Splitting a Photographer

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Splitting Time

Sometimes a photographer might be asked to split up a work day into non-consecutive hours. This can happen with weddings, business conferences and other full-day events where the customer wants the photographer to cover only certain parts of the event. The customer usually expects the photographer not to charge for any downtime.

For example:

• A bride might want the photographer to cover her afternoon wedding ceremony from 1:00pm to 2:30pm and the evening dinner from 6:00pm to 10:00pm. The photographer would then have a 3-1/2 hour split in their day.

• A business conference organizer might want the photographer to cover the opening speeches from 9:00am to 10:30am, a keynote presentation from 1:00pm to 2:00pm and an evening reception from 6:00pm to 8:00pm. In this case, the photographer has two blocks of downtime.

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In the Twinkle of an Eye

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They may be the tiniest details in a portrait but they’re possibly the most important. Yet many photographers don’t understand catchlights.

You may not need catchlights in every portrait. The most famous portrait, the Mona Lisa, doesn’t have catchlights:

Unlike the Mona Lisa, many of Leonardo da Vinci’s other portraits have catchlights.

But catchlights are very important in a business portrait. Catchlights bring attention to the eyes which are the most important facial feature for conveying emotion.
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Perpetually Yours

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You expect the customer to stop using an image when the photo usage license expires. This means, for example, a photo licensed for one annual report can’t be reused in any other annual reports. Already-printed copies of that one annual report can still be distributed.

But what about photos licensed for online use?

You can licence a photo for a specific time period online and then have it removed after the license has ended. This is common practice for photos used on a company’s home page and for pictures used for advertising.

But often a corporate or editorial customer will want to leave a photo online after the licence has expired rather than deleting the web article, news story, or Tweet that contained the photo.
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Choose Better Conference Photography

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When your company is planning a business conference, workshop or similar event, the question of photography may come up. Conference photography is important because it can be used for your social media, a post-event newsletter, a press release, your annual report and for marketing next year’s event.

You might think that you can get an employee to do the photography because they have a cell-phone camera. But if you decide to go this route instead of hiring a professional photographer, don’t pat yourself on the back.
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I Do Declare

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This shouldn’t come as a surprise but, when you do your annual income tax, you have to declare all your business income. It doesn’t matter whether customers pay by cash, cheque or credit card. You have to report all of it.

Business income from customers in other countries must also be declared on your Canadian income tax.

Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) recently sent a federal court order to payment processor Square Canada to turn over information on its Canadian sellers who annually processed at least $20,000 in the past five years. The Globe and Mail reported that this is “part of an ongoing effort by the CRA to crack down on tax avoiders.”

This has been happening for many years in the US with Square, PayPal, and all other third-party electronic payment processors. Every electronic payment processor in the US has to report to the Internal Revenue Service anyone whose payment volume annually exceeds $20,000 and 200 transactions.

The CRA is concerned about self-employed people and those who get paid in cash.

Always keep proper invoices, receipts, and bank statements to prove your income and expenses.

 

A Taxing Situation

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It’s tax time and many folks are at least thinking about doing their income tax. Professional photographers might want to refresh their knowledge of allowable business expenses.

This list of business expenses should provide a starting point for completing tax form T2125.

This is only a starting point because “you can deduct any reasonable current expense you paid or will have to pay to earn business income.”

“Reasonable” is not defined in (tax) law but it has been shaped through Canada Revenue Agency rulings and technical interpretations. If your tax situation is even slightly complex, a good accountant can come in handy.

 

Life in the Slow Lane

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Most photographers go through a slow period, or two, during the year. Perhaps it’s the time from Christmas to the end of January or maybe it’s during a summer month. It depends on what type of photography you do. So what should a photographer do during a slow period?

What not to do

• Don’t panic (too much).

• Don’t use a slow period to catch up on your TV viewing.

• Don’t buy new gear. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that if you buy a new camera or lens, you’ll get more business. New gear won’t help.

• Don’t have a fire sale. Unlike a retail store, photographers don’t have marked-up merchandise on their store shelves that can be discounted. You have only time on your “store shelf” and, unlike a tangible product, time can’t be restocked.

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