To Your Credit

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If you accept mobile, point-of-sale credit card payments by using something like Square, there are a couple things you need to know.

Goodbye headphone jack

Apple has removed the 3.5mm headphone jack from its new devices. Lenovo has also started doing this and it appears Samsung may do the same. The problem is that credit card readers currently use the headphone jack.

Sidenote / rant:   The reasons why Apple removed the headphone jack aren’t exactly what Apple tried to spin by saying it was an act of “courage.”

The move to the proprietary Lightning connector and the concurrent move to USB-C ports (which can accept proprietary restrictions) greatly increase Apple’s control of third-party devices that can connect with Apple products.

This move is expected to generate a lot of money for Apple since third-party manufacturers will have to pay for licensing, pay for Apple’s proprietary MFi chip and other components, and pay a royalty on each and every device they manufacture. By contrast, USB and 3.5mm audio connectors are royalty-free, OS-independent, device-independent and they fall outside of Apple’s control.
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Taking the long way

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Been sitting at your computer for a while? Need some exercise?

A long time ago, a Yellow Pages advertisement used the slogan “Let your fingers do the walking.” Now you can let your fingers do your exercising by scrolling for a mile. (That web page is a mile long: 6,082,560 pixels at 96 ppi (monitor resolution) = 5,280 feet = 1 mile).

Twenty years ago, web-page scrolling was considered bad design maybe because most folks used slow dial-up Internet and page content had to be kept minimal. As broadband Internet became the norm, longer pages, and scrolling, became popular. Five or six years ago, scrolling went out of fashion maybe because it took too much effort or because people were in too much of a hurry to go below the fold. Today, scrolling is trendy again probably because scrolling is easier and more preferred on mobile devices.

Both the photo pages and blog pages on my web site have several long pages with lots of text. Scrolling is often required on my site. This is intentional and the reasons are:
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Nikon Canada Repairs

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Nikon Canada implemented a repair tracking system, two or three years ago, that lets you track your equipment while it’s being serviced. This system tells you when your gear has entered the repair process, when it’s being repaired, and when the work has been completed. It will also tell you the cost. Sometimes you might be required to pre-approve a repair.

This system doesn’t provide up-to-the-minute or up-to-the-hour tracking. It seems to be up-to-the-day but it can vary a lot.

The problem is that the web link to check your repair status has always been wrong. Nikon Canada knows this but it’s never been corrected.
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The Photography Gig Economy

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You may have heard the trendy phrase “gig economy” which, I suppose, is the opposite of a job economy. Of course, if you’re a self-employed photographer, you’re probably laughing at the discovery of this “new” economy. Another laughable trendy phrase is the “sharing economy.”

In the old days, someone could have one job for their entire life but that is disappearing. Today, more and more people are self-employed and they freelance for a number of employers. A short-term job here, a temporary job there.

As every self-employed person will tell you, the problem is that freelancers fall through every crack in every labour law. No minimum wage, no set hours, no legal overtime, no guaranteed meal breaks, no sick pay, no holiday pay, no statutory holidays, no benefits, etc.

Canadian freelancers aren’t covered by any labour law. In fact, Canadian freelancers aren’t even guaranteed that they will get paid for their work.

A few days ago on October 27, 2016, New York City passed what could be a landmark new law in the USA. The so-called “Freelance Isn’t Free Act” will help protect freelancers from late-paying and non-paying customers.

Recognizing the shift toward the gig economy, a British MP yesterday called for a minimum wage for self-employed people. The United Kingdom already has a late payment law which helps freelancers collect on late payments [link to PDF].

The number of self-employed and freelancers is going nowhere but up (and here). And it will get worse.

Canada is doing nothing.

 

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 the same boxes of cereal on each store’s shelves. You might choose what cereal you want 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.

From 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. For 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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