For Photographers

Advertise You not Them

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There are a lot of folks who have either an iPhone or a BlackBerry. I know a couple of photographers in Toronto who carry both: company-issued BlackBerry on one hip and personal iPhone on the other.

If you have one of these devices, and haven’t done this already, you may want to remove the third-party advertising from your e-mails. Unless, of course, you want to brag that you have a new toy. :-)

By default, e-mails sent from an iPhone end with “Sent from my iPhone”. Similarly, e-mails from a BlackBerry end with something like “Sent from my BlackBerry on the Rogers Wireless Network”.

Replace these with a promotion for your business.
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Half-full or half-empty

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If you weighed a 10-lb bag of potatoes and found that it weighed only 5 lbs, would you be concerned?

If a store clerk said that a 10-lb bag of potatoes weighs 10 lbs only if you buy it in the morning, would you be confused?

Let’s talk about camera flashes, in this case, the Nikon SB-800.

I was shooting a photo today with a Nikon D3 and an SB-800 flash manually set to 1/2-power. Deciding to add more flash, I upped the flash to full power. Surprise! The flash exposure remained the same. What’s going on and where’s my light?

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Don’t be the Ass in Assignment

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Here are a few examples of self-proclaimed “professional” photographers in action. All of these happened over the past two weeks at various photo assignments.

• Them: My hard drive crashed! What should I do?
  Me: Do you have a backup?
  Them: No.

Over a week later, after this person lost the previous job’s photos and had to carry their iMac back to the store to get a new drive installed and then had to re-install all their software:

  Me: Do have a back up of your new hard drive?
  Them: No.

 

• Them: My camera battery died!
  Me: Don’t you carry a spare?
  Them: No, because I’ve never needed one before.
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Canada Dry rights grab

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Canada Dry Motts is currently running a photo contest (“Art of Refreshment Photo Contest”) which seems to be only about getting free pictures for their advertising and marketing. You’d think that after all these years, with all the negative publicity other similar contests have garnered, companies would have learned by now.

This contest trades on the names of some famous artists who did ads for the beverage product over the past 50 years. Funny it doesn’t mention if any of these artists worked for free.

Canada Dry Motts is claiming all rights, exclusively, for all eternity, for every single photo entered in this contest. Even if a photo doesn’t win, the photographer has lost all rights to their submitted photo forever. Does that say “rights grab” and “we need free pictures to build up our library”?
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Film Festival thoughts

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The 34th annual Toronto Film Festival has come to an end.

A few things got better, some things got worse and most stayed the same (i.e. bad). One might think that after 34 years, the event could get it right.

What got better

• The main red carpet area was greatly enhanced:

No more TV crews in the background.

The arrival area was lit with just enough light to shoot late-night arrivals without having a jet-black background. Plus, the light was even daylight balanced. In previous years, night events were very dark, lit only by the existing one or two orange street lights. I suspect the new lighting was meant for the event’s own TV needs and not for photographers.

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Many Returns

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Over the past two months, I’ve had the experience of trying to sell some used photo equipment online.

Most professional photographers try to keep up with technology by upgrading whenever a new tool comes out. Many photo businesses have to stay current to remain competitive.
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Beginner’s Guide To Pricing Photography

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This very long and meandering post is intended for new photographers. It outlines some general concepts behind setting a price on photography services.

 

Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons.

– Woody Allen

 

First rule: Never give a price over the phone or off the top of your head.

Second rule: You’re running a business. You’re supposed to make money by charging more than your costs.

Third rule: Like all businesses, you tell your customers what your services cost, not the other way around.

Fourth rule: Never base your prices on Cost + Profit Margin. Always base your prices on value to the customer. Charge for what you know, not for what you do.
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