Do you enjoy eating a hamburger from a fast-food restaurant?
If you’re a teenager, you probably do. But if you’re older then you probably don’t.
The reason is that younger people generally don’t have sophisticated tastes or they haven’t experienced the hamburgers at higher quality restaurants. If they did visit a better restaurant, they would realize what a good hamburger tastes like.
A Big Mac costs about $5, a burger from a five-star hotel or restaurant might cost $35 or more, and other restaurants charge somewhere in between. But when you buy food, what’s more important, the cost or the taste?
Hiring a photographer can be somewhat similar to burger buying.
Some folks hire only the cheapest photographer. These customers settle for less because they don’t have sophisticated tastes or they haven’t worked with a higher quality photographer. If they did experience a better photographer, they would realize what good photography looks like.
When you hire a corporate photographer, what’s more important, the cost or the photography?
From looking at a couple of company web sites:
• In a 17-person group photo on a Mississauga company’s web site, three people have their eyes closed, five people are posed very awkwardly, a light stand is visible in the background, one of the photographer’s flashes can be seen on one side and a large office garbage can is near the front of the picture.
None of this is acceptable but that’s what the photographer delivered. Either the company didn’t notice these things or it doesn’t care.
• On a Toronto restaurant’s web site, the pictures of its various dining areas are out of focus, poorly exposed, and/or the white balance varies from white to yellow to pink to green. None of these are acceptable but that’s what the photographer delivered.
In this case, the restaurant’s general manager asked for a quote to reshoot its interiors. But he then said my quote was more than ten times higher than what he paid to the first photographer. This suggests that he originally paid about $250. Why did he want new pictures? He wasn’t happy with the first set. And yet, he didn’t want to pay more than the first set.
A cheap, fast-food burger might be good enough for an occasional quick bite. But it’s not good enough for a steady diet or for an important meal. People who care about their diet don’t often eat at cheap, fast food places.
Cheap photography might be good enough for an occasional picture that will have only a small, one-time use. But it’s not good enough for ongoing business use or for any important marketing effort. If your business uses cheap photography on a regular basis, you may want to reexamine your company’s diet.
