Photographers, do you recognize this little thing:
Hint #1: It costs about 40 cents.
Hint #2: If it breaks, it can prevent you from properly using your expensive long lens.
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Pelican Case Wheel Replacement
If you don’t have a wheeled Pelican case then skip this post.
There are a lot of online instructions for replacing the wheels on a newer Pelican case, usually the 1510 model. But there’s no information for any of the original Pelican cases that came with a pair of one-piece, hard plastic wheels.
Here are some simple instructions for replacing the wheels on an original 1510 case and original 1650 case. Replacing the wheels on other Pelicans should be similar since all original wheeled cases were designed similarly. Just be sure you have the correct wheel size. Most inline skate wheels, skateboard wheels and luggage wheels use the same 22mm diameter x 7mm thick bearing size (more on all this in a moment).
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Reach for the Top
A job search engine company published its annual list of top Canadian employers. A printed version was inserted in today’s The Globe and Mail newspaper.
Not all of the selected top employers were profiled in the (online and printed) magazine. But by some strange coincidence, every profiled company had an ad in the publication and, as of today’s date, 33 of the 38 profiled companies had employment ads listed on that job search engine.
If you flip through the magazine, you can tell which companies hired professional photographers and which decided to go with, uh, inexperienced photographers.
You will notice an awful lot of group pictures showing people doing nothing but standing or sitting around. There are also a number of photos that most professional photographers would’ve deleted. To be fair, there is one good group photo and several other acceptable images.
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Composition Wise and Whys
There are many online photography tutorials offering technical tips and advice. Much of this information is simplistic and superficial.
For example, when doing a portrait, they’ll tell you not to have harsh shadows on the subject’s face. The problem with information like this is that it isn’t scalable. It’s more beneficial to have information that you can use in any type of photography no matter what your subject matter.
Why do people look at pictures and how do they look at pictures? If you can answer these two questions then you can scale this information across any type of photography.
This post is long but the concepts are simple. Spoiler alert: this isn’t really about photography but rather it’s about human nature and how we perceive things around us.
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Are your customers wide and flat or narrow and deep?
If you chase every type of customer, you can end up not knowing which way to turn. Wedding customers, family portrait customers, high-school seniors, social event organizers, business headshots, real estate customers, retail web sites, consumer publications, corporate customers, commercial customers, academic institutions, etc. Who gets your attention? Everyone?
Of course you want as many customers as possible but do you want your customers to be wide and flat or narrow and deep?
Having a wide and flat customer base means that you do many different types of photography to appeal to anyone and everyone. This type of customer tends to make only occasional or relatively small purchases.
A narrow and deep customer base means that you do certain types of photography that appeal to a specific type of customer. Customers in this category tend to make more frequent or higher-priced purchases.
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Copyright, monkeys and creativity
The US government stated, in its September 2017 update to its copyrights practices (link to PDF), that it will not register a copyright for any work that lacks human authorship. This includes, but is not limited to:
• A photograph taken by a monkey.
• A mural painted by an elephant.
• A claim based on the appearance of actual animal skin.
• A claim based on driftwood that has been shaped and smoothed by the ocean.
• A claim based on cut marks, defects, and other qualities found in natural stone.
• An application for a song naming the Holy Spirit as the author of the work.
You can be assured that all of the above stem from actual events.
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Taking stock of your photography
Everything old is new again. Maybe it’s because a new audience is always being born or maybe it’s because some folks fail to learn from history.
Around the year 2000, a Canadian web developer started his own online stock picture agency. Back then, existing stock agencies usually screened prospective photographers and they refused his photos as not being good enough.
His new stock agency accepted everyone and initially gave pictures away for free. But he soon realized that free wasn’t sustainable and he began to charge a few dollars per picture. His stock site was aimed at amateur photographers who were happy to give away their pictures:
The monetary rewards are an added bonus, but I don’t think they’re everything for everyone,” he said. “I think our core group of photographers, our 2000 exclusives” — photographers with portfolios exclusive to iStockphoto — are motivated by the reward of being part of an elite club that engages in creative discussion nonstop.
