Professional Conference Photography

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A request came in this week for conference photography. This Toronto conference required the photographer to be onsite at an airport hotel for about 20 hours over two days. It seemed to be a routine event so I quoted my usual $1,800 per day or $3,600 for two days.

They turned me down. [Update: this conference, scheduled for late March, was cancelled due to the pandemic.]

I checked the hotel’s web site for the cost of its lowest priced coffee-break catering service for events ($18 per person). The conference web site showed that at least 245 people had registered. These numbers suggested that my $1,800 per day was about forty per cent the cost of a single coffee break ($4,400). Or to rephrase that, my two-day quote was $3,600 and the event’s estimated total cost for coffee and cookies was at least $17,000.
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Photo Gear Purchases 2019

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My annual look back at some of the photo purchases I made in 2019.

Think Tank Airport Security v3 roller

Think Tank Airport Security v3 roller. Earlier versions of this roller bag did not have a zippered laptop pocket. Photo from Think Tank Photo.

This is a well-made roller bag and most things about it are quite good except:
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By The Hour

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Another basketball photo because I seem to shoot a lot of basketball. This fisheye photo was shot mostly to amuse myself while waiting for the game to start.

Imagine if a restaurant charged for its meals based only on the time it takes to prepare the food. What if clothes were priced based only on the time it took to sew that piece of clothing? How about a grocery store that priced by the hour? For example, you get all the groceries you can grab for a rate of, say, $200/hour.
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Mugshot or Business Portrait

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A moment from the pre-game activities at a Toronto Raptors game a few days ago. The photo was taken with a 12mm fisheye lens and has nothing to do with this post.

Today I received a request from a small company to do a group photo. They wrote that their staff has changed and they needed an updated group photo of their seven employees.

The email said the group must be posed in a single row, everyone evenly spaced apart and no one overlapping the person next to them.
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Purchasing Photo Gear in December

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I rarely photograph US college sports but this is a men’s basketball game between Harvard University and the University of Buffalo. It was shot for, you guessed it, the Basketball Hall of Fame.

This picture has nothing to do with this post. It’s just another view-from-my-office photo.

Are you thinking of buying new photo gear or other expensive business items? If so, December offers a couple of tax benefits.

Many businesses, especially sole proprietorships, have their fiscal year match the calendar year because it makes doing your income tax easier. If this describes you then December purchases might be beneficial.
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Step by Step, Inch by Inch

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An old, partially submerged, iron scow (barge) is shown in June 2017 grounded in the Niagara River above the Horseshoe Falls. The boat had been lying on its side and lodged in this spot since 1918.

A couple weeks ago, the old iron scow stuck in the Niagara River above the falls made international news. The boat had been stuck in place since 1918 but a storm on October 31, 2019, dislodged it.

Most of the headlines were about the boat breaking free and moving closer to the edge of the Horseshoe Falls. All very dramatic. Niagara Falls . . . step by step, inch by inch:
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Accurately Remove Objects From Photos

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This shows a house before renovation. The vehicles are a visual distraction and one car covers a small portion of the home.

I do real estate photography for construction companies that build or renovate homes in the greater Toronto area. Often I photograph a home before construction has begun and then return weeks or months later to picture the finished work.
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