The business side of photography
(With apologies to Charles Dickens)
It was the best of houses, it was the worst of houses, it was the age of beauty, it was the age of squalor, it was the epoch of style, it was the epoch of simplicity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of disrepair . . .
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Just wanted to point out that the Canadian government has posted its 2019 kilometric rates for car travel by government employees.
These rates are the bare minimum of what photographers should be charging for use of their vehicle.
Your situation may require you to charge more. For example, it costs me about 85¢/km to drive my car. This is much higher than the government’s 57¢/km (including tax) for Ontario.
Please check the date of this article because it contains information that may become out of date. Tax regulations, sales tax rules, copyright laws and privacy laws can change from time to time. Always check with proper government sources for up-to-date information.
You might be thinking that you can save a few dollars by hiring a good enough photographer. After all, good enough is okay, right?
US phone company AT&T did a series of commercials about hiring just okay people (and here and here).
But would this apply to photographers?
Many companies shop price first because they assume that all photographers are the same. They wrongly think that it’s the camera that makes the photos.
Hiring an experienced, professional photographer is about finding a photographer who has enough experience with customers like yourself so they can understand your photo needs and can do the work confidently.
Professional photographers should have enough experience to know what the risks might be and what problems might arise and then know how to minimize those risks and prevent those problems from happening. This level of experience is necessary to make your photography project a success.
Experienced photographers charge more because they know more and can help you more. Or would you rather save a few dollars by having an okay photographer “figure it out” at your expense?
You might someday have the need to photograph banknotes, coins or postage stamps. Do it wrong and you or your customer could get a visit from the RCMP or be on the receiving end of a lawsuit. Copying currency and stamps isn’t just about counterfeiting, it’s also a copyright issue.
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Do you have a business? Then you’re involved in marketing.
Do you have a business web site? You’re involved in marketing.
Is your company active on social media? Yes, more marketing.
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If you’re like me, you probably buy too much photo gear. Not so much cameras and lenses but things like bags, light modifiers and various accessories. Here are some of my purchases in 2018:
I’ve been meaning to get a half-decent cart for some time. A homemade dolly-style cart with a bright yellow mat ($55 in parts and plywood from Home Depot in 1985) has served me very well. An over-priced Tri-Kart 800 is something I regret buying about 18 years ago because it was of limited use to me. But many local TV crews use the Tri-Kart.
This year I bought a RocknRoller R12RT. It’s pretty good but it takes up extra space because it’s not small and it weighs 33 lb. Fully extended, the R12RT won’t fit in some elevators.
A TV news article reports on a Canadian photographer who didn’t bother to read the contract when submitting one of his favourite photos to a cheap, royalty-free, stock agency. Apparently he was only thinking about the easy money.
His photo was used on 500,000 calendars and greeting cards.
He earned US$1.88.
Other photographers would probably laugh at this person because this is not news. It’s well known that cheap stock photo agencies have been taking advantage of unsuspecting photographers for 20 years.
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