For Photographers

Another Toronto photo contest to avoid

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A year ago, the City of Toronto ran a photo-rights-grabbing effort disguised as a photo contest. The city is now running another photo contest. Let’s take a look.

The good news is that this contest has a big statement about copyright. It says the photographer will “retain full rights and ownership of their photos.” If any use is required beyond the contest, the city will negotiate with the photographer. Perfect.

And now the bad news. The rules state that every picture submitted to the contest becomes public record. Public record => almost public domain => photographer loses some rights and ownership of their photos.

The prizes are very minimal. Who wants to win lunch with Toronto’s General Manager of Transportation Services? Who wants a City of Toronto certificate? Prizes also include a magazine subscription (a $22 value), a gift certificate that can be used to buy a magazine subscription and a t-shirt, and your name on a vanity street sign.

Certainly this contest is aimed at amateurs. But why take advantage of them like this?

Why not have prizes like: no property taxes for a year, no utility bills for a year, one-year TTC transit passes, a year’s free parking at any city-owned parking lot.

 

Story Marketing

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A lot of folks are either having a good laugh or scratching their head over the $500 bridal selfie stick that was shown at a New York fashion show.

The boutique clothing designer said the selfie stick wasn’t just a fashion runway prop but that it’s a real product. She even claimed the product was already out of stock. (Out of stock even before it was in stores?!)

A bride could easily buy a cheaper selfie stick and decorate it themselves but they won’t have a “designer” selfie stick. Of course, no one should have a selfie stick or even a pair of selfie shoes ;-) but that’s another post.

Who would buy a $500 selfie stick? Someone who thinks it’s worth $500.
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Platform Photography

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Canada’s 2015 federal election is days away and each party has released its platform. Let’s compare them from a photographer’s point of view.

The Obvious

• Green Party platform is 44 pages and 5.8 MB in file size.

• NDP brochure is 81 pages and 5.1 MB in size.

• Liberal Party platform is 88 pages and 10.6 MB.

• Conservative Party brochure is 159 pages and 37.4 MB.

That alone might be very telling.
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You can trust me on this

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Photographers are often told to sell value rather than just pictures. But when it comes to value, there can be a disconnect between photographer and customer.

A photographer generally tries to sell future value: how the photos might be used and enjoyed in the future.

But a customer often sees only the immediate value: the cost of the photography today.

If cost is greater than perceived worth then the customer won’t buy.

It’s difficult for any business to sell the future because we only see the present and we only know how we feel today.

A solution is that you have to realize that it’s not about cost, high or low. It’s really about worth or the lack thereof. If a customer sees little perceived worth today then your only option may be to lower your price and even that may not be enough.

Having to discount your prices is proof that your current marketing has failed.

Once you understand that worth is related to trust, then perhaps you’ll change your marketing to build trust rather than to promote low prices.

Customers can, and want to, feel trust today.

 

Photo Saturation

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There are nine take-out pizza stores within a one-kilometre radius of my home. How did they know I like pizza so much? More importantly, how much pizza do I and my neighbours have to eat to keep all those stores in business?

If you were the only photographer in town, you’d probably be quite busy with work. If a second photographer arrived in town, would the total number of photography customers double or would the existing number of customers be somehow split between you and the other photographer?

What if the number of photographers in your town went up by a factor of ten, fifty, a hundred or more? How would that affect your business?

It’s said that competition is good for business (and good for customers). More competition can increase customer awareness of your products and services which then might increase demand for your business.
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Toronto Film Festival 2015

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If you don’t cover the annual Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) then you may want to skip this very long post.

I wasn’t going to write another annual rant about the Toronto International Film Festival but since someone at the film festival apparently reads this blog, this might be the only way to get through to them. But it’s still very much like banging your head against a wall since any positive change can take many years to happen.

A “thank you” goes to someone for taking notes from last year’s blog post and making a few changes this year:
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Budget, budget, wherefore art thou?

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What every photographer knows, and seemingly few clients understand, is that every photo can be shot in many, many different ways and each can have a very different cost.

When looking to hire a photographer, a few clients will initially refuse to reveal the exact details of their photo project. Some other clients may not know the details or they haven’t fully decided what they want. Nevertheless, the photographer is expected to give a price for a job they know little about.

When you’re trying to figure out and price a photo job that doesn’t have complete information, the advice often given is that you should ask the client for their budget and use that as a guideline. But if you ask, “What’s your budget for this project,” the client may answer with something like:
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