PHOTO PRO TIPS

Step One in becoming a green shooter is to carbon offset your vehicle. Most photographers generally drive small vehicles, lightweight trucks, or vans. Bigger shoots sometimes require bigger vehicles like RVs and grip trucks. If an average shoot consists of an assistant, a client, and a subject; you could easily triple your normal carbon output on every job. Since the average small vehicle puts about 10,000 lbs of carbon dioxide into the air per year, a single day of shooting could cause roughly 750 lbs of pollution.

There are a couple easy and inexpensive things you can do to carbon offset your ride.

Ways to Reduce Your Emissions

1. Carpool - This is bar far the easiest thing to do if your vehicle can accommodate your crew and your gear in one trip. Your client may also appreciate the door to door service, saving them costs and time. If you have a lot of passengers, consider buying a small trailer to carry your gear.
2. Lighten the Load - Do you really need 10 c-stands and 100 lbs of sandbags? Previsualize your shoot and bring only the gear you will need. The lighter your vehicle is, the more fuel efficient it will be.
3. Buy Caron Offset Credits - When you buy a carbon offset credit, that money is used to fund carbon reduction projects like wind power. You’re carbon credits then, in effect, reduce the equivalent of your carbon dioxide output. It’s not as expensive as you would think, either. To offset a typical SUV for one full year, driving approximately 12,000 miles costs only $49.95. If you shoot 40 assignments per year, it would equal out to $1.25 per day of shooting. You could even line item it as an expense. You’re clients will love it. To buy a carbon credit for your vehicle, go to TerraPass and calculate your vehicles carbon footprint.
4. Upgrade Your Vehicle - This is not the cheapest thing to do, but if you’re in the market for a new work vehicle, consider some fuel efficient options. Hybrids and biodiesel vehicles are becoming more and more common and the race is on for a 100mpg car. If you shoot mostly in studio, consider buying a smaller car for commuting and then rent a cargo van when you need to shoot on location. Just add it to your rental budget or your carbon offset charge.

It’s cheaper and easier than you think to start saving the world. And you don’t have sacrifice your shooting style to do it.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 8th, 2008 at 9:32 am and is filed under Carbon Offsets. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.