freelancing

Yellow Brick Road Photography

No Comments

Queen Elizabeth II watches the 151st running of The Queen’s Plate horse race in Toronto, Canada, 04 July 2010. With the passing of the Queen and the accession of Prince Charles to the throne, the race will become The King’s Plate.

This is another view-from-my-office photo.

Most photography web sites are about equipment. I’m referring to photography web sites not photographer web sites. Such photography sites write about gear because it’s quick and easy.

There are some web sites that offer photography advice and instruction. But these “nuts and bolts” sites are superficial and intended for beginners. Quick bites of junk food. Tastes good for the few minutes you’re consuming it.

Continue reading →

Hiding Photographers

1 Comment

An obvious group of photographers, 09 September 2014.

And just for fun, here’s the reverse angle:

British actress Keira Knightley at the Toronto Film Festival, 09 September 2014.

 

A Toronto dentist recently told me that when he graduated from dental school in the mid-1970s, there were about 1,300 dentists in Toronto. He said that number has since increased at least 600%.

When he opened his own practice in Toronto, there was one other dental office within a one-block radius of his office. Today there are eight other dental offices within that same one-block radius and those eight dental businesses collectively employ about 18 dentists.
Continue reading →

Copyright Phishing Scam

No Comments

Today I received this message through my contact form:

Name: John

Email: JohnBowles@xero.com

Message:

Hello,

Your website or a website that your organization hosts is violating the
copyrighted images owned by our company (xero Inc.).

Take a look at this report with the hyperlinks to our images you utilized at
www.warrentoda.com and our previous publication to find the proof of our
copyrights.

Download it now and check this out for yourself:

https://storage.googleapis.com/ . . .[redacted] . . .

I do think that you deliberately violated our legal rights under 17 U.S.C. Sec.
101 et seq. and could be liable for statutory damage as high as $150,000 as set
forth in Sec. 504 (c)(2) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (”DMCA”)
therein.

This letter is official notification. I seek the removal of the infringing
materials described above. Take note as a service provider, the DMCA requires
you to eliminate and/or disable access to the infringing content upon receipt of
this letter. If you do not stop the utilization of the aforementioned
copyrighted materials a law suit can be started against you.

I do have a strong faith belief that utilization of the copyrighted materials
referenced above as presumably infringing is not authorized by the copyright
owner, its agent, or the law.

I declare, under consequence of perjury, that the information in this
notification is accurate and hereby affirm that I am permitted to act on behalf
of the owner of an exclusive right that is presumably infringed.

Very truly yours,
John Bowles
Legal Officer
xero, Inc.

xero.com

12/06/2021

Continue reading →

By The Hour

2 Comments

Another basketball photo because I seem to shoot a lot of basketball. This fisheye photo was shot mostly to amuse myself while waiting for the game to start.

Imagine if a restaurant charged for its meals based only on the time it takes to prepare the food. What if clothes were priced based only on the time it took to sew that piece of clothing? How about a grocery store that priced by the hour? For example, you get all the groceries you can grab for a rate of, say, $200/hour.
Continue reading →

Purchasing Photo Gear in December

No Comments

I rarely photograph US college sports but this is a men’s basketball game between Harvard University and the University of Buffalo. It was shot for, you guessed it, the Basketball Hall of Fame.

This picture has nothing to do with this post. It’s just another view-from-my-office photo.

Are you thinking of buying new photo gear or other expensive business items? If so, December offers a couple of tax benefits.

Many businesses, especially sole proprietorships, have their fiscal year match the calendar year because it makes doing your income tax easier. If this describes you then December purchases might be beneficial.
Continue reading →

Procuring Photography

No Comments

Another view-from-my-office photo. I was photographing a parade a few days ago and lots of people came out just to watch me work :-)

Someone this week asked for a quote to photograph “a one day corporate business event” they were hosting on a specific date “at a downtown Toronto location.” No further information was provided.

The person used a Gmail address with a rather silly username instead of a business email address. Surely an organization big enough to host a “corporate business event” would have its own company address.
Continue reading →

Refurbished products can keep your wallet happy

3 Comments

Refurbish: to repair and clean equipment so that its condition is like new.

 

Photographers like buying new equipment and that equipment is often quite expensive. What you may not know is that many manufacturers sell refurbished or demo products at a discount.

Nikon Canada used to have a semi-secret mailing list selling demo and refurbished camera gear. While Nikon does continue to sell some refurbished and demo products at its head office in Mississauga, it seems that some refurbished camera gear is also sold through Henry’s. Many camera stores also sell demo products.

Nikon USA has a site for refurbished products but the prices aren’t very good. Canon USA and Canon Canada also sell refurbished products but the discounts aren’t the greatest.
Continue reading →

css.php