Portraits that mean business

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Q: What’s the difference between an Executive Portrait and a Business Portrait?

A: About $500.   (It’s an old joke but sometimes it’s true. Read on.)

Business Portrait:

This is usually a head-and-shoulders photo against a plain background. Eye contact with the camera is important and a bit of a smile never hurts. A plain background, while not absolutely necessary, won’t distract the viewer. It’s also easy for any other photographer to duplicate a plain background in any future business portraits of other employees, should the need arise.

This type of portrait should never look like a passport picture, a driver’s license photo or a family snapshot. On the other hand, depending on the company, a business portrait doesn’t have to be a serious suit-and-tie picture.
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Better Public Relations Photography

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What’s the difference between a photographer and a photojournalist?

A photographer takes pictures of nouns whereas a photojournalist, or news photographer, takes pictures of verbs.

If you remember way back to grade school: a noun is a part of speech that’s used to name a person, place or thing. A verb expresses an action or state of being, and is the most important part of a sentence.

The average photographer usually takes pictures of animals, nature, architecture and still life. Nothing wrong with that but all nouns.

Photojournalists take pictures of people expressing or enacting such things as anger, joy, sadness, happiness, victory, protest, excitement and more. These are images of people engaged in some sort of physical or emotional state of being. Verbs.
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Help your photography customers buy

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Some companies have reacted to the current recession by circling the wagons, laying-off staff and raising prices. It’s about protecting themselves and putting the company’s self-interests first.

If customers aren’t buying, then raising prices to compensate for low sales volume only closes the door even more. Raising the price of a product or service can often boost sales, but not during a recession.

Close doors or open new paths?

Let’s say you own a restaurant and people aren’t coming into your place as often as before. Folks are either going to a lower-priced fast food outlet or they’re eating at home more often. What can you do?
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How to Save Money When Hiring a Commercial Photographer

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Which is more important to your business: saving money or making money?

While everyone loves “free”, that usually isn’t even on the menu. For businesses that are considering hiring a photographer, here are a few suggestions that will help save money.

First, congratulations! Hiring a photographer to help with your business, corporate or commercial photography needs means that you know the value of having a professional photographer create original images for your web site, public relations or other marketing needs.

But what if your budget doesn’t quite match your plans?
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Best and Worst Jobs

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The Wall Street Journal published the Best and Worst Jobs in the USA, based on a recently-released 2009 study. The list is based on five criteria: environment, income, employment outlook, physical demands and stress.

The methodology and the criteria used are limited and subjective. There really is no way to produce an accurate and objective list since best and worst are relative terms.

Take this list with a grain of salt and a big dose of humour. Just for fun, see where your job ranks.

 

Small Business Oath

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“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.”

– attributed to Aristotle

A few years ago, when dealing with a large national media corporation, I pointed out that the company’s conduct was the exact opposite of its mission statement. The corporate lawyer laughed and said, “That [mission statement] is just for the public, it’s not for us.”

A code of conduct may not be needed by a small business because the owner is usually close to the “front lines”. So there’s little room for bad behaviour. But sadly, a big business can have plenty of such room.

Small business owners may want to create their own code of conduct, not just to impress their customers but also to remind themselves of why they are in business. Maybe something like:

As a small business owner, my purpose is to serve the customer without whom my business has no reason to exist. My business may be small in size but my pursuit of excellence shall be boundless. I promise:

• To run my business with integrity and the highest ethical standards.

• To treat customers fairly, honestly and with respect.

• To be responsible for my actions and accountable to my customers.

• To acknowledge and then, to the best of my abilities, repair any mistakes that I might make.

• To protect the interests of each customer as if they were my own.

• To improve myself and my business for the benefit of my customers.

• To be a good citizen of my community.

 

Name of the times

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It’s now the second decade of the 21st century, so stop using the phrase “digital camera.” It’s redundant. All cameras are digital, film is the exception. Feel free to use the term “film camera” when talking about a camera that uses film. Otherwise it’s just “camera.” No more “DSLR” either.

Cameras no longer have motor drives. Nothing is being driven or pulled through a digital camera.

Cameras no longer shoot “frames per second” because there are no more frames, just exposures.

Digital cameras do not videotape, tape or film anything because there’s no videotape or film in a digital camera. Digital cameras simply record video.
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