Editorial photography,
Corporate photography,
Public relations photography

About 39 years and that includes 15 years with a daily newspaper and 18 years with two wire services.

Editorial work has included lots of business portraits, custom and corporate magazine photography, photos for annual reports and public relations, and corporate event coverage.

Commercial assignments have included retail ads, posters, book covers, calendars, video and record album covers, new houses, and a few resort hotels photographed for travel agencies.

I know that the photos I produce must serve your business first and foremost. You need photos that work to enhance your brand and add credibility to your business message.

Having photographed an emperor, a king, a queen, princes, princesses, a Dalai Lama, prime ministers, presidents and international diplomats, I know how to conduct myself properly.

For better or worse, I sweat the small details in every picture so you never have to.

Decades of newspaper experience has taught me how to produce a good picture of anything, anytime, anywhere.

Good technique is important but nothing tops human interest. I know how to find and enhance human interest in almost any situation. Real people doing real things is the number one attention-getter.

Quality photography is not just about making pretty pictures, it's also knowing how to edit properly. Good editing comes from an understanding of photography and knowing what the customer needs. Successful business pictures don't just happen by themselves.

On-location editorial photography for use in media handouts, public relations, web sites, social media and other marketing materials.

Corporate photography for business portraits, conferences, annual reports, public relations and corporate magazines.

Photography of homes and small buildings for builders, designers and property owners. If you think about it, this is a type of corporate photography or public relations photography.

Editorial photography is for informational or journalistic purposes. It's used in newspapers, magazines, books and many web sites. Editorial photography is about providing information rather than trying to sell something. Corporate photographers often do editorial photography.

Commercial photography is used to sell or promote a product or service. This photography includes advertising, publicity, public relations, marketing materials, product packaging, etc. This broad category includes both corporate and advertising photography.

Retail photography is purchased directly by the consumer and is for personal use. This includes family portraits, family events, school portraits, weddings and pet portraits.

The main difference between these categories is the use of the photography. For example:

• A newspaper hires a photographer to do a portrait of a company executive for a newspaper story about that executive. This is editorial photography.
• A business hires a photographer to do a portrait of its executive for the company's annual report. This is corporate photography and may also be considered commercial photography in a broad sense.
• An ad agency hires a photographer to do a portrait of a company executive for one of the company's upcoming advertisements. This is commercial photography.
• The executive hires a photographer to do a family portrait of herself and her children. This is retail photography.

A professional quality photo isn't created just by owning an expensive camera. It comes from the professional photographer's technical skill, creative talent and experience.

A professional can be relied upon to always get the best pictures. This helps you minimize risk which can save you time and money.

A professional photographer can usually anticipate a problem and then deal with it before it becomes a problem. This can save you time and money.

The right photographer is not the cheapest one. It's the photographer who understands what you need and then delivers as promised.

An amateur knows how to push the shutter button on a camera. But a professional knows when to push that button. This is a subtle but very important difference.

A professional has a lot at stake on every job while an amateur has nothing to lose. Can your business afford to have an amateur practice photography at your expense?

Stock pictures say nothing about your company except that you're cheap.

People are visual, newspapers and magazines are visual, the Web is visual. Authentic photos of your business are a must. These pictures give your customers a sense of with whom they're doing business.

A real photo can instantly answer a customer's many questions about your product or your company. A genuine photo really can be worth a thousand words. Stock pictures can't do any of this.

Using stock pictures, or no photos at all, can create questions or doubts about your business. This will leave customer wallets closed.

Only authentic photography can tell your story to your customers.

I've worked in studios on and off for 20 years. When I worked in a studio, most of my photography was done on location. Go figure.

So now I specialize in location photography and will bring the studio to you. I was a newspaper's go-to photographer whenever studio-quality location lighting was needed. I was a retail chain's photographer for all their newspaper ads when location lighting was required.

Yes, $2M commercial liability insurance and this can be enhanced to suit your needs.

Every job is different. A photographer needs lots of information to provide you with an an estimate or quote. If a photographer asks you only when and where, then you've got the wrong photographer.

Not all of these will be applicable but a photographer may need to know:

• How will the images be used? (Newspaper ad, company web site, annual report, book cover, etc.)
• Where will the photos be used? (Locally, nationally, worldwide)
• How long will the photos be used? (Once, months, years, forever)
• What message or idea are you trying to convey?
• Is there a style or look that you want or don't want?
• Should a portrait use a studio-type backdrop or will a location serve as the background?
• For event coverage, about how many pictures do you need? (handful, armful, bucketful)
• For events, do you have specific coverage needs?

If you let the photographer know your budget, the photographer can let you know what's possible. For example, if your budget is $600, you might get two hours of conference coverage. But if your budget is $2,000, you could get all-day coverage.

You will never, ever get $2,000 worth of photography for $600.

The short answer is that the price depends on the exact details of the photography and each job is different.

The long answer is that the price is usually based on two things:

• The photography fee plus expenses, and
• Picture usage

Some photographers will lump everything together into one number and others will itemize everything.

The photography fee compensates the photographer for their time, experience, talent, assignment logistics, etc.

Expenses cover the cost of assistants, stylists, equipment rentals, consumables, etc.

Picture usage (also called "licensing") compensates the photographer for the use or value of the pictures. This fee depends on where, when and why the pictures are to be used.

Licensing is the world standard for intellectual property such as books, movies, music, software, artwork, etc.

Two everyday examples of licensing:

• It costs one price to license one copy of software. But if everyone in your office needs to use the same software, then the licensing fee goes up. More usage means a higher fee.
• Buying a song for personal use is inexpensive. But if you want to use that song in a movie soundtrack then the price goes up. Commercial use means a higher fee.

Charging by the hour means:

• Work that requires a lot of setup time would cost more. (Customer loses).
• A photo used only on a business card might cost the same as a photo that's used in full-page magazine ads. (Customer loses).
• Customers become fixated on hourly rates and shop only price. (Customer loses).
• The value of photography is measured by time. (Everyone loses).
• Some customers expect to pay only for the time spent pushing the shutter button. (Photographer loses).

Charging by the hour puts the focus on the work process. Charging by usage highlights the finished work which is what really matters.

Department store and grocery store portraits are done at a loss. Cheap portraits are a loss leader to get you into the store to buy groceries, clothing, gardening supplies or whatever else. It's all about volume not one-to-one customer service.

Do the math. Low price needs high volume. High volume is always offset with minimal customer service and minimal product care.

As a photography specialist, I produce custom photographs at your convenience, at your location, at your specifications, at your deadline, to suit your needs.

Why risk your business image to a department store minimum-wage clerk?

In April 2013, Sears (USA) and Walmart (USA) respectively closed all or some of their portrait studios. The company that operated these in-store studios has been annually losing tens of millions of dollars. Talk about being a loss leader.

Yes! As long as everyone is photographed with the same lighting setup, in the same location, at a similar time.

For example, rather than having me come to your office five times to photograph one person each time, you could save a thousand dollars by having all five people photographed at the same time.

In the old days, film was sent to a lab for processing into negatives or transparencies and maybe also proofs or contact sheets. That cost extra.

Today all digital files need to be processed into "digital negatives." Post-processing is not retouching.

A raw image file is the first draft. A post-processed image is the finished product.

Depending on the situation, post-processing might take a few minutes per picture or much longer. Now multiply that by the total number of pictures. This often adds up to many hours of computer work. That's why there's an extra charge.

Basic post-processing includes corrections for crop, colour, contrast, brightness, perspective, sharpness and proper caption information.

If you require special keywording or captioning to suit your business needs or archiving system, let us know and we will do it for you. This will save you time.

Pushing a camera shutter button only starts a picture, it doesn't finish it.

Unfortunately credit lines can't pay for cameras, computers, software, utility bills, groceries or anything else.

While some may think that a credit line has promotional value to a photographer, that's rarely the case. But this is not to say that photo credits can be left out. Credit lines (Moral Rights) are actually the law in Canada.

No. I'm an independent contractor not an employee. Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) requires me to have all receipts to verify the expenses listed on tax form T2125. The CRA does not require any customer to have any of these receipts. Yes, some expenses are marked up. Yes, this is a standard practice of all businesses.

Like many other businesses, all professional photographers condition their work on a contract or a set of "Terms and Conditions" (T&C). Here's a look at my general T&C.

Like all other creators of intellectual property, such as architects, designers, illustrators, writers, musicians, painters, performers, sculptors, filmmakers and software engineers, a photographer can – and must – control the use of their work. This is copyright.

If a photographer loses the copyright to their images, they lose not only the use of those pictures but also all future income from them. Loss of future income equals loss of business success.

Maintaining copyright is not about artistic ego. It's about business survival and profitability for which all businesses strive. A photographer who doesn't care about copyright is not a professional.

Everyone, including your business, can benefit from copyright and other intellectual property rights.

Physical ownership doesn't equal copyright ownership. As you already know, when you download software or music, you own the digital file but not the copyright to that software or music. When you buy a DVD movie, you own the plastic disc but not the movie copyright. When you buy a book, you own the paper but not the copyright to the book. Photography is the same.

There's a reason why a farmer keeps the cow and sells only the milk. Unless otherwise agreed, we retain copyright ownership in everything we create and license usage rights to the customer. Licensing is the world standard practice for all intellectual property.

Yes! If you later decide that you'd like to use a photo in some other way or for a longer period of time than in the original license, just let us know and we'd be happy to negotiate a change to your existing license.

This is always very expensive, as "all rights" includes at least 50 years of editorial rights in all countries, advertising use in all media in all countries, worldwide TV and movie rights, book publishing rights in all languages, product rights, and resale and sub-licensing rights.

If models were used in the photos, their fees may also have to be increased to compensate them for the increased photo usage.

Buying "all rights" is like buying a hotel when you just need a room for a week. It's like buying a car when you really only need a weekend rental.

Very rarely, if ever, would a customer need to own all copyrights. However it's possible to get exclusive rights for a certain period of time.

Generally medium to darker tones, ideally solid colours, no bold patterns. If no jacket is worn, wear a long-sleeved shirt. Here's a page with many business portrait tips.

Always bring alternative clothing choices.