For Photographers

Before The Flood

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(This post has nothing to do with photography).

US actor and producer Leonardo DiCaprio (L) and US director Fisher Stevens arrive for a screening of their documentary “Before The Flood” during the 41st annual Toronto International Film Festival in Toronto, Canada, 09 September 2016.

National Geographic yesterday released “Before The Flood”, its documentary about climate change and how it affects our environment.

If you have 95 minutes, give it a view:

Edit: It appears that National Geographic has removed the documentary from the Web. It’s been taken down from its own site as well. Apparently the “free” movie was a limited time offer.

More information is on the film’s web site.

 

Photo Pricing Software

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Let’s say you want to buy a box of breakfast cereal. You can go to any number of grocery stores and see, pretty much, the same boxes of cereal on each store’s shelves. You might choose based on which box of cereal looks best and its price.

This is exactly like buying stock photography but instead of grocery stores, you visit web sites. You choose a photo based on which stock picture looks best and its price. You’re still choosing a product (a photo) from a store shelf (a web site).

Let’s say you want breakfast. You can go to any number of restaurants that serve a wide variety of breakfasts. What should this breakfast cost you? Well, you can’t answer without knowing what you want for breakfast, who will prepare it for you, how it will be served and where all of this will happen. Is it a fast-food breakfast at a takeout store or a more elegant breakfast at a five-star hotel?

This is exactly like buying assignment photography. Just as every restaurant breakfast is different, every photo assignment is different. You hire a photographer to create a custom product.
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Recognizing Younger Customers

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Maybe it’s my imagination but it seems that the average age of my business customers is going down.

In the late 1980s through the 1990s, most of my business clients were in their 40s to 60s. In the late 1990s to mid-2000s, the average customer was in their 30s to 50s. In the past six or seven years, it seems my average customer was in their mid-20s to mid-40s.

This is not to be confused with the fact that the overall workforce is slowly getting older [US numbers here]. And hopefully this is not about me getting old.

My customers include a wide variety of businesses from technology to healthcare to car manufacturing, from ad agencies to public relations companies, from universities to municipal governments, from small local companies to large multi-nationals. In general, the people I work with or those whom I photograph are mysteriously getting younger:
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Using Craftsmanship In Your Photography

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One of the good things about being a photographer is that you get to make pictures. There are many other occupations where people do things but they don’t make anything.

But as digital technology progresses, we move further away from working with our hands and further from actually making photographs. When I was your age, photos didn’t just pop out of a camera or a computer, they were birthed in a darkroom :–)

Old-time photographers will tell you that working in a darkroom was therapeutic, stress-relieving and magical. You were hands-on with your photography as you created your finished pictures. Note those two ingredients: working with your hands and being creative.

With today’s cameras, you get to be hands-on with a computer keyboard. This is certainly faster, easier and less messy than being in a darkroom but it’s not as beneficial as when you got your hands wet. We don’t really make photographs today but rather we process digital data.
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Toronto Film Festival 2016

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Another ridiculously long post. If you’re not somehow connected to, or involved with, the Toronto International Film Festival then it might be better to skip this post. I’m just trying to reach a certain audience.

tl;dr:
• It took 41 years but Roy Thomson Hall finally got lights; they weren’t set up right. Red carpet made narrower. More advertising added. Photo pit made smaller and still left open to the rain. Most fans stuck far away from event. Publicists in the way.

• Princess of Wales Theatre still without lights at night. Still overcrowded. Publicists in the way.

• Press conferences are okay. Publicists occasionally in the way.

• The four-day street festival still a waste of time.

• From a photographer’s point of view, the Toronto Film Festival has improved very slowly over the past 41 years. Although some years, it regresses.

• From an onlooker’s point of view, the film festival is an overly big, confusing mess of films. It has lost sight of its purpose. A major overhaul is needed.

Reduce the numbers of venues to a handful. Cut the number of films by at least 50%. Eliminate many of the film categories. Have red carpets only at Roy Thomson and the Princess of Wales. Be more fan-friendly. (This year’s festival was 397 films, in 16 categories, scattered across 28 screens).
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Ministry of Photography

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cop21a

Opening day at the COP21 Summit in Paris, France, 29 November 2015.

These conference photos were shot by France’s Ministère de l’Environnement, de l’Energie et de la Mer (MEDDE) photographer. Unlike Canada, these French government photos were put into the public domain.

Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) is being criticized for paying a photographer $6,662 to take pictures of its minister and her staff while they were in Paris for the COP21 climate summit late last year. [The French government’s COP21 site.]
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License professional photographers?

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In the absence of any regulation, anybody can sound like they are eminently qualified to do the job, and they very often aren’t.

– Graham Clarke

For the past three years, the Ontario government has been working toward licensing and regulating home inspectors. Bill 165, Licensed Home Inspectors Act, was introduced earlier this year.

The provincial government announced yesterday that it expects the law to pass and go into effect this fall.

Until this regulation comes in, anybody that can pick up a clipboard can become a home inspector.

– Len Inkster

The proposed law intends to ensure that home inspectors are qualified, insured, use proper contracts and deliver at least certain standard results.
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