Category Archives: Photography

Photographers’ Quotes

Posted on July 24, 2008 | Leave a comment

Came across the Photo Quotes web site today. Makes good reading!

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Rates For The Job – PR & Commercial Work

Posted on July 22, 2008 | Leave a comment

As photographers, one thing we are all universally good at is moaning. We moan about work, lack of work, our picture desks, the light, lack of light, wrong type of light, cost of everything and pay, or more correctly, the lack of pay.

Editorially, shift rates have gone up very little over the past decades. However, the cost of equipment has gone up astronomically and the job is no where as well paid as it used to be. Our workload has also gone up as we now do all the post processing as well.
In the days of film you could have a descent professional camera system for around £10,000, now days you’re looking at more like £30,000. To top this, you also need to change cameras a lot more often as digital is changing and getting better at a very speedy rate. Lets not even talk about the computing technology making leaps and bounds.
Where we do have some control on the rates of pay is in the PR sector of the market. However, we choose to shoot ourselves in the foot. My rates haven’t changed in years, and I stick to them no matter what the client says. Everyone tries it on; the client doesn’t have enough money, the job’s a quick one, its a hospital, its a charity etc. One thing you can be sure of is that the PR companies charge full wack, but they will always try and get the photographer for cheap so they can have a larger profit margin; why not? Its a business and they have to make money – but so do you.
The problem we all face is that less established and less experienced photographers are under charging massively for this type of work. PR rates have always been three to four times that of editorial work. However the thought process seems now days to be “well, some money is better than none” or “its better than doing an eight hour shift”! Painfully, its not just the less established photographers who have this philosophy; alas a few established names are also doing this.
In the short term this does mean more income. The thought being to make money. One of the excuses being “well the economy’s not that strong”. Be warned though; once you drop your rates and give discounts and do things like editing or wiring for free, you will never be able to get back to your normal charges when things get better. Its a one way street; there’s no going back.
My advice and my way is to stick to my rates and not budge. For very regular clients I’ll do DVDs for free, or drop a wiring charge as a token of appreciation for doing long term business. I know that once I give in to a cheaper rate, this rate will then be always expected regardless of who the end client is or how well the economy is doing.

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Axis of Evil Photoshop Technique

Posted on July 16, 2008 | Leave a comment

Its nothing new; photography’s been used as a form of propaganda for decades. All you have to do is research the Soviet Union’s use of picture manipulation.

However, the newest form came out of Iran a few days ago when images of the missile tests got released.
Apparently one of the four rockets didn’t fire and was “photoshoped” in later.
Read more about it at The Guardian and the National Post.

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Posted in News, Photography, Pictures

Photo Forum – Thursday July 10

Posted on July 10, 2008 | Leave a comment

A quick heads up on Photo Forum which will be taking place tonight from 6pm to 8pm at Jacobs Pro Lounge, 74 New Oxford Street, London WC1A 1EU.

Tonight’s gathering, free and open to all, will showcase “Toys”, the result of more than ten years of travels round the world from Julio Etchart, a short show featuring the coverage by 15 of London’s finest photographers of President George Bush’s visit last month to Downing Street and a presentation of work by me. Hope to see you there!

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John Moore Interview

Posted on July 7, 2008 | Leave a comment

Digital Journalist has an interesting interview with john Moore; well worth checking out.

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Zoriah

Posted on July 3, 2008 | Leave a comment

I’ve just come across the work of Zoriah. I must admit to not being aware of his work, but he has some very powerful images and a very interesting blog.

This picture shows the aftermath of a suicide bomb in Iraq. An elderly man sits as if asleep in a lawn chair. He has in fact lost his life. To read more about the day’s events, look here. Please be warned that there are some very powerful images which may be upsetting to some.

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Posted in Photography, Pictures