On 6-Jul-2008, Lewis Hamilton won the Formula 1, UK Grand Prix in is Mercedes/McLaren. Will you earn more money if you buy a Mercedes or a McLaren? Will it make you a better driver?

Kyle Busch is leading the Nascar 2008¹ in his Toyota sponsored by the M&M candies. Nobody believes that, since they are driving a Toyota Camry and that Kyle Busch won last weekend, it will make them a better driver.

Another one from the Dumb Department

I regularly see people doing stupid things, being punished for being stupid and then complaining about it. The latest case is Shane Baker. He was at REI, a very large outdoor store in Seattle. Shane took photos of the private security guards refilling the ATM machine. First should he have taken photos of the security guards that were refilling the ATM? I don't think so, but when the security guards asked him to stop, he kept and taking photos and he started arguing with them.

So lets review the situation:

Last night I was one of three photographers at a reception. Three photographers, three different clients covering the same people. We all know each other. I arrived first, unloaded my equipment, and started to make the rounds to find the best spots and the best angles. The other two guys arrive and Joe asks for my help to unload his SUV, a Land Rover LR3, which he left at the front. I go and help when I notice at the back the warning sign stuck on the rear window: Baby On Board

In North America, that's both Canada and the US, the auto bailout is front news. GM, Ford and Chrysler want to up to $200 billion dollars, in total from Canada, US & Mexico. They want 14 billion from the US and 3.5 billion from Canada by next week, or the will go bankrupt...

Ford's CEO, Alan Mullaly did a credible job of explaining how the bailout would help. At least he has a "plan".

Becoming A Professional Photographer

With so many people deciding to become professional photographers, eventually they will have to face the realities of becoming a professional photographer as told by What the duck

• What does it mean to be a professional photographer?
• Do professional photographers take better photo?
• Do professional photographers have better cameras?
• Do professional photographers have better models?

The saying goes:

Build Your Portfolio

Sorry, but I couldn't resist. Over the last couple of month I have had to endure a few of these. And no, I have never beaten up any potential customer. I always explain politely that I can't afford to go out of business

Build Your Portfolio

Can you take criticism?

Photography is a mixture of technology, science and art.

• The technology is always developing. There's always something new just around the corner that will help you make / take better photos. Since we are at the beginning of the digital photography, every couple of years something really revolutionary comes up, then it's absorbed by all the other camera manufacturers.

The Christian Science Monitor will be the first of the "major" newspaper to stop having a print edition and will be switching to the web: See Monitor shifts from print to Web-based strategy. They will be switching in April 2009. The Christian Science Monitor is planning to print a weekly version of the newspaper. The cost of producing, printing and distributing a physical daily newspaper is very high. Cutting all of those costs will remove many constraints, both physical and financial. On the web, there is no printing cost, no paper, and space is: "free and unlimited"².

My first reaction is: "Another paper biting the dust!" Upon further thoughts, I think that it's a great boon for photography and photographers. The Christian Science Monitor will "consume" and buy more news photos than before.

• What's the cost difference between being polite and being rude?
• What's the cost difference between presenting photos and just throwing your photos on a website?
• What's the cost difference between a calibrated monitor and one that is not properly calibrated?
• What's the cost difference between a well composed photo and one that's not well composed?

Delays

AP, Associated Press, thinks that it owns the news and can control it's distribution over the Internet. AP has published it's AP FAQ. I'm reprinting it here, because they will change it when they find out that it will not work:

From the "do as I say instead of how I do" department.

The Newspaper Association of America's job is to promote the printing of newspapers, to promote the survival of the newspapers. The NAA lobbies in Washington and prints a glossy magazine: Presstime.

Yesterday, I was trying to boost my productivity by surfing the Internet³, I found:

Want to become a professional photographer? Easy, press the button. I'm not making it up. I couldn't make it up if I wanted. Preset Heavens wrote a couple of articles on how to become a photographer: Everyone Can Be A Pro. Preset Heaven is a website where you can download presets for Adobe's Lightroom. Since I am a Lightroom user, I look at some of these presets and see if they give me some idea.

Here's the exact quote of how to become a pro:

As you may have heard, Nikon leaked/announced the Nikon D90 yesterday. Chase Jarvis had what looks like 3 pre-release sample for a while and loves it. That link is not really a review, but more of a 5 minutes infomercial.

Meanwhile at the ranch:

In a previous post: Groupies and the D90, I ranted that 4 hours after the announcement, 641 websites where talking, reviewing and presenting their opinions on the Nikon D90, when only one guy, Chase Jarvis had access to it and he even made a 5 minute infomercial video.

In the last 2 weeks, some actual photos taken with the D90 have come out. You can even pre-order it at your favorite camera store.

Have you ever had to do "headshots"? They get you in one of small boardroom. It's never the big and nice boardroom and you need to shoot 20 people in 15 minutes with only 30 seconds per "head". The lighting is set, 2 lights, sometimes 3 lights, and a grey background. The camera is on the tripod. You are not even next to the camera to press on the shutter, just a remote control in your hand.

There's a line up outside the door, one of the secretary makes sure that their hair is combed, the ties are done and the shirts buttoned up. It's a production line, the pay is decent, and the results are so so. Nothing to be proud of. Done!

Hooligans

I have written previously about how much photographers are Whiners.

I Am A Purist

The other day, I met this photographer who shall remain anonymous because... Very nice black and white panoramic landscapes, he makes a good living selling prints. Within 2 minutes of our conversation:

Most of the time, I measure my effort by the number of hours. I only measure my effort by the output one the 10th of the month, when I fill my provincial sales tax form to remit the tax collected.

My input is my labour and my outputs are the sales figures. I have come to realize that there is very little connection between my input — my hours and my output — my photos and my sales.

The lemmings are at it again. Yesterday, Nikon announced that they will be selling a new fixed length lens for their DX cameras, the AF-S DX Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G.

I haven't seen that lens, none of the photo blogs that I follow have seen it, but still they rave about this lens. People are doing reviews by press release so: a 1001noisycameras.com wrote about it:

Lemmings At Work: Feb 2009

The lemmings are at work on the web. One person notice something, then everybody else repeats the same thing. The point of view is the same, they just reword blah, blah, blah... Somebody, on 15-Feb-2009, suddenly noticed that Facebook grabs all of your rights for anything that you post on their website! Duh! Facebook's policy has always been there, the current wording is at: Facebook: Terms Of Use. BTW, the terms of use change on regular basis.

People noticed the copyrights grabs from Facebook because Mark Zuckerberg had the disclaimer on his Facebook page. After the brouhaha, Facebook returned to the previous terms of use, but the effect is the same, Facebook owns all the photos, messages posted on Facebook and can resell them for whatever use they want.

The SEC⁴ which regulates the US stocks markets and all companies traded on any company publicly traded in the US, including the OTC⁵, is proposing that:

Companies should be liable for content linked from the company's website as explained in this 47 pages PDF document from the SEC's website.

Lottery

Every couple of years, I decide that I should try my luck at the lottery, and I buy a ticket. I always buy the cheapest lottery ticket. I never win, except once where I spent $2.50 for my ticket and I won! I was elated, amazed, finally I won. I went to cash it in, you know how much I won? $1. Yep, one dollar. I spend two dollars and fifty cents to win a dollar.

Canada has 33 million people. The government lotteries run on Wednesday and on Saturdays. The government sells around 25 million tickets on the Wednesday lotteries and around 45 million lottery tickets on the Saturdays, and that's if the big prize is under $10 million. Over the $10 million mark, they almost double the number of lottery tickets sold. Some lucky dog has to win. 1 chance in 14 million⁶? Even a blind squirrel finds acorns now and then.

I couldn't resist today's What The Duck

Loving It Is Enough

I just had a phone call from somebody wanting to "dicker" with my prices. If I lowered my prices, he would recommend me to his friends. After a few minutes, I basically ended up saying:

Magazines & Newspapers Going Out of Business

Conde Nast is closing some of their magazines, Time Inc. is closing publications and laying off people by the thousands. Everybody's blaming the Internet. The Internet is killing all the newspapers and the magazines. There are plenty of websites that keep track of which publications are dying. The 2 big ones are:

• Magazine Death Pool

Manual for Camera

My daughter just bought her first apartment. I went through the attic in search of moving boxes. Among all the junk and the boxes, I found an old camera bag, so I took it down. There was an old bunch of junk in the front pocket, the manual for a Canon EOS Elan 1991. It's an SLR, film, autofocus, auto exposure, the semi-pro camera of its time, nice camera.

The manual is postcard size, 3.5" by 5", the small standard postcard size with the grand total of 79 pages. It was a time, when photographers took pride in not reading the manual. It was a time when reading the manual consisted of flipping through the pages in 10 minutes.

Non Compete Agreements

In Trust Me, I wrote about the friend of a friend who wanted me to participate/invest in his new Internet venture, mostly the technical end. The first thing he did, was ask me to sign a non-compete agreement. I agreed and signed, no question asked. I did read the non-compete agreement before signing, and still I didn't ask any question about it. Why?

This non-compete agreement was worthless and not worth the attorney fees he paid. I'm supposed not to compete with his idea for a full year. The problem is that you can't patent or copyright ideas. You can only patent processes, and copyright finished goods, such as photos, writings. I could implement their idea for 0, yes zero, dollar with open-source software.

Outsourcing is a word used as a threat in the computer industry. We will outsource your whole department to India, China, and Shri-Lanka... In the photographic world, outsourcing has existed "forever" or more commonly known as freelance.

Most photographers outsource large section of their businesses:

Everyday, I hear on the news that a whole bunch of workers are being laid-off. GM will lay-off another 24,000 layoffs as part of its bankruptcy. Many photographers are feeling the pinch of the recession, but very few hare being laid-off. Why? Because photographers as employees have been an endangered species since the late 90s. In the eighties, 25 years ago, I knew of at least a couple dozen of full-time photographers in the lower mainland⁷ receiving a monthly salary. Today, I only know of 2 salaried full-time photographers, and 1 will either loose his job or quit this year.

Almost all professional photographers are self-employed, and we aren't receiving any bailout. I want my money! I want my bailout, but... In spite of the recession, and the contracting of the economy, the photographic requirements are expanding. People are still getting married, families are getting babies, kids are still graduating from schools and they still want their photos to remember these events. Businesses are still advertising, flyers are still being printed, billboards are still being used... In spite of the recession, photo usage is significantly higher, whatever it's source.

Adobe claims that Photoshop is the single most pirated software. Microsoft claims that it's Windows and Office, mostly from reseller preloading it on the computers. Software piracy is big business. Software piracy is the equivalent the photographer's copyright infringement.

Companies have lot to do the piracy of their software! Even now with the stronger dollar against the UK Sterling Pound, it still cheaper to fly to New York and stay a couple of nights in New York⁸, than buying Photoshop in London, UK.

It's almost the end of December 2008. The New Year is coming. Everybody, their dog and cat, is predicting what will happen next year. So it's also my time to make my photo predictions.

But like all photographers, I am somewhat of a procrastinator. So I will predict what happened for 2008. Hindsight is 20/20 and that way, I am always 100% right.

Predictions

It's almost the end of December 2009. The New Year is coming. Everybody, and their dog, is predicting what will happen in 2010. And not only that they claim that they are always right. So it's also my time to make my photo predictions, but:

1. I'm too arrogant to admit that I could be wrong.

Reply To Lowball Offer

Whenever I receive an email, I usually respond very quickly. But sometimes, especially when I want to smack the sender and give them a good kick in the ass, I will wait for the next day, so I have time to cool down. Yesterday was one of these days. Here is an extract of the email:

Revisiting The Groupies and The Nikon D90

Revisiting Groupies and the D90

Many photographers, including me, run their photo businesses from home. It's a lot cheaper than running the business of photographer from an office. What about a studio? That will depend on your needs and your photo business volume. It's not always easy. I have doing it for decades, centuries and millenniums. The main problem is where will you meet your clients?

• In your house?
• At a rented office/photo studio

Strangled

I live in Vancouver, BC, Canada, the home of the next Winter Olympics in February 2010. I was downtown in the business district, trying to take some street photos. I was waiting for the right arrangement. I had the background and the foreground. I was just waiting for the right person to walk by. I was standing on the sidewalk. I use the BlackRapid Strap, so the camera was down, dangling around my hip. The camera was mostly hidden by my right arm. I just needed to raised the camera at the right time.

I saw this guy walking. in his late thirties early forties with a T-shirt and older jeans. He passed me by, kept on walking for around 10 meters, 30 feet, and turned around. I knew something was going to happen, so I started walking in the opposite direction. He caught back and said:

Stupid Racist

Vancouver, BC, has hundreds, thousands of coffee shops. Some of them are even very good. A couple of days ago, I met a John A, a photographer friend. He was with a friend of his, David P. We went to JJ Beans for coffee and to keep on talking.

I don't know how we got to talk about Obama and his health care reform, but it wasn't me who mentioned it, and we are in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, not in the US. We have “universal” health care. Everybody's covered. Is our health care perfect? Definitely not, but… David P. became very agitated and loud. He started calling people racist⁹ because they didn't agree with Obama. Then out of the blue, he went into a tirade against the Jews and the Pro-Israel lobby!

As the official photographer of many people or even of some strangers, I am regularly asked:

This camera takes nice pictures

Trade Guilds and Associations

There are many trade associations. Their job is keep the status quo as of before, when "the times were good and easy".

The Author's Guild official policy was is still to be against:

Traitor

Last year, in November 2009, I upgraded my equipment and got a Canon 7D. Before buying the Canon 7D, I did some inquiries around. I was looking at the new Nikon D300s. I know this guy, Jon. He's been a Nikon guy since dinosaurs roamed the earth. His first camera was a Nikon Nikkormat. That's an “amateur” Nikon SLR build in the mid-60s. Jon only uses Nikon/Nikkor lenses. Always had Nikon, will also be a Nikon guy. A true Nikon guy, the camera strap is big and say Nikon, his camera bag has a huge Nikon logo…

So I was asking him about Nikon. The lenses… He was telling how great his Nikon prime lenses were. He even had a couple of zooms but… Somehow, he got in his mind that I was going to bow to Nikon and get the Nikon religion. Last week we saw each other, so the first thing he did was to ask me which Nikon did I buy? I told him that I got a Canon 7D. You should have seen the disgust in his look and he muttered “Traitor” as he walked away.

As I mentioned a few times, I live in Canada. For most times, Canada is a quiet place, without big fireworks. We've never had a civil war. There is even an official party, elected in Parliament, whose only official goal is to break up of the country. In any other country, their leaders would have been jailed, run over by an errand truck... Here, in Canada, we elect them to the Parliament. Some countries have "drive-by shooting", we have "drive-by nagging".

Currently¹⁰ we have a minority government. The Conservatives¹¹ form the minority government. The 3 other parties¹² signed an accord to topple the government: Liberals, NDP, Bloc sign deal on proposed coalition. People were going to demonstrate in the streets of the major cities either in support of the government or in support of the opposition.

There are times when What The Duck hits the right note, this is one of these. We all know people who like to do beautiful diagrams to impress. But how do you intersect photography and blogs?

Attach:what-the-duck-blog-summary.gif Δ|What The Duck, Blog Summary

CNet wrote an article: 14 things to do if you are laid off from a tech job. What should people do? Become professional photographers! I am not making this up!

What's the best …

I regularly get the question: “What's the best …?”

• The best camera

Most photographers complain about:

• How much better the world was when we were still using film instead of digital? Everything went downhill since Pentax introduced the first behind the lens light meter with the Pentax Spotmatic.
• How much better the world was when we took 2 or 3 identical photos on Kodachrome so we didn't have to duplicate the photo before sending to a client for review?

Canon vs. Nikon

Let start the bloodshed. I mentioned that at the end of October I bought a Canon 7D, a couple of lenses, flash… I switched. Why did I switch?

1. I needed more megapxiels. I charge for higher pixel count, just like Getty and iStockPhoto.

Slow Canon 7D

When I bought my Canon 7D, I was promised 8 frames per second. The sales guy even taunted me against the slow Nikon D300s that could only do 6 frames per second. I would have to buy the Nikon battery grip to get almost the same speed! Guess what? I don't even get close to 8 frames per second. I may get close to 5 frames per second.

Why? Is Canon falsely advertising? Am I an incompetent operator? Actually, it some of both.

What's the best camera?

Canon has released their Canon 7D. It also announced the Canon 1DMk4 with 16 Megapixels and an ISO of 100,000+. Nikon has released the Nikon D300s and the Nikon D3s with 12 Megapixels and an ISO of 100,000+. Think about it, usable cameras that can take photos of a black cat in a coal mine and all that for around $5000. Amazing!

Pentax has the first camera, that I know of, that is rated for -10°Celsius or 14°Fahrenheit with their K7 at a very reasonable price of under $1500. Many cameras like the Canon 1D and Nikon D3 often operate at these temperatures but they are not certified for those cold temperatures.