The business side of photography
Confucius was wrong when he said:
Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life.
Running a photography business consists of short moments of photography broken up by long periods of business. But those moments of photography make it worthwhile.
While photographers do need to make money, the need to create pictures may be more important. It’s not always about money.
Making money is a job. Making good pictures is an accomplishment.
Internet scams that target photographers have been around for years. Over the past couple of years, there’s another scam involving credit cards.
Posing as a customer, a scammer will ask to hire a photographer for an upcoming event but only if the photographer accepts credit cards. If the photographer agrees to the work, the “customer” will then mention that they also need to pay another event supplier who doesn’t take credit cards.
The scammer will offer to send extra money to the photographer which the photographer can use to pay that other supplier. To tempt the photographer, the scammer will promise the photographer a couple hundred dollars extra for their trouble.
The scammer will use a stolen credit card to pay the photographer’s fee, the other supplier’s fee and the extra money for the photographer’s trouble. The unsuspecting photographer will be told to pay the other supplier immediately – it’s urgent! – but only in cash through Western Union.
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The British Columbia Liberal Party recently hired a former photojournalist to photograph its leader, the current premier of that province. The party is heading towards a 2017 election.
The Wildrose Party of Alberta did the same thing a year ago by hiring (on a part-time basis) a freelance photojournalist.
Almost every photographer, hired by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to cover the Canadian Prime Minister, has been a working photojournalist.
In the first two cases, the photographers are paid by the provincial political party, not the taxpayers.
Political parties could save a lot of money by hiring the lowest-bidder-with-a-camera, by doing the photos themselves, or by not hiring a photographer at all. But these political parties know that they need authentic, story-telling photography to communicate their message. This is marketing 101.
(Added 2018: The Ontario Liberal party hired a freelance photojournalist to photograph the re-election campaign of the premier.)
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Are you planning a business conference, convention or other similar corporate event? Would you like to add more value?
At your next conference or convention, arrange to have a business portrait photo studio at your venue. Conference-goers could then get a new business headshot while they’re at your event.
This is not to be confused with those photo booths you might see at parties and other social events. A business portrait studio has no silly props, no crazy backgrounds. It’s a no-nonsense, business photo studio with photographer, editor and makeup artist. Conference delegates would get a first-rate, professional business headshot.
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A box of breakfast cereal might cost $5 and it could contain about a dozen servings. A restaurant breakfast might cost $15 and it would deliver exactly one serving (unless it’s an all-you-can-eat buffet breakfast :-) ).
A box of cereal is fast and cheap. This is good when it’s just you or you’re in a hurry.
A restaurant breakfast costs more but you can have whatever you want and it’s made to order. This type of breakfast is perfect when you’re trying to impress someone.
Stock pictures are like a box of cereal. Custom photography is like a restaurant breakfast.
Stock photos are fast and cheap. This is okay if your web site, brochure or other usage is only for yourself. But this is not okay if you need to make a good impression on someone such as your customers.
You wouldn’t serve a box of cereal at a business breakfast, so why would you serve stock pictures on your business web site?
There’s a saying that you should write to express, not to impress. But if you do a good job of expressing then that can lead to impressing.
The same thing applies to the corporate photography on your company’s web site. The pictures must first express something positive and genuine about your business. Only then do you have a chance of making a good impression and looking like a champion.
How often do you see a photo credit on a company’s press release pictures? Have you ever seen a credit line on a product photo?
For example, when you see a photo of a new car, supplied by the car manufacturer, there’s either no credit line or it simply names the car manufacturer that supplied the photo.
A few weeks ago, Ford Motor Company launched its advertising campaign for the 2017 Lincoln Continental. Newspapers like The Globe and Mail did their usual car review and included handout photos of the new car. But this time, the handout photos had a credit line. The November 10th print version of The Globe and Mail used:
(Photo – Annie Leibovitz / Ford)
If you accept mobile, point-of-sale credit card payments by using something like Square, there are a couple things you need to know:
• As you’ve probably heard, Apple has removed the 3.5mm headphone jack from its new devices. Lenovo has also started doing this and it appears Samsung may do the same. The problem caused by removing the headphone jack is that credit card readers, and many other devices, use the headphone jack.
Sidenote / rant: The reasons why Apple removed the headphone jack aren’t exactly what Apple tried to spin by saying it was an act of “courage.” The move to the proprietary Lightning connector and the concurrent move to USB-C ports (which can accept proprietary restrictions) greatly increase Apple’s control of third-party devices that can connect with Apple products.
This move is expected to generate a lot of money for Apple since third-party manufacturers will have to pay for licensing, pay for Apple’s proprietary MFi chip and other components, and pay a royalty on each and every device they manufacture. By contrast, USB and 3.5mm audio connectors are royalty-free, OS-independent, device-independent and they fall outside of Apple’s control.
