TLTR- is it normal for cons to take advantage of their staff photographers by having them work for free.

Hi I'm a midwest con (NO ryan Kopf cons.) photographer. I had my first con that I photographed this year and it was amazing I work on the staff of anime detour and got to meet and work with amazing team that works on helping each other grow as photographers. Now I did this for free as kind of a trade off as the con was giving tickets to a club at my college for free. Working with the other photographers 3 were payed and the rest were staff meaning they got their ticket covered and possible a room if they worked so many hours. which isn't to bad and I don't mind but after talking to a few staff members was told I should be ask for payment going forward ( I have more event experience and do video as well.)

Now this is were my question comes in for the Staff or freelance photographers,

Do a lot of you get payment for photographing these events and if so how do you go about getting those kind of contracts? Are more cons on the coast areas more willing to pay is this just a mid west con issues? Do photographers charge people at cons as freelancers as a way to make income at the cons?

Ive ran into a few cons in the midwest were they want to "hire" a photographer but then want me to pay for the badge at full cost and then work the whole weekend and then turn over all my work unedited.

Were other ones offer a room and a badge cover if you work 40 hrs which is nice but when you add in the time I have to edit and cull and everything else I may need to do that gets a bit costly and the fact that they want me to work the whole time takes a bit of fun out of it.

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