How much money do paparazzi earn

You have to understand the way people think, how they work, which way they're going to go. You think ahead of the people that you're following or other paparazzi in order to get the celebrity as they reach their destination. If you're going to work freelance as opposed to being fully staffed with an agency , it will be hard to make a living. I was papping from to and I actually made a lot of money doing it.

But there's not very much money in paparazzi right now anymore. You spend a lot on gas. You spend money on tips [people who call you to tip you off to where a celebrity is are oftentimes rewarded with money as a gesture of goodwill]. Being freelance offers a lot of flexibility and freedom, but it can get pretty lonely.

Otherwise, you can go for days completely on your own. But there are lots of benefits to being a freelance photographer. When you are really well-established, you can do what you want. I got paid based on how I performed, and if I wanted to take two months off and go to Thailand, I could and I did! You'll be in a new place nearly every day. From there, you can do one of two things. You could doorstep a gym or a restaurant or an area of town or a city block that celebrities go to a lot.

You start to know and memorize their cars. You can make great money off a single photo, but you can't expect to make a living taking great photos every so often. It's hard to figure out exactly how much you make off a single picture because money comes in really slowly — you make money off residuals over one or two years from a bunch of different sources. I think Paris Hilton holding the Bible right before she went to jail was one of my big shots. It's all about working every day. If you decide, "Oh, I can do this job," and bank on three times a month getting big photos, you're not going make it.

Papping is not for people who aren't competitive or thick-skinned. The absolute hardest thing about the job was the other paparazzi. It's a very competitive business. Until you have established yourself as one of the top dogs and until you've gained the respect of others, then the guys are going to try and get you out of the business.

I got total respect in the business, and everyone started leaving me alone and even looking up to me. There are almost no women in this industry, and it's really hard to work in it as one.

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There are only about five female paparazzi at any given time in L. I didn't know if the hate would ever stop and I was getting so beat up as a female. It was just so oppressive. The guys were so nasty, so mean. I was never spoken to directly. The relationships between celebrities and paparazzi varies from person-to-person, but generally, the celebs want to work with you. The relationship between paparazzi and celebrities is very symbiotic.

How much money does a Paparazzi earn

A lot of the people that you're working on on a day-to-day basis want to be in magazines and are not nasty with you. I remember one of my colleagues when I was first getting started said to me, "If you can make them smile, you're golden.

Those pictures are what the tabloids want to buy, and those require us as paparazzi to be non-antagonistic with the celebrities and to actually even develop friendships with them.

I'm sure it's probably happened, but I've seen thousands of shoots and I've never seen that. Certain celebrities are much more paparazzi-savvy than others.

When I was working, Paris Hilton was the absolute best and smartest. She's a brilliant media goddess who doesn't go anywhere without completely planning the shots the paparazzi will take. Cameron Diaz is another one who I love. She uses the paparazzi when she wants to and when she needs it: When she and Justin Timberlake broke up, she wanted to get photographed all the time looking super hot and totally used us.

We were all here for the use! We were like, "All right, you're making us money. We'll help you, you help us.

A celebrity breakdown is difficult for a pap too. To be honest, when Britney was breaking down, we were her only friends there for, like, a year. She dated a paparazzo! Even though it was kind of sick that she got all her affirmation from us, she did and we were really, really rooting for Britney during that period of time.

Not only because they were making money but you start to care about people as human beings when you're with them all the time. Being starstruck gets old pretty quickly. Toward the end, it was so hard to become starstruck, so I would need to see someone like Brad Pitt in order to have a good day. I was so bored of Miley Cyrus and Zac Efron and Paris Hilton and all these people that are very famous but would so not excite me.

Having connected with so many celebrities, it would have to be someone really big. It's easy to burn out. If you wanted to do something wild and exciting just for fun for a few years, you could do it. I knew another girl who was in it for that reason. She was awesome, we were really good friends, but she only lasted less than a year. Jennifer Buhl was a top-selling female pap in L. My Unexpected Life Photographing Hollywood's Most Famous. She now lives in Denver, Colorado, and runs Happy Hour Headshot.

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