It’s been almost 10 years since it happened, and thinking about it still annoys me. 

I was talking with a potential client from the large cable company in the Maryland/DC area. She tells me she likes my work and wants to hire me. 

“Excellent,” I respond. “I’ll send over a proposal.”

“Well...,” she continues. “We were wondering if you could do this one for free. As you might imagine, we have lots of photography jobs, and we hire photographers all the time. If this shoot works out well, you’ll likely get lots of future work from us.”

“Are you flipping kidding me? Can I watch cable for a month for free and pay you next month if I like it?”

As I said, it still annoys me.

But not all the time.

There are other occasions when someone will ask for the exact same thing -- free photography -- and I am happy to provide it.

What about an enthusiast? You have a day job. You don’t need this to pay your bills. Should you ever shoot for free?

I hear from many of you who tell me that you don’t mind working for free. Photography isn’t  your main source of income, so it’s not a big deal. Some of you say that you don’t think your photography is at the level where you’d feel comfortable charging for it.

In this episode, I explore both sides of the debate.

I have five reasons why you wouldn’t shoot for free and five reasons why you would consider it. 

Listen to the podcast episode. See the show notes at bit.ly/shutterbuglife017.

Here's today's Ask Lyn question from Geysah:

"Hi Lyn,

I’ve been asked to be the photographer for a fundraising event where I volunteer and, of course, I said yes. The archbishop will be bestowing awards on volunteers. I want to do a good job. Do you have any suggestion? I would welcome as much input as possible. 

Thanking you in advance."

How many of you have found yourself agreeing to photograph an event only to wonder later, 'what have I gotten myself into?'

I understand Geysah's question as well as her dilemma. In this Ask Lyn, I run through the planning questions I ask before photographing an event. 

Don't let your best pictures wither away in the dark solitude of your hard drive. They need air, sunshine and the admiration of your friends. They need constructive criticism from trusted advisors and encouragement from a community of kindred spirits. They need a platform where you can determine which ones are most popular and offer them for sale.

They need -- to be online.

Your goal here is to create a website or blog format where you can showcase your photos or galleries. 

Today we begin a four-part series called "What to do with your photos" and we focus on creating a photo blog.

Listen to the podcast and read the show notes at bit.ly/shutterbuglife016.

Dangling from the top of a ladder creating photos isn't where you'd expect your next big photo business idea to hit you, but that's exactly what happened to one of today's guests. In fact, his story reminded me of one my favorite reality TV shows, Shark Tank.

On Shark Tank, "budding entrepreneurs get the chance to bring their dreams to fruition. They present their ideas to the sharks in the tank - five titans of industry, who made their own dreams a reality and turned their ideas into lucrative empires. The contestants try to convince any one of the sharks to invest money in their idea. 

At the last Photo Plus Expo, I met a couple photographers who could likely fit the show's format. They took an idea or problem they had as photographers and created a solution that became a business. 

As we will learn from these two photographers, you don't have to sell pictures to launch your dream photography-related business. Xume Adaptors and Cecelia Galleries show us how a frustration, or just a simple observation, can pay off for you. 

Listen to the podcast 

They were all strangers at some point — Mickey who makes a good living impersonating Ben Franklin; Rocky who was part of a 24-hour vigil outside the White House; Andrew who was on a coffee bike crawl around the city; and about 30 random people I encountered.

I’m one-third of the way through my 100 Strangers project, which seemed like a good time to talk about the whole street portrait genre. 

If you’ve ever wondered about street portraits, I’ll share what I’ve learned so far. You’ll learn:

Listen to the podcast now and read the show notes at http://bit.ly/shutterbuglife014.

I got an unexpected request this week from a marketer. She'd found one of my images and wanted to know if she could use it on her blog. I thanked for the request, but she didn't really need to ask me. I'd already given her permission.

I vigorously protect my copyright but didn't care if she used my image for free without asking. 

Can giving away your images for free be the pathway to success? Some of the proponents of Creative Commons licensing structure believe that's the case. Others say you get no real benefit from it. I'll explain both sides of the argument and how Creative Commons all works.

What about copyright? When should you take control of it? Can you do that on a derivative work? What about when you work as a freelancer and your client thinks she bought you outright. How does that work? There are nuances and there's the nitty gritty. Copyrights can be complicated.

These are the issues we discuss in today's episode. I call it lawyer-ish because we do cover some legal issues -- with Phil Marcus, the intellectual property attorney. I also talk about some licensing approaches that might just keep you lawyer free.

Some confessions catch you off guard.

We're all used to the oversharing that floods Facebook, but the real vulnerable, here's what I'm really feeling confessions? Nah, we don't post that.

Well, David Molnar did. On one of the most popular photography blogs, he shared what his inner critic was saying to him. He shared the insecurities that many of us harbor when it comes to photography.

And this week he joins me to talk about it, again.

He'll share what led him to this discovery, how he dealt with it, and how he challenges all of us to overcome that self doubt and create our best work.

If you've ever struggled with your inner critic, you'll want to listen to David's journey.

We were barely into our photo tour when it became obvious that Christine came with lots of questions. She was excited to learn photography, but she was clearly in research mode. 

Christine wanted to buy a new camera, and she wanted some advice about what she should buy and why. 

On just about every photo tour I've ever led, I've heard questions about gear. They usually fall into two categories.

In this episode, I answer many of the questions I continually hear from you.

Stole Jenn's Pic was the Instagram headline that stopped me dead in my tracks. 

Someone was using a pic of Jenn Herman, of Jenn's Trends, to promote a product that wasn't Jenn's. What's worse, the thief refused to remove photo when confronted.

How did Jenn respond? She didn't call a lawyer. She didn't write to Instagram. She simply unleashed the fury of her online community.

In this episode, I interview Jenn Herman, on how she used social media to take down a photo thief.

I also share some tips from a photo attorney.

Get the show notes at http://bit.ly/shutterbuglife010.

MW de Jesus wrote that he wanted to take more photos, but he is an introvert and feels self conscious. How does he photograph people when he doesn't want to draw attention to himself?

I feel like I've met MW. So many times I've heard versions of this story in Meetups and photo tours. 'I'd love to take more photos in public, but I'm self conscious.'

I think I've even said it a time or two. In this Ask Lyn segment, I'll share a number of suggestions to help MW and the rest of us get out of our own way.