Retouching the Oregon Home Cover Shot
I take a lot of pride in my Photoshop retouching skills. Mainly because I try really hard to make my shots not look like they’ve been retouched. For architectural interior shots like this cover image for Oregon Home, I often do something I call, “Dropping in the Windows.” During the shoot, I’ll take several brackets [...]
Understanding Photo Insurance
Insurance - Liability, Shoot Insurance, and Riders/Binders “Liability refers to your basic insurance package you must have to cover loss or damage to your equipment, and to protect your personnel. Shoot insurance is a more costly type of insurance that will cover you in the event you need to reshoot a job. Riders/Binders cover the additional [...]
How Much Should I Charge?
Saw this on A Photo Editor and thought it was so well done I wanted it on my blog. The first few minutes are golden in explaining how much to charge. My only critique is that he’s basing is Cost of Doing Business on number of work days (250) but most photographers don’t shoot every [...]
Philly Vs Portland and a Look at Pricing
Pricing your creative fee is a mix of three things: experience, complexity of the job, and usage. I saw this estimate today to shoot a job for a Non-Proft in Philly and thought I would share it. The original post is about bribes and kickbacks, but I want to talk about the photographer’s fee. The [...]
QR Codes = Awesome
I don’t remember my exact train of thought on QR Codes, but I’ve been seeing them everywhere lately. I didn’t quite know what they were, so I googled it to find out. Basically, they’re bar codes of any type of text. They can be URLs, phone numbers, and even just plain text. You scan them [...]
Digital Processing Fees
Lately, I’ve been getting a lot of pressure to reduce my digital processing fees and, in some cases, even hand off my RAW files and let a third party deal with the post processing. Well, let me state this once and for all: I won’t do that. If I’m hired to create images that are [...]
Cover Shot Spotted in Portlandia Trailer
In July of 2009, I photographed the cover of Portland Monthly for a feature story on rivers and river activities. It was definitely one of my favorite shots from the year and a great tearsheet. To my surprise, that issue of the magazine just turned up in a hilarious trailer of Portlandia. Look for it [...]
How to Become My Assistant (or Not)
I get a fair amount of emails from assistants moving to Portland looking for work. I totally get it. Portland is a cool place to live and being a photographer is fun. With NYC, LA, and San Francisco very expensive and hard to break into, Portland seems like an obvious place to start your career. [...]
Photography is just like…
…music. You hear a pop song in commercial, but that company doesn’t own the song. …software. You buy software, but that doesn’t mean you own the code. …blueprints. You may own the building when it’s built, but the architect owns the design. …sculpture. You can buy art, but you can’t copy and sell it as [...]
Protest New 1099 Legislation
I was alerted this morning by ASMP that (unfortunately) part of the new healthcare reform legislation will seriously create a huge and unnecessary amount of paperwork for photographers or any small business. As of now, for any sub contractor (assistants, stylists, producers, etc.) that I pay over $600 in a year, I have to write [...]
The Page Ratio is Best at 2:3
Knowing fundamentals of design makes you a better commercial and editorial photographer. This excellent read is a great primer on theory and really comes in handy when you have to shoot for a layout. This was the magic bullet that the other canons were missing. His reasoning was that it sits within the Fibonacci Sequence, [...]
Canon CPS Repair Form
Accidents happen. And when they do, it’s good to be prepared. One thing I recommend is becoming a Canon CPS member. They have different levels of membership, but the biggest advantage is that you get priority repair turnaround over the average Joe. You also get discount on repair (up to 60% for you accident prone [...]
The Wisdom of Arlo
Sometime back, I got a chance to shoot the folk singer Arlo Guthrie. He said something that day that has stayed with me: The art of doing nothin’ is probably one of the most profitable things you can do, because it sets you up to be doing something. When you are thinking about accepting an [...]
Attach a Digital SLR to a View Camera
So, imagine for a moment that Canon really does come out with a full frame square sensor. Imagine it’s around 40mp. Now imagine putting that camera body digital back on a view camera and being able to use Rodenstock digital lenses (some of the sharpest and clearest lenses I’ve ever used). That would be sweet. [...]
Architecture – Design & Spirit
Earlier this year, I was invited by Newspace Center for Photography to teach an architectural photography workshop. I was very honored and humbled that they thought of me. I’ve done a few other classes/workshops, but this was a full day class and much more involved than what I’ve done before. The class consisted of a [...]
Pricing Photography for Image Libraries
“…in a world where photographers traditionally price their product based on usage, what is “unlimited” use worth? There have always been photographers who intentionally or unknowingly ignore the subject of licensing, or otherwise simply give away unlimited use of their pictures without charging a premium for it. Those tend to be young photographers who don’t [...]
Cost of Doing (Photo) Business Calculator
For anyone wanting to be a photographer or currently a photographer, the most important thing is to know your Cost of Doing Business (CODB). Fortunately, the NPPA makes it really easy for you. NPPA: Cost of Doing Business Calculator
Make a Model Release on an iPhone
Hands down, the iPhone is the best damn tool a photographer can have. Here’s one more reason why: iRelease helps transform your old paper model release forms into information you can use. This powerful cloud based mobile application, in combination with its sophisticated ‘Live Syncing’ online account, organizes your forms into an easy to use [...]
Starting Out as a Photographer
Around this time of year, I get a lot of emails from photo students about to graduate. I think part of their curriculum is to go out and ask photographers they like how they got their start. So, when Andrew Torres emailed me a few weeks ago, I decided to make a blog post out [...]
Marketing 101 for Commercial Photographers
I think one of the most challenging aspects to being a commercial photographer is the marketing. It’s ironic because we are in a commercial marketing environment, yet reaching the people we want to hire us can seem voodoo and difficult. In my experience, no matter how good you are or how “cool” you are, if [...]
Pricing Etiquette
Read this today and it really struck a chord with me. Just replace “sweater” with “photo.” From Lauren Venell of Biz Miss. Originally posted here on Design*Sponge. “Pricing Etiquette” Yes, Virginia, there is a polite way to price. Here are a couple of common pricing faux pas to avoid: Changing your prices too often: yes, [...]
43 Totally Random Pro Tips
This is actually an old post from a different blog I dabbled in. It was called Pro Photo Tips and it kind of fizzled out. Still, there are some good posts on there that I want to bring over here. Like this one. Get it in camera whenever you can. Photoshop time is expensive and [...]
Please Don’t Take My Images
Dear bloggers, writers, designers, illustrators, anyone that wants my photography on their website: Here’s the deal. If you want to talk me up or talk up my client, I don’t mind if you use my photography in a bloggy editorial kind of way. I just want a heads up. If you take my photography to [...]
AIA Portland Architectural Photo Workshop
Please join me this Sunday, October 11th for a hands on Architectural Photo Tour through the Pearl District of Portland, OR. This workshop is part of the AIA’s 2009 Architecture & Design Festival going on all of October in Portland, OR. Pro Photo Supply is donating use of Canon and Nikon cameras with wide angle [...]
