view from the office

Purchasing Photo Gear in December

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I rarely photograph US college sports but this is a men’s basketball game between Harvard University and the University of Buffalo. It was shot for, you guessed it, the Basketball Hall of Fame.

This picture has nothing to do with this post. It’s just another view-from-my-office photo.

Are you thinking of buying new photo gear or other expensive business items? If so, December offers a couple of tax benefits.

Many businesses, especially sole proprietorships, have their fiscal year match the calendar year because it makes doing your income tax easier. If this describes you then December purchases might be beneficial.
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Political Campaign Notes

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While photographing federal political leaders arriving for a debate in Gatineau, Quebec, on 11 October 2019, this was the view right behind the photo area. That’s a police boat on the Ottawa River.

This is another view-from-my-office photo.

It was obvious while photographing some of the federal election campaigns over the past two weeks that news media turnout has drastically dropped over the past three federal elections.
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The customer is right even when they’re not

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This photo has nothing to do with this post. It’s another view-from-my-office photo.

If you thought your home office was small or ugly, here is someone’s “vintage” 42-square-foot home office before it gets renovated. It has no functioning lights or heat. But it does have lots of nails in a wall, a very sloping floor and a sewage pipe in the corner. I didn’t ask about the dark red stains on the floor.

A small financial consulting company last week sent me four business portraits they wanted fixed. Another photographer shot these portraits three months ago and I don’t know why he or she didn’t fix the photos.
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Customer Photo Guidelines

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Another view-from-my-office photo taken during a tennis tournament, 11 August 2018. The approaching rain storm really did look like that. The sun (top-right-rear) was shining through the dark rain clouds.

British photographer Neil Turner wrote a post on his blog about customer expectations and customer-supplied photo guidelines.

Almost every commercial and PR client had a prepared guide that let you know what they wanted from a commissioned shoot and a few pointers of what they, or their end client, liked and didn’t like in their pictures. These ranged from really helpful pointers about what kind of clothing should be worn for portraits or whether or not images should have unfussy backgrounds through the obvious such as “images should be properly exposed” to the mildly bizarre “avoid any and all references to money”.

– Neil Turner

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