freelancing

That’s not my job

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Photography may be how you make money but photography is not your job.

Your job as a professional photographer is to make the world know you exist. Well okay, maybe not the entire world but at least your little corner of it.

Your job is to attract attention and get people to trust you. People only do business with someone they know or trust.

Your job is to help customers achieve what their goals. Retail customers usually want the photographer to create good memories for them but not necessarily accurate memories. Business and corporate customers want the photographer to help their company get favourable attention.

Your job is to understand the customer and offer better solutions.

Some jobs are difficult. Thank goodness photography isn’t one of them. :-)

 

Cost Of Progress

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Between 2001 and 2010, I bought six Nikon SLR digital cameras: two D1X’s, two D2X’s, one D3 and one D700. Total cost for these cameras was about $30,300 plus about $3,000 for memory cards, $480 for card readers and many thousands more ($21,000 to $26,000) for computers and software.

For comparison, from 1991 to 2000, I bought six Nikon SLR film cameras: two F4E’s, one F90X, two F5’s and one F100. Total cost for these was about $14,000 and no memory cards, no card readers, no computers and no software.

Yes, digital cameras are fantastic and the technical quality of digital photography is far better than that of film.

Although the equipment cost of running a photo business is at least triple that from ten years ago, (not to mention all the other expenses), fees paid by editorial publications have gone down and the rights-grabbing has gone up.

Interesting blog article by Paul Melcher on this topic.

 

From photojournalism to corporate photographer

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“We don’t hire you because of your beautiful, wonderful, terrific photographs,” says corporate communications director Greg Thompson. He goes on to explain that a company hires a corporate photographer to be the “solution to their business problem.”

In a video interview (and shown below) by journalist Stanley Leary, Thompson offers some advice for photographers who are trying to transition from photojournalism to corporate photography.

“It’s about how you do the job, not the job you do.”

 

HST for photographers

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Added: Much of this changed in 2012. Please see this government web page.

 

Photographers in Ontario and British Columbia (B.C.) know that their new Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) kicks in on July 1. The HST is called the “value-added tax” which sounds like a fast-food combo meal: for just a dollar more, you can up-size your tax to our new value-added tax.

Federal government page for the HST has lots of (confusing) information.

The HST will benefit large businesses and government. Gee, guess who got left out? The consumer. Business will save billions of dollars annually, the government will earn billions more in taxes, and consumers will pay billions more each year. Notice any kind of pattern here?
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Clean up your act

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Photographers, how often do you bathe? No, not wash yourself but how often do you clean your photo equipment?

After a particularly dusty, sandy or otherwise dirty job, I make it a point to clean all my cameras, lenses, laptop, flashes, light stands and other gear by using compressed air, isopropyl alcohol and sometimes an ammonia-based cleaner.

Depending on the item being cleaned, cotton or paper towels, lint-free wipes, a nylon brush, camel-hair brush and even a toothbrush can come in handy. This is also a good time to check that all the little screws in your equipment are tight.
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Paying Attention

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While working as a photographers’ representative for over three decades, Tony Luna said, in his 2006 book “How to Grow as a Photographer” (Allworth Press), that while he was showing portfolios to creative directors, art directors, photo buyers and various other editors, none of these people ever asked about a photographer’s university degree or college diploma. All that mattered was whether or not the photographer could produce good work on time and on budget.

This led Luna to point out: “Paying your tuition is not the same as paying your dues.”

 

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