hiring a photographer

Choosing cheap photography

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Two examples of bad photography decisions:

• The City of Toronto’s web site has a page promoting its new Pan Am BMX course that was used in the recent 2015 Pan Am Games. The photo shows a number of female competitors lined up at the starting gate.

The problems with the photo are that the event shown is not from the Pan Am Games, the track is not the city’s new BMX course and the location isn’t even in Toronto. Oops.

Some sports web sites in South America assumed this really was a Pan Am photo and used it in their news articles about the Pan Am BMX event. To be fair, those South American web sites were probably confused since the Toronto Pan Am Games itself initially used the same handout(?) picture on its BMX pages. Oops.
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Giving away the store

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If you were at a pizza store and you bought one slice, would you expect to get the entire pizza? If you were at a bar and you paid for one glass of wine, would you then ask for the entire bottle? If you purchased one ticket to the cineplex, do you demand to stay and watch every movie that’s playing?

Strangely enough, when some customers hire a photographer, they expect (or demand) to get every picture that was shot.

Why might a customer ask for every picture?

• Sometime in the past, another photographer once gave the customer every picture and now the customer (incorrectly) thinks that this is the normal practice.

• The customer thinks the photographer didn’t choose the best images and they’re worried that they’re missing out on something (i.e. FOMO).

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Professional Value

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Two days ago, the Victoria News, in British Columbia, published this:

The page was taken down the next day, just minutes after news radio station CKNW asked the newspaper for comment.

It’s bad enough to lay off news photographers, which many newspapers are doing these days. In fact, the Victoria News laid off its very experienced staff photographer last year. But it’s sheer stupidity when a large, international, for-profit company asks people to work for free.
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Go Pro

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A corporate client in Toronto recently said that they’ve always used amateur photos taken by their employees and cheap stock pictures for their annual report. But this year, the company wanted something better so they hired a professional photographer (me).

I overheard the annual report designer telling the client that a professional photographer isn’t just about better quality equipment. It’s also about the fact that “a professional photographer knows what to shoot. They see things that you don’t even think about.”

The company’s 2014 annual report isn’t finished yet but the client is “extremely happy with the pictures” and “can’t wait to get them published.”

This post isn’t about me bragging about my photography. It’s about the proven fact that professional photos are more effective than amateur pictures when it comes to earning reader attention and communicating a message.
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Photography production value

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Let’s say you’re planning to have live music at your business conference or other corporate event. You might hire a soloist, a duo, a trio, a quartet or maybe even a symphony orchestra.

The music from each type of ensemble will sound different depending on the amount of musicians and instruments available. A soloist will never sound like a quartet, a duo will never sound like a symphony. It goes without saying that the bigger the production, the higher the price.

The exact same thing applies to photography.
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Photoburgers

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Do you enjoy eating a hamburger from a fast-food restaurant?

If you’re a teenager, you probably do. But if you’re older then you probably don’t.

The reason is that younger people generally don’t have sophisticated tastes or they haven’t experienced the hamburgers at higher quality restaurants. If they did visit a better restaurant, they would realize what a good hamburger tastes like.

A Big Mac costs about $5, a burger from a five-star hotel or restaurant might cost $35 or more, and other restaurants charge somewhere in between. But when you buy food, what’s more important, the cost or the taste?
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Getting what you paid for

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For the past few years, a Canadian TV network would hire five photographers to cover an annual live event that it hosted and broadcasted. The photos were used for its web sites, media handouts and its annual report. The photographers were each paid $2,000 to cover the four-hour event.

The photo procedure for the event is that full-resolution pictures, for third-party news media use, are posted online within 15 minutes after it happens. This occurs continuously throughout the duration of the event. Lower resolution images are also quickly posted to the TV network’s various web sites. Two photo editors and a card runner are hired to do this work.

Last year, someone at the TV network decided to save some money by hiring only two photographers and then filling the gap by using three of its employees. The TV network rented three pro cameras, three pro lenses and one pro flash for these employees to use. The cameras were set to auto-everything.
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