Why your company needs a photojournalist

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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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Business Headshots at Conferences

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Are you planning a business conference, workshop or other corporate event? Would you like to add more value?

Arrange to have a business portrait studio at your next event. People could 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, assistant(s) and, perhaps, makeup artist.
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Breakfast of Champions

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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.

 

Driving Emotions

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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)

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To Your Credit

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If you accept mobile, point-of-sale credit card payments by using something like Square, there are a couple things you need to know.

Goodbye headphone jack

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 is that credit card readers currently 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.
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Taking the long way

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Been sitting at your computer for a while? Need some exercise?

A long time ago, a Yellow Pages advertisement used the slogan “Let your fingers do the walking.” Now you can let your fingers do your exercising by scrolling for a mile. (That web page is a mile long: 6,082,560 pixels at 96 ppi (monitor resolution) = 5,280 feet = 1 mile).

Twenty years ago, web-page scrolling was considered bad design maybe because most folks used slow dial-up Internet and page content had to be kept minimal. As broadband Internet became the norm, longer pages, and scrolling, became popular. Five or six years ago, scrolling went out of fashion maybe because it took too much effort or because people were in too much of a hurry to go below the fold. Today, scrolling is trendy again probably because scrolling is easier and more preferred on mobile devices.

Both the photo pages and blog pages on my web site have several long pages with lots of text. Scrolling is often required on my site. This is intentional and the reasons are:
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Nikon Canada Repairs

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Nikon Canada implemented a repair tracking system, two or three years ago, that lets you track your equipment while it’s being serviced. This system tells you when your gear has entered the repair process, when it’s being repaired, and when the work has been completed. It will also tell you the cost. Sometimes you might be required to pre-approve a repair.

This system doesn’t provide up-to-the-minute or up-to-the-hour tracking. It seems to be up-to-the-day but it can vary a lot.

The problem is that the web link to check your repair status has always been wrong. Nikon Canada knows this but it’s never been corrected.
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