The business side of photography
LinkedIn offers each user a personalized page of potential connections titled “People You May Know.” From a quick look today at my page of potential business connections (I’ve blacked out personal names and company names), I don’t recognize any of these people:
If any of those faces look like you, perhaps it’s time to put on your game face.
Two examples of bad photography decisions:
• The City of Toronto’s web site has a page promoting its new Pan Am BMX course that was used in the recent 2015 Pan Am Games. The photo shows a number of female competitors lined up at the starting gate.
The problems with the photo are that the event shown is not from the Pan Am Games, the track is not the city’s new BMX course and the location isn’t even in Toronto. Oops.
Some sports web sites in South America assumed this really was a Pan Am photo and used it in their news articles about the Pan Am BMX event. To be fair, those South American web sites were probably confused since the Toronto Pan Am Games itself initially used the same handout(?) picture on its BMX pages. Oops.
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The Globe and Mail took a look at some of the photographs that Canada’s top three political leaders use in their social media. The newspaper asked a neutral third party, a US photo editor and consultant, to review the pictures.
Without knowing the leaders, their political parties or any other backstory, photo consultant Mike Davis gave his opinions of the pictures.
Stephen Harper photos:
“It’s very linear, very simplistic, not at all dynamic or deep. … It’s all very similar, it’s very distant, very removed from the person. It kind of represents him as an entity who does official things, and that’s about all you get. … These are just official records of events.”
Every Canadian news outlet today reported that Blacks, a 67-year-old Canadian retail chain of 59 photography stores, will shut down within two months.
[Update: It didn’t completely shut down. See end of post].
(To be accurate: In 1930, Eddie Black opened a Toronto radio and appliance store, “Eddie Black’s Limited,” which later sold a few cameras. In 1947, his sons opened a section in the store that sold guns, fishing tackle and cameras. The following year, in 1948, the sons took over the business and launched “Eddie Black’s Camera Store.”)
Today’s news stories repeatedly mentioned that the increased use of cell phone cameras has killed the photo store. The irony is that Blacks is owned by a cell phone company.
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It’s often been reported (more examples here and here) that employers often check a job applicant’s background by viewing the applicant’s social media presence. I always thought these news articles were exaggerated.
While photographing an event today, a group of guests motioned me over. They wanted to talk about cameras and photography. The conversation turned to how they use photos in their jobs.
Their jobs: one person does the Canadian hiring for an international engineering company; another does the hiring for a technology company; the third does the hiring for a department of a major Canadian bank.
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Earlier today, I received an e-mail that read:
Good morning!
I am looking for a photographer that has the equipment to remove watermarks from a school proof photo. I have a letter from lifetouch giving me permission to do so.
Is this something that your studio is able to do?
If not, are you able to refer me elsewhere?With sincere appreciation,
(name redacted)
A school portrait business like Lifetouch or for that matter, any other type of photography business would not give permission to remove a watermark. It doesn’t make any sense.
This is like asking, “Can you shoplift a jacket for me? I have a letter from the store giving me permission to do so.”
As all professional photographers should know, it’s illegal (and here) to remove, alter, or hide, a watermark or copyright notice from a picture of which you don’t own the copyright.
As every consumer should know, the easiest way to remove a watermark from a photo is to pay for it.
If you were at a pizza store and you bought one slice, would you expect to get the entire pizza? If you were at a bar and you paid for one glass of wine, would you then ask for the entire bottle? If you purchased one ticket to the cineplex, do you demand to stay and watch every movie that’s playing?
Strangely enough, when some customers hire a photographer, they expect (or demand) to get every picture that was shot.
Why might a customer ask for every picture?
• Sometime in the past, another photographer once gave the customer every picture and now the customer (incorrectly) thinks that this is the normal practice.
• The customer thinks the photographer didn’t choose the best images and they’re worried that they’re missing out on something (i.e. FOMO).
