The business side of photography
Job priorities for running your photo business:
1. You’re a photographer.
No that’s wrong.
When Canada legalized cannabis in 2018, everyone in the industry was expecting a windfall. But that expectation soon faded.
More than three years after the federal government legalized cannabis, there are more than 870 licensed cultivators, processors and sellers in Canada. But despite piqued interest following legalization, high supply and low demand have led to billions of dollars in writedowns and millions of grams of unsold marijuana.
(. . .)
Ontario has seen, in particular, a very large increase in the number of retail stores over the last 24 months, and because of that, the overall (market share) each store on average is able to get continues to decline . . .There are 425 cannabis stores and 421 Tim Hortons across Toronto.
This is another view-from-my-office photo.
Most photography web sites are about equipment. I’m referring to photography web sites not photographer web sites. Such photography sites write about gear because it’s quick and easy.
There are some web sites that offer photography advice and instruction. But these “nuts and bolts” sites are superficial and intended for beginners. Quick bites of junk food. Tastes good for the few minutes you’re consuming it.
This is another view-from-my-office photo.
Would you pay $1,000 for a business headshot?
The Wall Street Journal published an article about the value of professionally done business headshots for people seeking a career boost. (This alternative link doesn’t have the photos included in the original article but that’s actually a good thing. The glaring irony of the original article about the value of headshots is that the headshot examples are rather plain or poorly done.)
A Toronto dentist recently told me that when he graduated from dental school in the mid-1970s, there were about 1,300 dentists in Toronto. He said that number has since increased at least 600%.
When he opened his own practice in Toronto, there was one other dental office within a one-block radius of his office. Today there are eight other dental offices within that same one-block radius and those eight dental businesses collectively employ about 18 dentists.
People sometimes confuse photo retouching with the generic term “airbrushing.” A person will often ask that their picture be airbrushed when they really mean they want technical errors fixed (e.g. too light, too dark, bad colour, etc.), distractions removed, the background changed, a building straightened, etc.
Someone sent a business portrait of themselves and asked for it be retouched. The person wanted the brick wall background replaced with “something serious or dramatic.”
What exactly does that mean?
