Value Added: A Photographer With a Bird's-Eye View of the Economy

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A Photographer With a Bird's-Eye View of the Economy

Corporate-jet photographer Charles Tack noticed that around last year's financial meltdown, used corporate jets were flooding the marketplace, a harbinger of just how bad the economy was about to become. It has been greatly beneficial to his one-man business, which grosses more than $300,000 a year.

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A typical job to photograph a midsize jet with a caterer putting food on display would probably cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $2,500 to $3,000.

On top of that, there could be print sets produced for press kits, which could add $1,000 depending on whether Tack is meeting a rush deadline. If someone wants artwork on display in the jet, the cost increases. The more variables, the higher the cost. Tack recently traveled to London, spent three days there, and billed more than $8,000, which included airfare, hotel fees, ground transportation and hiring a local assistant.

Photographing expensive jets is not just a matter of showing up with your camera, tripod and lights. Tack has to put on bootees and make sure his equipment doesn't bash some luxury African gumwood finish or cut into some super-expensive piece of art.

"It's like going into someone's living room," he said. "Having been a pilot, I can go in, speak the language."

Another thing I found compelling about Tack is that flying his own Beechcraft Bonanza gives him a competitive advantage over others.

"My airplane allows me to get jobs that I would not get at all," he said. "I can be on the way to a job while other guys are taking their shoes off at security. It's the reason people call me. People are champing at the bit to get photographs within hours."

Last week, he jumped into his plane at Leesburg Airport at 2:30 a.m., arriving in Cincinnati a couple of hours later, just in time for a predawn exterior shot of a snazzy, $20 million Gulfstream jet that a corporate household name was unloading because it had just bought a replacement.

"I photographed the interior and was done before 11," Tack said. He does about 150 such shoots a year. He flies his own plane about a third of the time and travels by commercial aircraft the rest.

This year, he expects to gross more than $300,000. His personal expenses come to about $80,000 a year, including around $30,000 to maintain his Beechcraft, which uses about 15 gallons of fuel per hour. He was audited once and got a clean bill of health, he said.

He ends up with between $200,000 and $250,000 before federal and state income taxes. He also pays about $500 a month for health care and stashes every penny he can into a self-employed retirement plan. He has had the same accountant for 35 years.

With retirement savings and investments, he is worth well over $1 million.

Tack keeps most of his money in mutual funds and has a bunch of cash in certificates of deposit, although he does confess to playing the stock market now and then.

I asked him if he had any advice for solo entrepreneurs, and he did.

"Whatever you decide to do, you have to have passion or you won't be good at it," he said. "You will be competing against the people who have passion. I love airplanes and photography. I put the two together and think, 'Wow, how cool is this?' "

Follow me on Twitter at addedvalueth.