Toronto editorial and portrait photographer

Is your business ready for its close up?

February 16, 2015 No Comments

When a business spends tens of thousands of dollars on a full-page newspaper ad, why would it spend $0 on the photography for that ad? With the company image at stake, why would a national company get an amateur to do a quick snapshot with a cell phone?

The Globe and Mail today published an ad supplement about franchising. The online version isn’t quite the same as the print version but it does have many of the same photos. The back cover of the print version has a full-page ad for a large pet care company. The amateur point-and-shoot photo missed the purpose of the business and it also missed everything needed in good photography.

What readers don’t know is that some “normal” sections of a newspaper are also advertorials produced by the ad department and/or outsourced to freelancers. This includes sections for new cars, new homes, gardening, education, investing, travel and any other “special section.” I spent almost two decades at a Toronto daily newspaper and was involved with many advertising supplements.
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Don’t Discount Yourself

August 31, 2014 No Comments

[Added December 2016: the company seems to have gone out of business.]

A ~~newspaper article in The Province reports on a~~ new Vancouver-based company offering customers the chance to book last-minute photo sessions at discounted prices. The idea is simple: photographers are, in theory, willing to offer discounts to fill empty slots in their schedules, and the company acts as a middleman, connecting customers with these last-minute deals.

At first glance, this might seem like a win-win situation. The customer gets a discount, and the photographer fills an empty slot. However, a closer examination suggests that the real winner here might be the company itself. (For fun, check out who’s behind this business.)

While last-minute discounts might work for amateur photographers, part-time photographers with day jobs, and those who practice dump-and-run photography (more on this later), it’s a poor strategy for professionals. In fact, it’s similar to why discount platforms like Groupon can be bad for photographers.
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Check Your Focus

August 22, 2014 No Comments

When pricing a photo assignment or negotiating with a potential customer, the photographer’s frame of mind matters a lot. The photographer could be thinking along the lines of, “If I get this job, I’ll make $4,000,” or they might be thinking, “If I don’t get this job, I’ll make nothing.”

The former train of thought (being “promotion focused”) is about trying to maximize gains. The latter (being “prevention focused”) is about trying to minimize risk and prevent loss.

Overall, neither type of focus is better than the other and we often switch from one to the other depending on the circumstances. But research has shown that when pricing or negotiating, being promotion focused tends to lead to better outcomes (e.g. earn more when selling or pay less when buying).
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Braking for photography

August 2, 2014 No Comments

Have you been shopping for car tires recently?

The cost of new tires for my car, here in Toronto, ranges from $80 to $220 each. The higher priced tire is almost triple that of the cheaper tire. What’s the difference between the two?

The more expensive tire is made better, handles better and lasts longer. Another key difference is that more expensive tires stop quicker than cheaper tires. Better quality tires have, by design, better braking performance.

Higher priced photography also has, by design, better braking performance. High quality photography will stop people’s wandering eyes faster and get their attention quicker. Getting attention for your business is the goal of corporate photography.

If potential customers are speeding through your web site, zipping past your newspaper or magazine advertisements, or not bothering to slow down to read your content, then you might need to improve the braking performance of your marketing materials by using better photography.

Canadian photographers and spam

June 24, 2014 No Comments

In a few days, on July 1, 2014, Canada’s new anti-spam law comes into effect. It will probably affect many professional photographers.

Two things to remember: (i) the law is brand new and nothing has been tested in court, and (ii) I’m not a lawyer.

Basically, the law states that a business cannot send a commercial electronic message without having the recipient’s prior consent.

What’s a “commercial electronic message”?
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Use You Clues

June 9, 2014 No Comments

When a customer is searching for a photographer, they don’t just look for pretty pictures on a web site and the lowest price. Instead, they’re looking for clues that a particular photographer is worth hiring at whatever price they might charge. The customer is looking for value which is quite different from low price.

Every professional photographer pretty much uses the same camera equipment, same computer and same software. Most photographers can, more or less, shoot the same pictures although this can vary by a huge margin. So how do you increase your value to the customer?

You have to offer something that customers can’t get from any other photographer. And what can’t they get from any other photographer?
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Lines of Sight

marketing