For Photographers

Using Craftsmanship In Your Photography

No Comments

One of the good things about being a photographer is that you get to make pictures. There are many other occupations where people do things but they don’t make anything.

But as digital technology progresses, we move further away from working with our hands and further from actually making photographs. When I was your age, photos didn’t just pop out of a camera or a computer, they were birthed in a darkroom :–)

Old-time photographers will tell you that working in a darkroom was therapeutic, stress-relieving and magical. You were hands-on with your photography as you created your finished pictures. Note those two ingredients: working with your hands and being creative.

With today’s cameras, you get to be hands-on with a computer keyboard. This is certainly faster, easier and less messy than being in a darkroom but it’s not as beneficial as when you got your hands wet. We don’t really make photographs today but rather we process digital data.
Continue reading →

Toronto Film Festival 2016

No Comments

Another ridiculously long post. If you’re not somehow connected to, or involved with, the Toronto International Film Festival then it might be better to skip this post. I’m just trying to reach a certain audience.

tl;dr:
• It took 41 years but Roy Thomson Hall finally got lights; they weren’t set up right. Red carpet made narrower. More advertising added. Photo pit made smaller and still left open to the rain. Most fans stuck far away from event. Publicists in the way.

• Princess of Wales Theatre still without lights at night. Still overcrowded. Publicists in the way.

• Press conferences are okay. Publicists occasionally in the way.

• The four-day street festival still a waste of time.

• From a photographer’s point of view, the Toronto Film Festival has improved very slowly over the past 41 years. Although some years, it regresses.

• From an onlooker’s point of view, the film festival is an overly big, confusing mess of films. It has lost sight of its purpose. A major overhaul is needed.

Reduce the numbers of venues to a handful. Cut the number of films by at least 50%. Eliminate many of the film categories. Have red carpets only at Roy Thomson and the Princess of Wales. Be more fan-friendly. (This year’s festival was 397 films, in 16 categories, scattered across 28 screens).
Continue reading →

Ministry of Photography

2 Comments

cop21a

Opening day at the COP21 Summit in Paris, France, 29 November 2015.

These conference photos were shot by France’s Ministère de l’Environnement, de l’Energie et de la Mer (MEDDE) photographer. Unlike Canada, these French government photos were put into the public domain.

Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) is being criticized for paying a photographer $6,662 to take pictures of its minister and her staff while they were in Paris for the COP21 climate summit late last year. [The French government’s COP21 site.]
Continue reading →

License professional photographers?

No Comments

In the absence of any regulation, anybody can sound like they are eminently qualified to do the job, and they very often aren’t.

– Graham Clarke

For the past three years, the Ontario government has been working toward licensing and regulating home inspectors. Bill 165, Licensed Home Inspectors Act, was introduced earlier this year.

The provincial government announced yesterday that it expects the law to pass and go into effect this fall.

Until this regulation comes in, anybody that can pick up a clipboard can become a home inspector.

– Len Inkster

The proposed law intends to ensure that home inspectors are qualified, insured, use proper contracts and deliver at least certain standard results.
Continue reading →

Great Expectations

No Comments

If anyone else can do the same pictures as you, even an amateur with a cell phone, then you’re probably out of a job.

Every customer expects that you own the necessary camera gear and the appropriate computer and software. They expect you know what you’re doing.

Customers expect that you can do more than just take pictures. After all, anyone can take pictures.

Customers also expect that you:

• Are self-motivated and have up-to-date skills.

• Know something about the legal, moral and ethical issues surrounding photography.

• Understand picture usage and licensing.

• Have suitable people skills.

• Have project management skills.

• Can think and act in the best interest of the customer.

They also expect that you know their expectations.

As a professional photographer, you’re expected to be the expert when it comes to all things photographic. You’re expected to be more than just a camera owner and operator.

Are you marketing yourself as a camera owner and operator or as a photography expert?

An owner and operator markets what equipment they own and their technical abilities. These photographers are essentially nothing more than a human photo booth.

A photography expert markets their experience, their management skills, their willingness to be a team player, their trustworthiness and their effectiveness. This is the best way to show that you’re not just someone with a camera.

Customer expectations are about much more than just pictures.

 

Toronto Conference Photography

1 Comment

A very long post with some suggestions for photographers planning on shooting business conferences, conventions and other similar corporate events. To save you time, there’s nothing here about cameras, lenses or how to take pictures.

Before the event

• Corporate events want a dependable, well-mannered, nicely dressed photographer who can produce decent pictures. They don’t want a photographer who produces wildly artistic images, always tilts their camera at a 45° angle or who can’t expose properly.

You have to know what the “bread and butter” pictures are and how to get them. Sure, go ahead and include some creative pictures but always make sure you have the expected pictures.

 

• You are *not* the most important person at the event. The food person carrying the tray of chicken skewers is more important and more popular than you. The people who paid hundreds of dollars to attend the conference are more important than you.
Continue reading →

The (F)utility of Low Prices

1 Comment

Photographers, how much would you charge to deliver 24 business headshots, 12 full-length environmental portraits and 4 environmental group shots?

Well, a Toronto photographer quoted $800 for this recent corporate job. This works out to $20 per delivered picture. The corporate client turned down this quote because even they knew the low price was ridiculous.

Photographers who try to discount or lowball their way into a job only hurt themselves. It’s been shown that customers are not fooled by bottom-end prices. So why do some photographers keep doing it?
Continue reading →

css.php