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The not so deep freeze

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Today in Toronto, it was about -8˚C. A normal winter day. My cameras worked just fine outdoors. My flashes worked as normal. After less than an hour outside, I reached into an inside coat pocket to retrieve my cell phone and my iPhone 5 said:

Of course, it probably meant to say that it needed to warm up. The phone was completely useless. Thank goodness it wasn’t an emergency.

It turns out that an iPhone doesn’t like to work below 0˚C. Not even this will help.

I know that cold weather affects all batteries and can freeze LCDs. But I don’t recall having any previous cell phone freeze on me. My digital cameras have never failed even at -20˚C. The iPhone seems to be my only electronic device that fails when the temperature is less than ideal.

Perhaps today’s smartphones are wimps or maybe they’re just turning us into wimps.

 

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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If it’s on the Internet…

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Let’s say a photographer owns the copyright to a photo. Without any other agreement in place, if that photo was published in a newspaper, would the photographer still own the copyright to that picture? Of course they would.

What if the photo was used in a book, on a billboard or on TV? Would the photographer still own the copyright? Yes they would. The medium in which the picture is used doesn’t affect copyright. Surely this is obvious.

So why do some folks think that a picture “found” on the Internet would have no copyright?
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Do you suffer from PAS?

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PAS – Picture Avoidance Syndrome

In a 13-1/2 minute talk, portrait photographer Peter Hurley and psychologist Anna Rowley speak about PAS, which many of us may have. They suggest how someone can overcome their fear of being in front of a camera by changing their relationship with their physical appearance.

There’s often a divide between the way we see ourselves and the way the world sees us. This division can be magnified when a camera is pointed at us. When sitting for a business headshot or any other type of portrait, we may think of who we’re not rather than who we are.

Self-perception defines our level of self-worth which can affect how others see us, or at least how we think they see us, which can create a fear of being photographed. It starts with what, or who, we see in a mirror and how we respond to that mirror.

 

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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Conference Notes

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There are many online articles offering tips to photographers on how to photograph a business conference. The authors of these articles usually give such wonderful photo advice as: bring a spare battery, carry an extra memory card, take pictures of the people speaking, etc.

For something completely different, may I humbly offer a few suggestions to conference organizers who plan on hiring a photographer to cover their event. Not only am I a photographer who has covered many conferences and conventions, both local, national and international, but I’m also someone who has helped organize a few small conferences.

Conference photography is of secondary importance compared to the conference itself and your attendees. But a few changes can make the photography better and more effective.
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