For Photographers

Mileage for Canadian photographers

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Most folks still use the word “mileage” even though we’ve been metric for a long time. The correct word seems to be “kilometrage.”

When calculating what to charge for kilometrage, the operating expense portion is easy to figure out. Add up all your operating expenses for a year, (e.g. gas, repairs, maintenance, etc.), and then divide by the total number of kilometres driven that year. If you had $10,000 in operating expenses and drove 20,000 km, then it cost 50¢/km to drive the vehicle that year.

But what about the ownership expense portion (i.e. cost of vehicle, insurance, licences)? If your car cost $35,000, how do you factor that expense into your kilometric rate? Vehicle depreciation depends on what car you own and how long you keep it.

Possible ways to help determine a suitable kilometric rate:

• The federal government publishes a list of kilometric rates for government employees. These generic, one-size-fits-all numbers are the bottom end of what you should charge.

• The government also publishes “acceptable” auto allowance rates for company employees. These more realistic numbers are higher than for government employees. You can charge even higher if your situation requires it.

• The CAA has a somewhat limited driving cost calculator. If you can’t find your vehicle when using “By Brand” then try the generalized “By Category.”

Remember that your mileage rate, (it’s easier to say than kilometrage :-), covers only your vehicle expenses. It does not cover your time. If driving to/from a job takes hours, you should be compensated for that, too. Your time is worth a lot more than, say, 75¢ per kilometre. Your travel fee should include compensation for both vehicle expense and your time.

Also remember that you can claim only the business portion of your vehicle expenses on your tax return. You need to record the kilometres you drive for business purposes each year. For example, if you drove a total of 18,000 km in a given year and that included 9,000 km for business purposes, then you can claim 50% of your vehicle expenses.

 

Buying Time

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Possibly the best free thing is free time. Everyone wants free time. But since time comes only in a very limited supply, free time can be, ironically, very expensive to acquire.

For example, some people have to work a full-time job for almost an entire year to earn two weeks of free time. Similarly photographers have to do many jobs to earn enough money so they can afford some free time.

Since free time seems to be almost a luxury, why would any photographer work for free? Working for free, literally or effectively, not only eliminates the benefit of working, it also prevents the photographer from being able to afford free time.

 

Respect isn’t free

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Fifteen years ago, almost to the day, scientist and later president of India, Dr. Abdul Kalam gave a speech about his visions for India. His speech included:

If we are not free, no one will respect us.

 

(With apologies for misusing this quote), professional photographers should remember the opposite:

“No one will respect us if we are free.”

 

Two months ago, a friend and fellow photographer contacted one of his regular clients here in Toronto about a (then) upcoming assignment in Europe. The client was thrilled the photographer was available to go. But after consulting head office, the client found out that they didn’t have a budget to send a photographer. Instead, they were going to hire a local freelancer in Europe.
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You Don’t Say

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Customers say the darndest things:

None of the photographers we hired last year knew what we wanted.

None of the other photographers knew how to take pictures we like.

We’ve had such a hard time finding a photographer who knows the right price.

I know this is what we asked for but it isn’t what we want.

If our budget changes, we may not be able to pay you.

We need a portrait of our CEO done this afternoon and we’re willing to pay $75.

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Magic Act

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Some photographers charge more, other photographers charge less, and some photographers undercharge and effectively work for nothing. But I’ve never heard of a photographer who overcharges or gouges customers.

A fellow corporate photographer recently wondered what he should tell potential clients who point out that another photographer charges much less than he does. Perhaps this might help:

Photographers are not economic magicians. When a photographer charges less, it means the customer is getting less. There’s no way around it. Maybe it’s less quality, maybe less service, maybe less experience. But it’s always less. The customer has to decide if they’re willing to settle for less.

If the pictures are not important then it might be okay to take a chance with low-priced photography. But smart companies know to always avoid risk because cheap can sometimes be too expensive.

My photography business doesn’t settle for less, (which is why I buy only premium cameras, lenses, computers, software, etc.), and I refuse to offer less because my customers are important.

I want my customers to succeed in their business marketing and I want my pictures to play a part in that success. I don’t cut corners and give customers less because that would only undermine their business goals.

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Photographers are not Press

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This is a ridiculously long rant about this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. If you don’t cover the film festival or are not involved with it, then save yourself some time and skip this post.

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The 38th annual Toronto Film Festival recently ended. It’s the one event that all Toronto news photographers look forward to covering. Yes that was sarcasm.

Being the 38th edition, one might guess that the organizers might be, uh, organized and know what they’re doing. Sadly that guess would be wrong.

What do photographers need to do their job? They need to know who, what, where and when. Guess what information wasn’t given out?

Upon check-in, each photographer was given a bag of stuff, all of which was rather useless except for a pizza coupon :-). The bag contained no information that a news photographer needed.

Sigh.
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Twittering Away

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Over the past two years, I’ve noticed that many professional photographers have abandoned their blogs in favour of using Twitter. While Twitter may be more fun, more immediate, and faster and easier to do, it makes little business sense for a commercial or corporate photographer.

While there’s nothing wrong with using Twitter for personal activities or in conjunction with a blog, it doesn’t seem to benefit a professional photographer enough to warrant leaving their blog behind.

Unlike Twitter, a photographer’s blog has (or should have) more thought invested, is better indexed by search engines, holds long lasting value, is a deeper source of information and is much better at building trust and credibility.

When a company is deciding on which corporate photographer to hire, do you think they’re influenced more by a blog post or a bunch of tweets? Which better enhances a photographer’s reputation, a blog post or a few tweets?

For a professional photographer, the marketing value of a blog (aka content marketing) is huge compared to Twitter because of a blog’s capability for search engine optimization. A blog can be worth many thousands of dollars per month to a commercial photographer.

Although having said all that, as more photographers abandon blogging, the better it gets for those who stay with it.

 

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