The business side of photography
Following on the previous post that photography is much more influential than text, here’s a quote that might be familiar to some:
In a world which is expanding day by day, literature is no longer enough . . . Our busy age does not always have time to read, but it always has time to look.
Those words are from French writer Theophile Gautier who was commenting on the power of visual arts including the new art of photography. The quote is from 1858.
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More proof about the importance and power of photography especially when it comes to corporate image, portraits and public relations:
Words are about information. Pictures are about emotion. Emotion equals power.
Print folks … like to believe that words matter still. But, mostly, they don’t.
The people who put together TV newscasts, as well as the best news photographers, have known this truism for a long time, but they’ve kept mostly quiet about it. Perhaps they don’t want to hurt the feelings of their colleagues, who still vainly cling to the belief that the written word can move hearts and minds. But the fact remains that for voters, for citizens, words don’t matter nearly as much as pictures do.
– from author Warren Kinsella
Last year, Ranaan Katz, a minority co-owner of the NBA’s current championship team the Miami Heat filed a lawsuit against a blogger who was critical of Katz’ commercial real estate business.
Two weeks ago, Katz filed a copyright infringement suit against the same blogger for publishing an unflattering picture of him. The photo was apparently taken while Katz was standing courtside at a Miami Heat game. He’s also suing Google for refusing to remove the photo from the Web.
Katz is claiming that he owns the copyright to the picture without any further proof.
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A political party in Alberta launched its provincial election campaign by unveiling its new bus. As is popular with most political campaigns, the bus was wrapped to look like a gigantic billboard. But no one bothered to properly proof the final layout.
A photo of the party’s female leader was placed in a rather unfortunate position over the rear wheels of the bus.
After a day of negative attention and being laughed at, the party says it will replace the $10,000 wrap. That’s an expensive do-over.
(Edit: a week later, the party is still being laughed at.)
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What’s the difference between advertising and public relations?
The short answer is:
Advertising is bought from a media outlet’s sales department.
Public relations is received free from a media outlet’s news department.
Guess which one has more credibility?
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Earlier this week, a team of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab announced their development of an imaging system that can capture the equivalent of half a trillion pictures per second:
We have built an imaging solution that allows us to visualize propagation of light. The effective exposure time of each frame is two trillionths of a second and the resultant visualization depicts the movement of light at roughly half a trillion frames per second.
I received a copy of an e-mail today, originally sent from a graphic designer who is advising their client on how to hire a photographer to shoot a book cover portrait along with an environmental portrait and some publicity pictures.
Regarding the photographer, I have worked with several photographers in corporate communications & public relations situations and have some suggestions about the photo session for you to consider:
Look in the business section of the paper for photos of business people that look natural, then call that photographer and book a session with him or her. …
Rationale: using a photographer who is known to the media may give you a slight edge in getting publicity for your book. (If the photographer’s newspaper work shows the subjects looking natural, that means that s/he is good at putting people at ease, and you will get a better photo.) Also, the photographer may know of particular types of poses or shots that the papers like to use. The extra photos taken can be used on your website and in your marketing campaign, even on your bookmarks.
News photographers are mobile – they can come to you.
Their rationale is right on target. When a business needs pictures for press releases, media handouts or other types of publicity, the best photographer for the job is the one with direct news media experience, someone who has worked for a daily newspaper or wire service. This photographer’s experience is well worth the money.
