For Photographers

Flash Forward

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Over the past two months, I photographed in a few Toronto offices, from small to mid-sized. Here are a few random observations:

• Businesses seem to be almost paperless. I can recall when offices had rows and rows of filing cabinets.

• Fax machines are pretty much obsolete.

• At least half of the offices had their employees working on laptops. This may make sense in terms of cost and portability but one wonders about the health cost. Many employees’ necks and shoulders were hunched over as they were working on their laptops.

• No desktop computers meant that the office lacked the familiar sound of keyboard (and mouse) clicking. I guess this keyboard sound will disappear like that of a typewriter.
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Photographer’s Web Site Maintenance

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Yes, a boring blog title.

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been helping some photographers clean up and reorganize the back end of their web sites. Here are a few important things that every photographer should do with their web site (in no particular order):

• Change all usernames and passwords. A username of “admin” and a password of “1234567” are a disaster waiting to happen. Using the same combination of username and password for everything is foolish. Never use the default username or password.

• Back up the web site regularly. Really. Keep a copy of the entire site on a local computer and/or on a CD/DVD. Most photographers’ web sites are not that large and can be easily backed up. Web hosts often provide a way to do site backups through cPanel (or similar). Or, just use FTP to download the site.

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Best Face Forward

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The California Institute of Technology (CalTech) just published a rather silly study with the catchy title of “Perspective Distortion from Interpersonal Distance Is an Implicit Visual Cue for Social Judgments of Faces.”

This study claims to show that “the distance at which facial photos are taken influences perception.” The authors of the study even say they’ve broken new ground. (Every photographer is laughing at this.)

Here’s the CalTech press release and the study. Feel free to read them but the study just duplicates what every experienced photographer, model and actor have known for the past plus-90 years:

• If someone takes your picture with a short lens, the closer they stand to you when taking the picture, the more distorted, or unflattering, the picture will be. (This is well-known physics.)

• An unflattering portrait tends to create unfavourable opinions in people who view that portrait. (This is well-known human behaviour.)

This CalTech study certainly qualifies for a Captain Obvious award.
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Toronto Film Festival 2012

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With apologies for the length of this post, here’s my annual rant:

The 37th edition of the annual Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is underway. From a photographers’ point of view, TIFF has always been considered to be very poorly-run event. Although from a movie-goer’s point of view, the film festival might be heaven.

I’ve been covering the film festival since 1988 and little has changed over the years. Off hand, I can count only four positive changes over the past 24 years:

(i) A photo pit was covered to protect against rain;
(ii) Many steel barricades were covered;
(iii) A red carpet was relocated from the small east side of a theatre to the much larger west side;
(iv) The central hub of the film festival (TIFF’s new building) has fast wifi (which works about half of the time – perhaps it’s overloaded during the festival?).

Let’s look at a few things (in no particular order):

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Never Ending

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Learning about photography never ends.

Updating software never ends.

Updating your web site never ends.

Re-evaluating your business never ends.

Searching for new ideas never ends.

Buying new photo gear never ends.

Credit card payments never end.

The need for “just one more picture” never ends.

The thrill of having your photo on a magazine cover, a billboard, or just hanging on a wall, never ends.

Searching for new customers never ends.

Looking at something and thinking “24mm, 5.6 at 1/250” never ends.

Trying to produce better pictures never ends.

 

Precedent Setting

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Everyone knows the saying, “you only get one chance to make a first impression.” While this is true, it goes further than that.

As with any business, a professional photographer should remember that when dealing with a new customer, everything the photographer does sets the precedent for all future interactions with that customer.

For example:

  • how the photographer answers the first phone call
  • the number of spelling mistakes in the first e-mail
  • showing up late for the first assignment
  • improperly dressed for the assignment
  • missing the deadline on the first job
  • poor quality on the first job
  • pricing below cost or working for free

Each “first” interaction with a customer sets the standard for that customer’s future expectations.

Precedents are quick to set and slow to undo.

 

Trash The Risk

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A Quebec woman last week drowned while being photographed in her bridal gown during a trash-the-dress photo shoot. A “trash the dress” is where a woman is photographed a few days, weeks, or months, after her wedding and she wears her bridal gown in a wet, dirty or otherwise unorthodox location. One would have thought that this fad disappeared after the 1970s but it became trendy again.

The family of the victim released a statement which seemed to place blame on the photographer:

These character traits made [the victim] very trusting in others. … One thing we are certain about is that [the victim] would have never put her life at risk. Her love for life, for her husband and for her family would never allow it.
(…)
She trusted [the photographer’s] recommendation for the location and felt safe enough to attend the photo shoot alone with the photographers. She followed their directions and put trust in their professionalism.

While no lawsuit against the photographer has been launched, (the funeral has yet to be held), one might guess where this is heading.
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