For Photographers

Catalogue Shopping

2 Comments

Photographers need to catalogue their images. A catalogue is a visual list of your pictures that helps you organize, search and retrieve them.

There are a lot of photo editing software but very few for digital asset management (i.e. cataloging). There are many cloud-based cataloging solutions for larger businesses but the high cost of these pushes them out of reach of most photographers.

Media Pro, a popular cataloging application for many years, was discontinued in August 2018.

I started using Media Pro in 1998 when it was called iView Multimedia. Back then, the British software company gave it away as shareware. In the early 2000s, iView Multimedia changed its name to iView Media Pro and gave it a $60 price.
Continue reading →

The customer is right even when they’re not

1 Comment

This photo has nothing to do with this post. It’s another view-from-my-office photo.

If you thought your home office was small or ugly, here is someone’s “vintage” 42-square-foot home office before it gets renovated. It has no functioning lights or heat. But it does have lots of nails in a wall, a very sloping floor and a sewage pipe in the corner. I didn’t ask about the dark red stains on the floor.

A small financial consulting company last week sent me four business portraits they wanted fixed. Another photographer shot these portraits three months ago and I don’t know why he or she didn’t fix the photos.
Continue reading →

A Tale of Two Houses

No Comments

(With apologies to Charles Dickens)

It was the best of houses, it was the worst of houses, it was the age of beauty, it was the age of squalor, it was the epoch of style, it was the epoch of simplicity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of disrepair . . .
Continue reading →

Kilometric Rates For 2019

No Comments

Just wanted to point out that the Canadian government has posted its 2019 kilometric rates for car travel by government employees.

These rates are the bare minimum of what photographers should be charging for use of their vehicle.

Your situation may require you to charge more. For example, it costs me about 85¢/km to drive my car. This is much higher than the government’s 57¢/km (including tax) for Ontario.

 

Please check the date of this article because it contains information that may become out of date. Tax regulations, sales tax rules, copyright laws and privacy laws can change from time to time. Always check with proper government sources for up-to-date information.

 

How not to get arrested for counterfeiting

No Comments

The full face of the twenty dollar bill is shown at actual size but it has a large watermark. (Bank of Canada)

You might someday have the need to photograph banknotes, coins or postage stamps. Do it wrong and you or your customer could get a visit from the RCMP or be on the receiving end of a lawsuit. Copying currency and stamps isn’t just about counterfeiting, it’s also a copyright issue.
Continue reading →

Photo Gear Purchases 2018

1 Comment

If you’re like me, you probably buy too much photo gear. Not so much cameras and lenses but things like bags, light modifiers and various accessories. Here are some of my purchases in 2018:

Rock-n-Roller cart

I’ve been meaning to get a half-decent cart for some time. A homemade dolly-style cart with a bright yellow mat ($55 in parts and plywood from Home Depot in 1985) has served me very well. An over-priced Tri-Kart 800 is something I regret buying about 18 years ago because it was of limited use to me. But many local TV crews use the Tri-Kart.

This year I bought a RocknRoller R12RT. It’s pretty good but it takes up extra space because it’s not small and it weighs 33 lb. Fully extended, the R12RT won’t fit in some elevators.

A RocknRoller R12RT Multi-cart is shown in its smallest configuration. (Photo source: rocknrollercart.com)

Continue reading →

Stock Photo Stupidity

4 Comments

A TV news article reports on a Canadian photographer who didn’t bother to read the contract when submitting one of his favourite photos to a cheap, royalty-free, stock agency. Apparently he was only thinking about the easy money.

His photo was used on 500,000 calendars and greeting cards.

He earned US$1.88.

Other photographers would probably laugh at this person because this is not news. It’s well known that cheap stock photo agencies have been taking advantage of unsuspecting photographers for 20 years.
Continue reading →

css.php