Today I showed up for a job at 6:00 am and was met by the photographer who informed me that the subject couldn't show up that day and the the job was canceled for the day. It was the first job i'd been on where the job was cancelled on the day of the shoot. Thankfully the photographer was apologetic and promised to pay my cancelation fee.
This becomes a little sketchy on editorial jobs, where the fees are already low and charging a cancelation fee might cause the photographer to actually take a loss on the job ultimately. This would probably loose you any future work and piss off everyone.
You always have to ask the question, "Is it worth the cancelation fee" and by "worth" I mean financially. You are a business. If the photographer's from out of town than maybe it is worth charging them because you probably won't see him again and so you wont be out any future jobs. If he's a local guy, but you think he's a jerk and wouldn't wanna work for him again anyways than charge him. Don't hold back because you think he's going to tell all his photography friends about you, if he's a jerk than everyone probably knows it.
If the photographer is really cool and you would feel bad charging him the fee than just don't. If he's cool, like the guy I dealt with today, he'll probably offer you the fee anyways making life easier. You can even give them a "cool photographers" 1/2 price discount, just to remind them that you're cool too but try not to let it happen again. Waking up at 5:00 am for someone else is always worth money.
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