Rants

Syv Ritch's rants about the business of photography and the state of the industry

The Jerk

I've said many times in various blog posts, that one shouldn't disparage other photographers. But like I say to my kids:

Do as I say, don't do as I do, so you can learn from my mistakes.

— Syv Ritch

This morning, I went to Reifel Bird Sanctuary. Once off the freeway, it's a small 2-lane road almost all the way to Reifel. Just in front of me was this American, driving 30 kilometers/hr around 20 miles/hr in 50 km/hr speed zones. He was weaving all around looking at eagles.

Getting To No

There's a book called: “Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In” by Roger Fisher, William L. Ury, and Bruce Patton. This is an “old” book from the early 90s. The pun is intended.

In our culture, we always want to get a “yes”. Especially when we try to sell something. A sell is better than no sell… Overcoming objections, steering the “potential” customer in the right direction…

I have a customer in Ontario, Canada.

Flickr or How to Screw Your Customers

1-Feb-2011, Flickr has updated its community guidelines, that's the rules for posting your photos on Flickr. Yahoo! bought Flickr in 2005. Posting your photos has many restrictions, but for $25 per year you can buy the Pro account. Many professional photographers use Flickr Pro to display their photos. Many museums and foundations also use Flickr.

There's been many problems with Flickr. Many paying customers have had their accounts deleted by Flickr's staff.

Photos Of The Riots In Egypt

By now you must be aware of what's happening in Egypt, Cairo, Alexandria, Mubarak… I'm not here to comment on the Mubarak regime, the Middle East, religion…

Friday night, I was exercising my thumb, aka zapping, and between the various news channels CTV, CBC, CNN, BBC with their talking heads repeating the same things they've heard from somebody else… Most of them divided the TV screen in 2 sections, the left half of the screen with the talking head saying blah, blah… and the right half of the screen showing lousy video footage of the riots.

Mine's Bigger Than Yours

From the “Mine's Bigger Than Yours” department, here's the Sigma 200-500mm f/2.8!

This photo is from Juza EA. His website is at: http://www.juzaphoto.com I asked for his permission which he gave me.

The Sigma 200-500mm f/2.8:

1.

Working For Free: Ground Floor is Hell

I've done many blog posts over the years on working for free. In fact, I wrote 90+ blog posts. Shouldn't work for free, unless very strict conditions… blah, blah…

What The Duck did a cartoon on working for free and being on the ground floor is hell:

What The Duck: working for free being hell

What The Duck: working for free being hell

My 2010 Predictions

No, it's not a typo. This is the end of 2010 and now's the time to make my predictions for 2010:

  1. I'm a procrastinator
  2. I hate being wrong

So here are my predictions:

  1. 2010 is a very good year for photography. Photography is booming. The best year ever in sales of dSLRs. It's the best year ever for the sales of interchangeable lenses. It's also the best year in the sale of photos!
  2. This is been a better year for professional photography than was 2009. Things are starting to pickup again. People feel more confident and are starting to spend again.

Free as a Business Model

Often What The Duck as good cartoons. Here's a excellent one:

What The Duck: Free as a business model

What The Duck: Free as a Business Model

I disagree with it when he goes to the sarcasm. The customer claims that the professional photographer that did the previous job for free is out of business. He's not out of business.

Cheap Website Hosting

I am going to be starting my own business. Can you recommend a good and fairly cheap hosting site ...

— “Hypocrite”

Saturday, I was talking to a guy who decided to become the next photographer superstar. He'll start first with weddings… He was complaining about Craig's List and all these $250 wedding photographers that are killing the market.

Then in the next breath, he asked me if I knew about a good and cheap hosting for his new photography “empire”. Isn't that called hypocrisy? Oh! But it's different, it doesn't apply to me!

Wikileaks: What Went Wrong

As most of you know by now, the Wikileaks leaks of US diplomatic information is on, almost full speed. It's pretty much the daily headlines.

Actual Information

The documents that have been leaked so far are pretty innocuous. These are document from the SIPRNet, an adjunct mostly “secured” network for sharing intelligence. The documents are from “not even rated” up to “confidential”. No document leaked is supposed to be rated secret.

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