rant

Filter Your Vision

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I’ve been wearing eyeglasses for about 25 years and need new glasses again :-(  . Over the past 12 years or so, my average cost has been about $360 per pair of prescription glasses, (averaged from seven pairs purchased from five different stores).

If I had chosen name-brand designer frames, the cost would have been higher; if I had selected the free frames, the cost would’ve been lower. (My sister used to work for the largest eyeglass retail chain in the country. She said their free frames cost less than $2 each.)

Some eyeglass stores (aka “optical stores” or “vision stores”) frequently have a two-for-one sale. So if a pair of glasses cost me, on average, about $360, then a two-for-one sale should mean that I can get two pairs for about $360, right?
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Scandal-free photography

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Toronto’s public transit system, the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC), suffered a few front-page scandals over the past several weeks. And yes, there’s another front-page scandal today.

The current scandal is not that a married TTC executive, who was living a double life, got his “long-time female companion” a $50,000 contract with a TTC design consultant.

The real scandal is that the woman, described as being “an amateur photographer”, was paid “at least” $50,000 over ten months to take pictures at public meetings and of roads where new streetcar tracks might be built.

$50,000.00 for pictures of meetings and roads.

$50,000.00 for an amateur photographer.

Attention TTC: Since the woman has been, uh, “released” from her contract, I’m available for your photography needs. Not only do I charge less than $50,000, but here’s a bonus I’ll throw in: I guarantee I won’t end up in a front-page scandal.

 

What’s in a category?

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For income tax purposes, the Canadian federal government uses a set of Industry Codes to categorize all jobs.

Not sure if this means anything but the government puts “Photography” in the same category as “Janitorial Services” and “Miscellaneous Building or Dwelling Services.”

Apparently the job of photography is not a profession but “Online Advice” is. Photography is not a business service but “Chimney Cleaner” is. A photographer isn’t even similar to “Authors” or “Artists.”

However it’s nice to see that the government is keeping up with the times. It has new industry codes for the jobs of “Online Escorts” and “Online Psychic.”

 

Name of the times

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It’s now the second decade of the 21st century, so stop using the phrase “digital camera.” It’s redundant. All cameras are digital, film is the exception. Feel free to use the term “film camera” when talking about a camera that uses film. Otherwise it’s just “camera.” No more “DSLR” either.

Cameras no longer have motor drives. Nothing is being driven or pulled through a digital camera.

Cameras no longer shoot “frames per second” because there are no more frames, just exposures.

Digital cameras do not videotape, tape or film anything because there’s no videotape or film in a digital camera. Digital cameras simply record video.
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Cost of digital photography

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Who started this myth that digital photography is free or cheap?

Last week, two similar sounds passed by my ears:

(i) While chatting with a writer whom I haven’t seen in many years, he remarked that I must be happy with digital photography because it’s free.

(ii) After giving a quote to a potential client, he replied, “Why is it so expensive? You use a digital camera, right? It shouldn’t really cost anything.”

Photographers, feel free to make a loud and heavy moaning sound.

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Wrong Number

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The good thing about Bell, the Canadian phone company, is that it serves as the perfect example of what not to do in business.

It appears that Bell has quietly dropped two of its fake fees, (sadly, it hasn’t dropped all of them). Through one of its sister companies, Bell actually referred to its fake fees as a “made-up fee”.

Bell is currently in the midst of class action lawsuits regarding its System Access fee (aka “government licensing fee”) and its 9-1-1 fee. Both of these cell phone fees were just recently cancelled, although in some areas, the fees may still linger for some unknown reason. Just to be fair, the two other cell carriers are also involved in the same lawsuits.

Why wouldn’t a business tell its customers that it has eliminated some fees and has thereby lowered prices? Read on.

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Royal Pain

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I just finished three days of following Prince Charles and Camilla through Toronto and southern Ontario. The Royal couple are currently on an 11-day official visit to Canada.

My first thought is that this is a colossal waste of taxpayer money. I can’t imagine how many millions of dollars are being spent on this. Many events were not open to the general public and most media events were only for a handful of pre-selected media organizations.

However if you consider, or at least pretend, that this is a marketing or public relations event, then perhaps it might be money well-spent if it had been properly planned and executed. This applies to all marketing efforts and not just royal visits. The client, (in this particular case, the Canadian taxpayer), must get their money’s worth.

Why spend time and money promoting a product, service or brand when that effort is only half-assed or squandered? Why just go through the motions? Marketing success needs both media and public exposure. Otherwise it’s just a tree falling in the forest.
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