This guy sure is busy:
He buys his eyeglasses in eastern USA.
Public Relations Photography
This past weekend’s Globe and Mail newspaper, like many of its weekday editions, had several half-page and full-page advertisements that weren’t directly selling anything:
Who would spend up to $75,000 for a full-page ad (link to PDF) that’s not a hard-sell ad?
Universities, colleges and various non-profit organizations.
Why do they do this?
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Licensing Terms for Photography
A long post about some general licensing terms a professional photographer needs to know.
Although licensing affects pricing, this post has little to do with pricing photography.
These terms are mostly for corporate photographers. Licensing terms for retail photography may be different. Advertising photography will often have more exact terms concerning specific types of usage. Book publishing usually has terms that deal with edition and revision rights, language rights, electronic rights and location rights.
The obligatory but important disclaimer: I am not a lawyer but I have photographed many lawyers. The following is intended for your general information. It is foolish to think that any of the following is absolutely true or totally accurate.
The use of any of the following terms does not form a complete contract. There is much more that needs to be included. The devil is always in the details.
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Editorial Sports Photography Is Dead
If you’re thinking of becoming an editorial sports photographer, don’t.
Or at least first read this 2015 interview with five veteran sports photographers.
This short article describes what has happened over the past dozen years in editorial sports photography.
Basically, the deal is, editorial sports photography is completely dead as a market for a photographer to make even a modest living. Dead. Kaput. Over. Flatlined. The best action photographers in the world, who freelanced or were staffers at the major sports magazines, are all out of work . . .
– Robert Seale, photographer
Didn’t See That Coming
Why didn’t the customer accept your quote? Was it too expensive for them? Did they find a better photographer? What did you forget to do? What did you not foresee?
• In February this year, a municipality requested a photo quote for an upcoming economic report. I sent a quote and heard nothing for a few days. Was my price too high? What didn’t they like?
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Fishing For Dollars
If your photography business uses PayPal then you should’ve received this notice:
PayPal must give the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) all your PayPal business information. This includes all your transactions between January 1, 2014, and November 10, 2017. People with personal PayPal accounts are not included.
Clearly this is a fishing expedition. The CRA is casting a wide net to find tax cheats.
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Visualizing A Better Story
A potential customer asked for “action pictures” of their employees. What do the employees do at this financial company? They sit all day long and tap away at their computers.
Five weeks ago, I photographed at an office which was an entire floor of employees quietly typing inside beige cubicles. I was also recently at a healthcare company’s warehouse-sized call centre that was wall-to-wall cubicles of employees talking on telephones while they typed on computer keyboards.
Even at a tech company’s office, which is well-known for its fun decor and in-office perks, the employees sat quietly at tables tapping away at their laptops. (This tech company office had no landline phones except for the receptionist. When I stood in this office, the only sound I heard was that plastic clicky sound from keyboards.)
So where’s all the action?
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