Do people think the money is in photography?

I am scratching my head trying to work out who on earth actually pays for photography.

Brides and Grooms - aside from the fact there are hardly any weddings any more - all the B&Gs that I have encountered are quite happily using friends/relatives with cameras and crowdsourcing the iPhone snaps from the congregation.

I remember one woman getting married and her mother insisting on a photographer so she went online and found one that ended up being pretty crummy.

Business tends to use whatever lies to hand. I have been watching people at ribbon cuttings at my chamber of commerce all happily photographing events with iPhones and iPads. I could do a hell of a lot better with my digital SLR. I never get asked. The photos on the Chamber website are pretty grim.

The problem is... people are content with poor quality wile refusing to pay for better quality. With an attitude whereby anything free is better than something of high-quality that costs money, how does anybody make any money from photography?

I was just looking at one of the online photographers websites - photos that weren't straight, were't particularly sharp, weren't well framed - in general photos that were complete garbage. I contrast that with my well exposed, well framed images that nobody even looks at. The only thing those websites have going for them is hundreds of bad quality images that scream amateur while I tend to prefer a few higher quality images.

Am I wrong in presenting a few higher quality images? Should I be plastering the place with thousands of crap images?

The biggest problem is that we have to many MWACs out there taking crappy snaps then milking the market. I don't know how they make their money when their photography is so lousy.

Thoughts on event planning

As I said, I'm a salesman. When I sell, I don't sell by features. I sell by need fulfillment. This is a cheese and tomato sandwich. It is made of bread, butter, cheese and red tomatoes. It costs P200 and is plastic wrapped and was made by slave labor.

This is very different from...

Our delicious new cheese and tomato sandwich, made from zesty sun-ripened tomatoes grown in organic fields and cheese hand made from free range cows awaits your delectation. Every luxurious bite fills you with wholesome goodness and no artificial ingredients. All that for the tiny sum of P200

OK so I overegged the sales pitch. The point I'm making is that we sell to a need rather than selling features. We're dealing with people rather than machines. So, that being said my ultimate question...

What exactly are we selling when it comes to photography during events? I'd probably have made more of a success of photography as an event business is I wasn't blundering about trying to sell pictures. For the life of me I cannot fathom why anybody would actually hire a photographer other than to do something they can't do themselves. Any suggestions/ideas/comments?

Wedding guests

So, I'll try to make this as short as possible. My sister and I have always had a troubled relationship and somewhat recently we got into a spat and haven't been on speaking terms for ~6 mos. I called her about 5 months ago and told her that I wanted to work on things but she basically slammed the door on that one and we haven't talked since. She recently sent in her RSVP and said "+1", indicating she is bringing her BF. Firstly, my fiance and I are having 35 guests at our wedding in order to stay within our budget but more importantly so that we surround ourselves with people we are close with and who know us as a couple. My sister wants to bring her BF because she wouldn't be comfortable going otherwise. She knew we weren't allowing guests. Plus, neither I nor my fiance have even met her boyfriend....So, um, a wedding guest count of 35 (super small) and one person we haven't even met? I mailed my sister a letter asking if the four of us get together so that we could meet her BF and she declined that offer because we're not on speaking terms.

What should I do? I feel like either way, we are dammed. She's been really mean to me (not wanting to work anything out, not being there for me in the process of getting married, etc.) and I feel like why should I do her a favor? Also, we're not even allowed to meet him, yet we have to invite him to our wedding? How does that make sense? I feel like if we don't invite him, she won't come and the rest of the family will be pissed at us for not inviting him. Yet, if we do invite him, she still won't be on speaking terms with me and we'll get a total stranger at our intimate wedding.

I'm looking for suggestions

I got encouraged to get a business license then mocked for the business that I never wanted in the first place not being successful. I was much happier as an amateur selling the occasional thing. Indeed, my books have not sold tremendously well BUT THEY ARE SELLING. My books have been the most financially successful of all my photographic endeavors.

So, I'm in the Chamber of Commerce now. Nobody is in the slightest interested in photography and nobody even wants to see my portfolio. I'm not surprised. I was very much of the impression when I was in the area I came from that photography was just a hobby and never a trade. I got sold on it as a big money-spinner by the individual mentioned and of course, I was right on the money with my original thoughts which that individual managed to pervert. I'm using the Chamber more for contacts than anything else these days.

Currently yes I'm working in sales and I'm damned good at it but I want to get out into something more lucrative which is why I'm taking an online course right now. So getting back to the main point. I'm trying to get the Hell away from the bad memories of the past. I want to get into a totally new system. I used to use Nikon manual focus and loved it. I don't really, honestly, see that I need something as big and heavy though. I don't want a zoom compact - that's way too restrictive.

I was very interested in the Olympus 420 and 520 but Olympus seem to be doing what they did before and seem to be dumping their system in favor of a new system. I must admit I like the Micro Four Thirds cameras - particularly the Sony and the Panasonic. I am scared of those being another APS debacle - remember APS SLRs of the 1990s - they came out as did disk film then vanished fast.

I like the size of the smaller micro-four thirds stuff. I'm concerned about image quality and about the systems just dropping out of favor. I find full size cameras somewhat bulky and heavy.

I want to build a studio in my garage

I decided I will convert my garage into a studio. I want to texture one wall, maybe in three sections, like a brick wall section, plaster section and maybe a drywall falling off section.

I will also get some backdrops. I will need an AC unit as well.

I'll get some strobes, al least two or three, and maybe some props too.

I will park my vehicles in the garage, except for the time of photo-shoots of course.

I'll need to hire some models to practice my lighting, and maybe in time, if I get good enough, I can charge a small fee for my work.

I really want to get the hang of lighting and the shadows but I won't spend a ton. I found the Chinese screw-in flash units that are about P1500 work really well. Get two or three that work as master or slave. Got a radio slave setup so you can trigger your flashes WITHOUT connecting them to your camera as I suspect they could be high-voltage trigger cables.

B&H has some great lightstands and background supports in their budget range. You can also get slightly cheaper off sulit. Umbrellas and flash mounts just get off sulit also. You can set up to use speedlites as your flash setup if you want but that's an expensive way of doing it though very portable. 

As for backgrounds - I don't make plans - I just make use of what's available and do it cheap. 

Nikon lens question

I've this question out to a few buddies, but figured I'd ask here: someone is selling a few Nikon lens and a friend of mine is interested, but the seller didn't provide much info.

Has anyone heard of or used an "aspherical 28-30mm lens"? If so, is it any good? No brand name given. I haven't had much luck googling; does this ring a bell? Am wondering if it's a typo and they left off an extra zero - there is a Sigma aspherical 28-300mm lens. Anyone know this lens?

Also, Sigma Macro 70-300 - any good? Again, no additional info, I'm not sure how fast this is.

Friend has googled for info on the latter lens, and he seems satisfied with the reviews, but personal exp is always good.

Bad experience with Zale's for wedding bands

I just had the crappiest experience with buying plain white gold bands online from Zale's. One was a men's 4.0 mm in size 9, the other was a women's 2.0mm in size 6.5.

First, they offered free FedEx shipping on purchases over $150--which they did not deliver.

Second, they misrepresented the availability of the bands and then insisted that they were listed as "special orders" at the time of purchase. (I have a screenshot of my shopping cart showing this not to be the case.)

Third, they were rude and evasive. When I called to follow up a week later, this is what one customer service rep told me:

"When the site says that an item is located in stock, that means the MATERIALS are available to be made into a ring. It takes time to make these beautiful things for you. It's a ring, it's not a shirt."

A second said, "You were told FOUR times before you checked out that these items were special orders."

When I tried to tell him that I wasn't told once, and that I had a screenshot and an email invoice that completely refuted his claim, he began reciting store policies over me. The service staff was so incredibly rude and argumentative that I finally cancelled the order.

I just wanted to share this with people here, in case they're thinking of buying wedding bands from Zales. My advice would be run, don't walk, to a better jeweler.

End of an era -- 35mm is dead

Well, not dead. But my last 35mm camera just died. My Pentax ME Super just died. Shutter mechanism sticks. I haven't used it in 7 months and only really pulled it out to use up the last bit of the 24 exposure roll. I didn't say film was dead, as I'm really liking the Yashica model A I found online for $10 a few months ago. The 120 type ISO 100 BW film really has that old quality feel to it and the images are exactly what I want.

But 35mm? I honestly don't think I'll buy another 35mm film camera.