Why Not To Lower Prices In A Poor Economy

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Architectural photographer Brad Feinknopf explains why photographers should not lower their prices in a slow economy:

Please, do not let a poor economy bring the industry of photography to its knees by merely bending to market pressure. (…) We, as architectural photographers, bring great value and please do recognize that! (…) we are assisting our clients to sell their wares, to generate new business, to help them win awards and sometimes, even get them published. Without architectural photography, the publications would merely be words, as would be the websites. They do need us and, believe it or not, most value what we do. We need to value it, too. Do not forget the value you bring and demand adequate compensation for that value.

– Brad Feinknopf

It’s worth reading his entire blog post to understand the clothing store analogy that he uses. Although he refers to architectural photographers, the analogy Feinknopf uses also applies to other professional photographers.

 

Increased Earnings

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It’s said that there are three general types of media that a company can use to spread its business message:

Paid: a company buys an advertisement.
Owned: a company self-publishes on its web site, newsletter, etc.
Earned: a company gets free coverage in the news media.

Paid and owned are easy to understand and implement although most companies under-utilize their web site. In these two cases, the company controls the message but both suffer from credibility issues especially with paid media.

Paid advertising only increases brand recognition. It does nothing for brand acceptance (i.e. trust).
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Chequing and Saving

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Some professional photographers may still have to write cheques to pay bills, models, stylists, assistants, etc. When your customized business cheques run out, there’s no need to buy refills through your bank. Purchasing cheques from a third-party printer can be much less expensive.

There are a few companies in Canada that produce cheques which meet the same standards and have the same security features as the cheques purchased through your bank.

Although cheques are becoming obsolete, if you need custom business cheques, consider ordering from a third-party printer, (very often another small business), rather than automatically buying from your bank. I recently purchased a bundle of cheques for 53% less cost than from my bank.

 

Firewire 800 Card Reader

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Since Firewire 800 card readers are no longer sold by Sandisk or Lexar, even though many photographers still use FW800, it may be difficult to find a suitable speedy card reader. Apple’s painfully slow rollout of USB 3 also doesn’t help.

For photographers who need a FW800 card reader, there’s good news and bad news:

The good news is that there’s one company which still sells a FW800 card reader. The card reader, which is sold in Canada, is small, reasonably priced and, when in stock, delivered quickly by Canada Post.

The bad news is that the card reader works only with UDMA compact flash cards. However, it won’t work with first-generation UDMA cards such as the Sandisk Extreme III (30MB/s). So if a photographer uses older compact flash cards or other formats such as SD cards, it will still be necessary to carry another card reader.

 

Penniless Canadians

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Starting tomorrow on February 4, the Canadian Mint will no longer be distributing pennies. The once copper but now mostly steel coins will be taken out of circulation, melted down and the metal recycled. The last one-cent coins which were minted on May 4, 2012, cost 1.6¢ each to make.

After tomorrow, banks will not distribute pennies to their customers but the public can still use the pennies they have. Businesses which accept cash are being asked to change their pricing policy to accommodate our new “penny-less” world.
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Opinionated Portraits

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A quote from US portrait/fashion photographer Richard Avedon in his book In The American West:

A portrait is not a likeness. The moment an emotion or fact is transformed into a photograph it is no longer a fact but an opinion.

When a portrait photographer chooses lighting, lens, camera angle and the moment to click the camera shutter then it’s the photographer’s opinion that matters most. This is the “opinion” that Avedon refers to in the above quote.

But for commercial portrait photographers, when the subject looks at their proofs and chooses their favourite picture then it’s the subject’s opinion that matters most.

When a viewer looks at a finished portrait, it’s the viewer’s opinion that matters most. The viewer gets the last word.

This is why, for a commercial portrait such as a business portrait, the first two opinions have to work together to help positively influence the third and final opinion. A business portrait has to be done with care to create the desired response in the mind of the viewer.

 

Photography for Press Releases

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If a company’s press release gets published but no one reads it, did that company get its money’s worth?

News editors know that a photo can increase readership of a story by up to 300%. In fact, just any picture can boost readership by at least 34%. Readership studies have always confirmed that the first thing a viewer notices on a page is a photograph. The last thing they do is read the text.

If a press release is published without a photo, it may be the last thing a reader sees on the page.

A photograph is the entry point to a page and the invitation to read the article. Studies have proven that including a photo with the text will increase both reader interest and comprehension in that article. The corollary is that readers feel more involved with a story when it’s accompanied by a photo.
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