More than just cost

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It seems that the mantra of most businesses is “cut costs”. Many companies are not just concerned about controlling their costs but also about reducing costs to the absolute minimum. These companies want to spend less but still, somehow, earn more.

Most companies view a professional photographer as an expense. So they immediately think that photography is a cost like any other and it has to be minimized. This is the barrier that a commercial or corporate photographer has to get around. There are two ways to do this:

1) Be the cheapest photographer in town.

2) Stop being seen as an expense but rather as an investment.

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Consistent Business Portraits

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A potential corporate client called to say they were looking for a photographer who could match the look of their previous business portraits. The company needed some new employees photographed in the same style as its existing pictures.

Matching previous business portraits is a common request. It shows the company understands the importance of being consistent in its corporate communications. Consistency shows stability which enhances corporate credibility.

It’s usually easy to match the look of previous business portraits and most professional photographers can do it. But just to be sure, I asked the company to provide samples of its previous portraits.

Oiy!
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Failing a class

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It’s not even necessary to read the news story. The picture says it all.

In a Grade 2 class photo, all the students are grouped together in the centre. Except one. A student in a wheelchair is off to the side. The child’s father said he cried when he saw the photo.

The picture is not just thoughtless, it’s also bad photography. It shows how not to do a group photo. It shows what happens when a photographer doesn’t know what they’re doing. It shows what happens when a photographer or school portrait company, in this case, Lifetouch, is too busy being fast and cheap.

Lifetouch says, “Our school photographers take their role in preserving memories seriously” and “Our school photographers are committed to making each child feel special and valued.” It seems the company failed this class.
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Prisoners or Pictures?

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When did “photograph” become a bad word?

When writing online about their pictures, some folks will use statements like, “I captured this on…”, “this was captured at…”, “my favourite capture of the week”, “sunset captures from my vacation”, “holiday captures”, “best wedding captures”, “creative pet captures” and “candid kid captures.”

On sites where viewers can leave comments to posted pictures, people often write things such as “Nice capture!”, “Cool capture!”, “How did you capture that?”, “Lovely detail in that capture” and “I love the feel of this capture.”

There are many sites that offer tips on how to capture a winning photo, how to capture the perfect picture and how to capture your children.
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Fear Photography

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As a photographer, which would you prefer: lots of low-paying customers or only a few high-paying customers? For example:

Photographer A shoots three business portraits every week at $100 each. His annual gross revenue is 3 X 52 X $100 = $15,600.

Photographer B does only one business portrait every other week at $600. Her annual gross is 26 X $600 = $15,600.

Which is better: low price with high volume or high price with low volume?
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Getting On Base

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A recent article in a Canadian photo magazine gives advice on how to become a professional sports photographer. The article talks about the excitement of being at sports events and blasting away at ten frames per second. A look at the author’s web site shows many fantastic photos . . . of weddings and portraits.

The author’s advice for wannabe sports photographers is to call sports events and ask for a free “photo pass.” If necessary, the photographer should offer free photos in exchange for said pass. Later, when the photographer has gained some experience, they can sell pictures to the event and enter the exciting world of sports photography.

This information is wrong.
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Back in the darkroom

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Over the past few years, almost all photography-related software has taken a turn for the worse. Such software has adopted a dark-coloured user interface along with either reverse type (white text on a dark background), dark text on a dark background, or even grey text on a grey background.

Some software companies don’t seem to understand how our eyes work. Since reading a computer monitor is known to be more difficult than reading a piece of paper, one would think that software companies would take this into consideration.
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