Credit where credit is due.

While Sears has not so far handled my watch destruction well (see previous post of a few days ago), Apple has come through once more with shining colours.

I took my iPhone 3Gs in to the Apple Store on Saturday. Cracks had started to appear on the bottom. Was that covered by warranty, I wondered?

When I arrived, the Apple Genius (hum) told me that:

1. My warranty had expired by 37 days
2. But since my iPhone looked well-treated they would replace it anyway.

Result: a brand-new iPhone 3Gs, with no cracks.

My All-New iPhone 3Gs

They even set it up for me, gave it a quick charge, exchanged the card, and made sure it worked. Kudos to Apple Sherway Gardens and Chris the “Genius”. Credit where credit is due.

Of course this is sensible customer service. I will no doubt keep going back to add to my iPhone, iPod, iPad, iMac, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air repertoire.

Making money?

A reader who loves photography asked me the other day to give her some tips on making money with photography.

Making money with photography?? Oh noooo!

No, it is not that bad.

Yes, making money as a photographer is tough nowadays. You have to be really good, well-connected, hard-working, and lucky.All of the above.

You see, traditional ways have all but disappeared. Magazines no longer buy photos. War journalists no longer get sent. iStockphoto and Flickr have destroyed a lot: even national newspapers now often buy illustrations for a few bucks instead of paying a photographer. The proliferation of cameras has ensured that every Uncle Fred “can do it cheaper”. Commercial shoots used to net thousands; now hundreds, if you are lucky, and even then they are very rare since magazines and their adverts are themselves rare.

But it is not all gloom. You can sell, still.

• People still have portraits made.
• Local newspapers still buy photos (although not many). Magazines, too.
• You can sell prints to your friends.
• People still advertise.
• Stock may only sell for a buck – but 1,000 sales at $1 is as good as one sale at $1,000.

Note that I did not mention weddings: you have to be really good to be a wedding photographer. Not for the casual user.

It takes a lot of time to get into newspapers and magazines. I advise you do two things:

1. Get good at your craft. Take courses. Learn from pros. Tag along and assist, for free if you learn. Be confident in your chosen types of photography.
2. Get your name out. Exhibit. Start contacting your local papers. Network. Persevere and persist! Enter contests. Collect references. Shoot relatives for free, initially. Network. Sell photo books. Contact local companies with proposals. Sell micro-stock: half your work will be rejected if you are good, but the feedback will be very useful. Network. Build a mail list and a phone book.

There are no easy solutions, but there are many part solutions. By doing a lot, you will see that you get traction sooner than you think. And it is all worth it in the end.

I shall write more on this in the next weeks.

Oh and that wooden carved figurine? He’s Indonesian. He takes on all the shame and bad vibes in the home, so you don’t have to.

iPad again

Great news, as I sit here at Philadelpia airport: I notice that the iBooks store in Canada now has actual books. I saw more iPads than laptops on yesterday’s flight from Vegas, and I think today will not be an exception. Older people too.

With a loaded iPad, flying will never be the same, as reader Ed pointed out yesterday. Fantastic. I now have many books, and no extra weight.

Editing photos from Vegas as soon as I get home in a few hours, Deo Volente.

Business tips of the day

And here today a few tips for those of you who want to make a living at photography.

• First: I recommend it wholeheartedly. You can get up when you like and apart from the 17-hour days seven days a week, it’s quite relaxing. No, seriously: if it is your passion, what better way to make a living?
• Go the extra mile for your customers.  Photography is a service business. Under-promise and over-deliver.
• But do get a calculator. In business it is always tempting to say “yes” to everything. And you should. But… calculate how long it will take. A client just asked me to change a word or two on a web preview. result: I had to re-sort the images and re-do the entire upload. Three hours’ work. These three hours need to be paid by someone, somehow. Avoid underestimating your workload.
• Resist the urge to buy, buy, buy. If it is a business, it is a business. You need to invest a bit, for sure. Camera, lenses, backup camera, speedlites, and so on. But do they all have to be bought at once? Consider renting equipment for shoots. Buy when you can self-fund the purchase.
• Market your business. if no-one knows you exist, you will not live well.
• Keep your books. Pay your taxes. Again, it is a business, as the sooner you start running it like one, the better. Use discipline. Weekly summaries, regular tasks, daily to-do lists, and so on all make for a good business.
• Check what your colleagues are doing. If they are all doing portrait shoots for $80 and you charge $400, you’d better be good. if the reverse, you may want to charge more (remember the calculator).
• Market. Did I mention that? Photographers spend much more time selling and marketing than shooting. Fact of life!
• Don’t do weddings until you are ready. Wedding photography is the hardest type of photography there is. Shoot with an experienced pro a number of times until you ar eready – the day is so important, it is worth doing well.

And importantly, before you do too much else, grow your skills so you are worth it. Learn how to do it well. Take courses. Henry’s School of Imaging comes to mind for a start, to learn the camera and the basics and specific techniques. Then add advanced courses like our Advanced Creative Light course (the next one is this Saturday, July 26, and there are several spots available: see http://www.cameratraining.ca/Mono-Day-2.html)

And don’t forget: enjoy!

Canada’s oligopoly running strong

So Rogers double-dip and want $35 extra for 5GB traffic for the iPad 3G, even for customers who already pay for data for their iPhone. No breaks.

So Bell have now announced their price. Surprise surprise: (drum roll): $35 for 5GB. The exact same that Rogers charge. They must know that even a $1 decrease would gain them customers – but no, they have an unspoken agreement to keep prices high. Cartel, anyone?

This sickening oligopoly, protected by our allegedly conservative government, is going to continue to rip off Canadians. Instead of an economically conservative, socially liberal government, which I think most Canadians want, we get a socially conservative, economically protective-of-their-friends government.

In other countries, cartels like our Telco cartel would come under scrutiny: here, they are mandated by our government.

Stop Press: Rogers screws customers

Oh sorry, that is not news. Cable and mobile telephony provider Rogers Inc, a company so close to its government buddies who provide them with the near-monopoly they enjoy that when a Rogers president dies, every living past and present Canadian prime minister attends the funeral, always screws their customers!

This time, Apple a few days ago sent an email about the iPad. It mentions the Rogers rate of $20 for existing iPhone data customers. So I order a 3G iPad. And then days later, Rogers say that rate is a typo. Actually it’s $35 for a few GB. And there’s no break for existing clients who already pay $60 for 6GB on the iPhone. Even if they only use a fraction of that 6GB.

My cell bill is never less than $125. Why we accept being raped (figuratively) by people who to me seem simple criminals is beyond me. But the outcry on the Rogers blog and other publications and even the Globe and Mail leads me to believe that they will recant. We shall see.

In any case, the iPad will be a major item for photographers: I think there will be entirely new, innovative ways to share and show off and use photos.

Big News about Little Flashes

For those of you in the Toronto Area who want to learn more about flash, there’s some great opportunities coming up in the next days:

1. For advanced, pro, emerging pro users, I teach an “Advanced Flash” evening workshop in Toronto’s historic Distillery District on May 4, and there is still space! You will learn about the subtle differences between CLS/iTTL and e-TTL, you will learn about balancing light creatively, and much more. See here: http://www.cameratraining.ca/Schedule.html
2. On 30 May (new date) Joseph Marranca and I are teaching a full day advanced light workshop in my country home in Mono, Ontario, just an hour north of Toronto. A great opportunity to make some great creative shots! See and book here: http://www.cameratraining.ca/Mono-Day.html
3. For amateurs who want to get advanced in their flash use and practice what they learned, I wrote the all-new “Get Out and Shoot” workshop for Henry’s School of Imaging, and I and other experts will be teaching this Get Out and Shoot from May on across the GTA: check Henry’s School of Imaging to book!

Take advantage of these unique opportunities and kick-start your use of flash and light this month. Sign up today and enjoy sharing your passion with the pros and with other enthusiasts.

Banyan

As a photographer, you want to share, and exhibits are the way to do it.

For those of you in Toronto, a collection of my nudes are available at Gregory Talas’s Kodiak Gallery in the Distillery District. Here’s Gregory:

And a collection of Travel prints at The Banyan, on Queen Street West:

And stay tuned: “IV – Intravenous” will do a repeat soon, also at The Banyan.

That was quick

I am impressed. Remember I mentioned Inkpress and how well they reacted to the warped paper?

Well, less than two days later, a box with lots of new paper just arrived via FedEx. Now that’s service!

And I am back to printing. And I note the new boxes have cardboard under and on top of the paper, and the paper is entirely flat, so I should have no more issues. Well done, Inkpress!

Service Done Right

Yesterday’s post was about Canon’s new CPS (Canon Professional Services) program that apparently decreases service level, introduces a lot of red tape, and at the same time changes the cost from $0 to $250. I may be mistaken, but I do not think so, and Canon has not replied to my email about this.

So let me also share an example of a company that does service right.

I have a pigment printer, not dye (namely the Canon 9500). That means I need to select paper carefully (not all papers can be used with a dye printer – in fact few can. Read the box to make sure). I use Canon papers made by Hahnemülle, and I use Inkpress Pro papers from http://www.inkpresspaper.com – in particular Inkpress Pro Silky, which I really like. My standard paper!

But the last two boxes I bought contained only warped paper. Obviously a storage problem with the retailer, or perhaps old paper. In any case, this ruined half my prints: they touch printer rollers and smudge ink all over.

I went to the web site at http://www.inkpresspaper.com and filled in a simple form. Minutes later, a VP from Inkpress emailed me this:

How many sheets was it? Please provide us with your address- we will send you a replacement asap.

Now that is service done right. Not only does it help me with my immediate issue (I only print large, and 13×19″ paper costs a few dollars!) but it ensures that I will remain a customer, and that I say nice things about Inkpress and their paper.

I cannot understand why every vendor does not understand this, but I do, and Inkpress does as well.

Last chance

There’s still some space left on the weekend workshop Joseph Marranca and I are arranging this weekend in beautiful Mono, Ontario, an hour north of Toronto: but you need to be quick.

Two days of intense learning about lighting: we will teach you studio lights as well as small flashes; one as well as many; traditional portrait lighting as well as edgy lighting like this:

If interested, go here right now and sign up online while you can. You’ll go home with some portfolio pictures.

And for the rest of you, I shall post some pictures after the weeknd.

Best piece of advice about being a photographer?

A few months ago, NPAC (the News Photographers Association of Canada) featured me, here. An interview with some front pages like this:

Special to the Oakville Beaver/Michael Willems

But one question I was asked stuck with me. They asked for advice about being a photographer.

To me that is a metaphor for “doing with your life what you want to do with it”. So when I addressed a University of Toronto ball last night as keynote speaker, this is one of the things that came to my mind. Do what you want: try to find a way even when it is difficult.

This is the answer I gave NPAC:

I could sound cliché and say; “Don’t”, or “keep your day job”. But in fact it is the opposite: “go for it” was much better advice. When I went full time into photography I went down in income by, oh, 85%. But I went up in life enjoyment by about 500%. And although I now work 7 days a week (I shoot, and then evenings and weekends I teach, both at Henry’s and at my own outfit, www.cameratraining.ca, where I train pros), at least I can sleep in every day – I get up at 8-8:30 am. When we say things like “don’t”, we need to keep all aspects of the decision in mind. Not just money.

Is it the end?

Photography done as a profession? The New York Times seems to think so in this article today.

They are right that the triple whammy of microstock, cheap digital cameras, and the end of magazines and newspapers are bad news for photographers. They are also right that quality is not recognized: the quote at the end of the article is telling (and galling).

I think there is hope, however. For several reasons.

• Quality, in the end, wins out sometimes. In a McDonalds world, there are still bistros and Chateaubriand.
• Much business is gained by word of mouth, not advertising.
• Some events are too important to have Uncle Fred shoot (think “weddings”).
• The model will change. More pros are becoming microstock photographers. Any industry changes – this is inevitable. But “change” does not have to mean “vanish”.
• If everyone shoots, everyone needs to learn. This means pros who can teach will find a larger market waiting for them.
• News will continue to need coverage.
• There are other opportunities – facebook profiles, online magazines, albums, large prints: I see no waning in the popularity of photos per se.

Spot News

This is all complex and fraught with uncertainty, but we can be sure, I think, that some photographers will survive, even thrive. Many more will go part time. Amateurs will be earning more too. Either way, photos will be taken and some people will continue make money.

But I agree with the New York Times: It’s definitely not the same business. We’re not in Kansas anymore.

Always carry spares

When you are shooting for pay, always make sure that you carry:

• A spare camera battery.
• Spare batteries for your flash.
• Some Alkaline AAs.
• Spare memory cards.
• A spare flash.
• Spares for essential cables (e.g. to connect your flash to your camera or pocketwizards).
• Even, if at all possible, a spare camera.

That way you can offer your customer peace of mind, and you can rest assured that the price you charge is worth it – “Uncle Bob”, after all, does not carry the spares above.

I have been saved more than a few times by the spares above – yes, all of them.