Reputation Protection

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Earlier today, I received a panicked phone call from a photographer here in Toronto. He had lost some pictures on a memory card and had no idea what to do. His corporate client needed same-day delivery which he had promised.

This was the seventh time this year that a photographer has phoned or e-mailed asking for help to recover lost images.

Photographers, here’s the deal:

If you want to be a professional photographer, you MUST have recovery software. It’s not an option.

Data recovery software for memory cards has been available for at least eight years. There’s absolutely no excuse for not having this business-saving and face-saving software.

If you ever bought a pro memory card from Sandisk or Lexar in the past six years, (and why wouldn’t you have done this?), it came with free recovery software. But note that recovery software has to be kept up-to-date to recognize new raw formats.

Pro-level recovery software is no longer free. But it’s a cheap US $29 from PhotoRescue, which is probably the industry standard.

Today that $29 software saved an $800 job for a photographer. It also saved his reputation which is probably worth a lot more.

 

The Sport of Photography

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Chess, bridge, billiards, power-boating, hot-air ballooning, flying an airplane and dancing are among several activities that have been recognized by the International Olympic Committee as being a “sport”, although none are (yet) part of the Olympic Games.

From olympic.org :

If it is widely practised around the world and meets a number of criteria established by the IOC session, a recognised sport may be added to the Olympic programme on the recommendation of the IOC’s Olympic Programme Commission.

It’s high time that photography be recognized as a sport. It could even be in both the winter and summer games.

Photography is certainly widely-practised. It is one of the very few sports that can be played and enjoyed by people of any age, weight, height or sex, able-bodied or not.
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What’s in a name?

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As Shakespeare’s Juliet once pondered, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet.”

But is this really true? Can simply changing a name change someone’s opinion?

I was looking through an online catalogue of men’s winter coats. Some of the available colours included: clay, slub, cold steel, varsity, elm, smoke, wine, merlot, cabernet, ink, twilight and midnight.

I’m all for creativity but none of those are actually colours. Some are very ambiguous. What colour is twilight? Wine? Varsity? Slub??

Whatever happened to black, grey, red, blue, green, brown? What about dark blue, sky blue and light grey?

Is this just marketing gone overboard or can using more fashionable names help draw in customers and even justify higher prices?

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Wrong Number

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The good thing about Bell, the Canadian phone company, is that it serves as the perfect example of what not to do in business.

It appears that Bell has quietly dropped two of its fake fees, (sadly, it hasn’t dropped all of them). Through one of its sister companies, Bell actually referred to its fake fees as a “made-up fee”.

Bell is currently in the midst of class action lawsuits regarding its System Access fee (aka “government licensing fee”) and its 9-1-1 fee. Both of these cell phone fees were just recently cancelled, although in some areas, the fees may still linger for some unknown reason. Just to be fair, the two other cell carriers are also involved in the same lawsuits.

Why wouldn’t a business tell its customers that it has eliminated some fees and has thereby lowered prices? Read on.

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Corporate Photo Library

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I received an e-mail from the communications director of a large insurance company who’s thinking about creating a photo library of their key employees. He was looking not just for a price estimate but also suggestions on how to start this project. He realized that having an up-to-date photo archive would benefit his company many times over. However the communications director wasn’t sure if his company would even go for the idea.

Newspapers have long known the value of having their own photo library. Various levels of government and some universities also have photo archives. This is done for both public relations and historical purposes.

In today’s digital world, setting up and maintaining a photo archive is quite easy compared to the old film days. So why are many businesses so slow or hesitant to do this?
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Out Standing Out

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sports photographer

Does it feel like you’re working in a crowded market? Too much competition and not enough elbow space for you to grab the ball and run with it? How can you get the attention you deserve?

The easy answer is always, “Be different. Set yourself apart from the others.”

But the million dollar question is, how do you set yourself apart from the crowd? Do you have to be outstanding to stand out?
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Royal Pain

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I just finished three days of following Prince Charles and Camilla through Toronto and southern Ontario. The Royal couple are currently on an 11-day official visit to Canada.

My first thought is that this is a colossal waste of taxpayer money. I can’t imagine how many millions of dollars are being spent on this. Many events were not open to the general public and most media events were only for a handful of pre-selected media organizations.

However if you consider, or at least pretend, that this is a marketing or public relations event, then perhaps it might be money well-spent if it had been properly planned and executed. This applies to all marketing efforts and not just royal visits. The client, (in this particular case, the Canadian taxpayer), must get their money’s worth.

Why spend time and money promoting a product, service or brand when that effort is only half-assed or squandered? Why just go through the motions? Marketing success needs both media and public exposure. Otherwise it’s just a tree falling in the forest.
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