The business side of photography
During a portrait session, if the subject jokingly asks if my camera will steal their soul, I’ll answer, “I hope so.”
It rubs me the wrong way, a camera. It’s a frightening thing. Cameras make ghosts out of people.
– Robert Zimmerman (aka Bob Dylan)
Sometimes a photographer will try to steal a bit of their subject’s soul. This is what separates a great portrait from an average one. Ideally a portrait should allow the viewer a moment’s chance into the subject’s world.
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Just in case you were wondering:
… we photographers are nothing but a pack of crooks, thieves and voyeurs. We are to be found everywhere we are not wanted; we betray secrets that were never entrusted to us; we spy shamelessly on things that are not our business; and end up the hoarders of a vast quantity of stolen goods.
— Gyula Halász (aka Brassaï) 20th-century Hungarian photographer/artist.
If I’d had the nerve, I’d have become a thief or a gangster, but since I didn’t, I became a photographer.
— Emmanuel Radnitsky (aka Man Ray) 20th-century US photographer/artist.
The photographer sends a photo quote and the customer either says “no thanks” or, more likely, doesn’t respond at all. The photographer is left wondering what went wrong.
A customer will say no to an offer because it’s the easiest reaction when they don’t have enough information or they don’t fully understand the photographer’s offer.
The customer may not know:
• How they can benefit from the photography.
• How well the photographer can complete the job.
• If they can fully trust the photographer.
• What their photography job really requires.
• What’s at stake by choosing a cheaper photographer.
When a customer says no, it may be an indication that the photographer did a poor job of informing and assuring the customer.
Another Black Friday and Cyber Monday have come and gone. The day after the US Thanksgiving (fourth Thursday in November) is “Black Friday” (for in-store sales) and the following Monday is “Cyber Monday” (for online sales). Although, some stores now stretch out their sales to last an entire week. In fact, the Thursday before Black Friday (i.e. US Thanksgiving) is now called Gray Thursday.
While these special shopping days are predominantly a US event, they do get some attention here in Canada. Several Canadian retailers hold their own similarly-themed sales on the same days.
What gets little attention, and absolutely no media coverage whatsoever, is that the Saturday between Black Friday and Cyber Monday is “Small Business Saturday”. The Canadian Small Business Saturday, like Canadian Thanksgiving, occurs in October. On Small Business Saturday, the public is urged to shop at a local small business.
However, none of these special shopping days benefit photographers. One could even argue that these shopping events don’t really benefit consumers (also here, here and maybe even here).
Perhaps photographers should create National Portrait Week which could run during National Photography Month (aka May). This would encourage people to get their portrait made, even a business portrait. This might help many photography businesses and it would most definitely benefit consumers.
The lasting value of a portrait is unmatched by any mass-produced, store-bought item.
(The Irish Professional Photographers Association has an annual National Portrait Day, which lasts a week. Customers can get a portrait for a nominal fee and all proceeds go to charity.)
How does a photographer negotiate their contract?
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, has a Rolling Stone magazine exhibit which includes two letters from 1982 between Rolling Stone magazine’s (then) chief photographer Annie Leibovitz and its publisher Jann Wenner. No idea why the letters are dated March 1982 and Leibovitz signed the contract as being March 1981 (perhaps a typo or bad handwriting?).
Not sure if it was related but Leibovitz left the magazine the following year.
On Wenner’s web site, (9th thumbnail), there’s a self-portrait of Wenner and Leibovitz from 1973 when she was named the magazine’s chief photographer.
If another photographer is looking for a supplier of custom USB flash drives, here’s a follow-up to a previous post about the inevitable switch from optical discs to USB flash drives for delivering client photos.
After looking through many sites, I went with Flashbay (flashbay.ca or flashbay.com). The account manager I dealt with was very helpful. The only hard part was deciding on a style of drive. I chose 4-GB “Kinetic” drives with medium-sized magnetic boxes. There are much fancier boxes but I’m assuming that most of my clients will throw out the box anyway.
The Kinetic drive works like a ballpoint pen: click on the end and the USB connector pops out; click again and it retracts. Pulling the drive out of a USB port automatically retracts the connector.
The medium-sized, clear plastic box, about the size of a deck of playing cards, is big enough that I can insert a business card (or maybe I can create a small thank-you card?). A smaller-sized box would make the overall presentation look too small. The little magnetic snap on the box is surprisingly effective.
Another option, although not as good from a marketing point of view, is that stores like Staples and Best Buy sell various branded and unbranded USB flash drives. Staples also sells tiny plastic boxes (meant to hold paperclips?) that can hold a USB flash drive or two.
A common saying is “Fast, cheap, good. Pick any two.” Here are some exceptions to that rule where you do get all three:
Photographers often have to resize pictures smaller or create thumbnail-sized images for their web site. For Mac users, there’s a free application called ThumbsUp, from DEVONtechnologies, which makes this resizing process fast and easy.
Also free from DEVONtechnologies: (i) EasyFind searches your hard drive better than Apple’s Spotlight because it doesn’t have the restrictions that are built into Spotlight; and (ii) WordService is an indispensable tool when working with any text in any application.
Another tool that photographers may find very handy, especially when designing web sites, is this wonderful free ruler for Mac.
