hiring a photographer

What photographers need you to know

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Many clients may already know these things but here’s some information that photographers need you to know (in no particular order):

• When a photographer doesn’t answer the phone right away or doesn’t respond immediately to your e-mail, it usually means they’re busy on a job. The photographer is not ignoring you. Some photography can run all day or longer. We devote 100% of our attention to the client and job at hand. Please leave a message. Your call really is important to us.

• Depending on your proposed photo project, it might take from 30 minutes to several days to produce a full and proper photo estimate. Photographers cannot give an off-the-cuff or ballpark price because it’s meaningless. We have to figure out every step of the proposed work before completing the estimate. This benefits you. We put everything in writing. This benefits you.
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Defining Professional

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We’re all amateurs. It’s just that some of us are more professional about it than others.

– George Carlin, comedian

 

Professional photographer: Earns a living from photography. Consistently produces quality pictures to suit their customers’ needs. Stands behind their work and takes responsibility for their actions.

Amateur photographer: Has another day job. Produces pictures to please themselves. Has nothing at stake and nothing to lose.

 

Professionals are predictable. Amateurs are not.

An amateur practices until they get it right. A professional practices until they can’t get it wrong.

An amateur might know how to fix mistakes. A professional knows how to avoid them.

An amateur has to be good once-in-a-while. A professional has to be good every time.

An amateur is judged by their best photo. A professional is judged by their worst.

People don’t expect much from an amateur but they expect everything from a professional.

 

If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.

– Nathan Gilkarov, economist and philosopher

 

Hiring for dummies

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There are many staff jobs available for editors and writers but none for photographers. 

Well, almost none.

The only photo jobs are those for department store portrait studios, baby photographers and school photographers. These three are always looking for photographers which tends to indicate the quality of these jobs.

• There’s a new business magazine about to start up in Toronto. It has full-time paid job opportunities for editors, writers, designers and web people. What’s missing? Photographers.
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Annual Report Mistake

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Earlier this year, the director of communications of a Toronto corporation requested a photo quote for a dozen business portraits for its upcoming annual report. The organization needed a portrait of its CEO and each board member. I sent a quote for the photography but never got the job.
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Value of experience

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You get paid to do what others can’t or won’t do. Maybe they don’t have the time, maybe they don’t have the tools or maybe they don’t have the know-how. In any case, if someone can do what you do, they won’t pay you to do the same thing.

This means that a professional photographer should have better tools, better production values and better abilities and more creativity than their competition and even their customers. But this is not always the case.

An amateur photographer, and maybe even a customer, might own the same or better tools than a professional photographer. An amateur might have the same creativity and ability as a professional.
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Reality Check

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The following quotes are from a web forum used by art directors, marketing and public relations people, web designers, and other marketing “experts”. The topic was: how much to pay a professional photographer for business portraits to be used on a business web site.
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Simple is more complex

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Since 2005, Facebook has been modifying its privacy controls for its users. But each round of “improvements” created more problems, more confusion, and less privacy.

Yesterday, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg addressed these concerns in a Washington Post op-ed column.

Zuckerberg wrote, “There needs to be a simpler way to control your information. In the coming weeks, we will add privacy controls that are much simpler to use.” (The link is here but beware that the Washington Post makes it difficult to get free access). A Post reporter’s comments are here.
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