, or something like that.
I would bring a light box/tent for the smaller items like jewelery, cards and small collectables.
A large white sheet to put the bigger items on that are clean, and for the huge items and dirty tools, just photograph them where they are.
I was planning on just giving them the memory card after the fact, but its proving to be hard to find some cheap cf cards around 1gb. Burning a few cd's on the spot wouldnt be hard to do. I dont have luck with cd or dvd-rw's, they never work the 2nd time after they are formatted for me. and disks are cheap so may as well just use cd/dvd-r's.
I wonder how you get bonded down here in the states. Just go to the police station or do you have to go to town hall? I suppose I could google it. : )
think I would start here, explanations and easy to understand...... http://www.jwsuretybonds.com/blog/how-to-get-licensed-bonded
Due to your business being in the photography field you may want to also look at this
site for info............... http://www.cnasurety.com/products/
I did look up bonding but I wasnt sure which one was the type I wanted. None of it seemed to fit, now i know!
Most bonds run $100 - 500 per year......some insurance companies also sell surety bonds.....
I think the biggest obstacle here is providing a reason for people to pay you to do this when they can pull out their cell and snap a picture which would be just fine for proving the item existed. (Or even just keeping receipts for that matter.) I planned to and offered to do this a while back but didn't even get the tiniest bit of interest. Being bonded and insured and getting referrals from an insurance agent may help though. Good Luck!
http://www.MilestoneMomentsPhoto.com
I see a practical difficulty too. Say you buy a new PC - are you going to pay the photographer to come and shoot it? I think not.
What sort of proof do you believe insurance companies require?
For normal household insurance they like to see purchase receipts and an assay report for valuables. Around here most people insure for replacement value so the age of an item is often relevant, another reason they like to see receipts.
For expensive jewellry people have their items valued for insurance by a jeweller who provides a description and photograph - at least around here. Perhaps the jeweller is a better bet for the service than the owner of the piece.