business

To those who may hire a portrait photographer:

As I write this, a guy outside my window is painting the exterior of my house. I had a hard time choosing a color, and I hope I chose well. I’d hate to screw that up.

Should you ever give a client photos in exchange for "exposure"? That's the question discussed in this 6-minute video by NYC-based portrait and fashion photographer Jeff Rojas. He shares 3 things you can turn exposure into money.

You open the box and there it is; a new digital camera. You’ve wanted to be a professional photographer for a long time and now is your time. This camera is the symbol of your next step.

Founded in 1854, the British Journal of Photography is one of the world's oldest and most influential photography magazines. The 162-year-old publication was sold back in 2013, and now it's raising money through a crowdfunding campaign. Put in some money, and in exchange you get ownership shares in the magazine.

Instagram has officially announced a set of new tools for business users, called Instagram Business Tools, that will help the platform be even more powerful for marketers. As was leaked over the past weeks, there will be new business profiles, analytics, and promoted posts.

It happened. Seven months after announcing the planned acquisition and one quarter ahead of schedule, Western Digital has officially acquired SanDisk, "creating a global leader in storage technology."

Twitter announced a big change today that may help it become a much stronger player in the photo-sharing space: the company will no longer be counting photos toward the 140-character limits for Tweets.

In January, the photographer Zoe Strauss made a bracing plea on her Facebook page. The artist, whose work had been recognized by the Whitney Biennial and Magnum Photos, and was the subject of a traveling survey exhibition organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, was out of money

In mid-April 2016, a series of powerful earthquakes struck the Kumamoto region of southern Japan. A number of major camera companies have important operations in that area, and now, weeks later, those companies are still working recover from the disaster.

The selfie. Generally maligned by anyone older than 30 as a narcissistic (and sometimes dangerous) pursuit, the selfie has become enmeshed with all forms of Millenial self-expression. The younger generation isn’t content to just photograph their surroundings, they need to be present in the image or video to enhance the authenticity.

Kodak Alaris, the spin-off of Eastman Kodak that produces the photographic film products the Kodak name is known for, may be in trouble. The company plans to shut down one of its five major manufacturing facilities by the end of this year.

10 years ago, Fujifilm did something... strange. They started making cosmetics. But looking back now, not only does the decision make total scientific sense for a film company, it may have been one of the major reasons Fujifilm was able to survive the digital revolution.

Fuji's Instax instant film was the bestselling item in Amazon's Camera category in the 2015 holiday season. It wasn't a fluke: the company's instant film business has been exploding in popularity in recent years.

All the numbers have been pointing upwards for Instagram. In fact, a recent analysis shows that Instagram will be used by 1 in 3 person, in the US, by 2020. With 400 million active users today, it is the only platform where people exclusively take and share visual content and nothing else.

Photo & Go is a new photo-making concept retail store that launched in Las Vegas in August 2015. The store was launched by Polaroid Fotobar's founders to take the idea of liberating digital photos to the next level. We spoke to co-founder Dov Quint about the store and the industry.

Photographer Jay P. Morgan of The Slanted Lens made this short 8-minute video with 7 easy ways you can lose your photography clients.

"If you do these seven things, you’re going to lose your photo and video clients. I guarantee it," says Morgan. "That's right, I'm going to teach you the 7 best ways to keep your clients from ever hiring you again."

Facebook ads are some of the best and cheapest sources for advertising a new wedding photography business.

When I first started wedding photography a few years ago, business was slow. I got all my inquires through Gumtree (an English version of Craiglist) and organic search traffic, and I only booked around 8 weddings in my first year. I still had a day job at this point, so could still get by.

GoPro just announced the financial results of its latest quarter, and things aren't looking very good for the flagging camera company. Investors were already bracing for the worst after GoPro slashed 7% of its workforce in January and announced a huge drop in camera sales.

Quarterly revenue has dropped ~31% from a year ago to $436.6 million, and the company lost $34.4 million in the quarter, GoPro says. In response, GoPro says it will be cutting down its camera lineup to offer just 3 main models starting in April 2016.

Yahoo announced yesterday that it will be cutting 15% of its workforce, or about 1,700 jobs, in an effort to bring the flagging Internet company back into profitability. The company will also be trimming and shutting down weak and non-essential businesses to focus on core products.

Unfortunately for photographers, Flickr will reportedly be one of the businesses that will see some cutbacks in the very near future.

If you've always dreamed of owning a Leica repair business, now's your chance to do so. A complete Leica service business has popped up on eBay. It was previously owned by a Factory Authorized Leica service agent, and his complete set of tools and resources can now be yours for $138,216.

Sony's image sensor business has seen meteoric growth in recent times, but it seems that things are now cooling down. The company just reported its earnings for its latest quarter, and things aren't looking as rosy as they were before: Sony reports a "significant" decrease in image sensor sales.

It occurred to me yesterday that the whole idea of "tips" is a bit lopsided. If someone does a great job, we give them a hefty tip; if they do a terrible job, we give them no tip. In other words, the worst thing we can do to someone who provides a bad level of service is to not give them extra money.

That's... kind of a low bar to set. It's not even carrot-and-stick -- it's carrot-and-smaller-carrot.

Kodak's film business may finally turn a profit this year thanks to support from Hollywood, but the photographic film industry is still seeing declines in demand.

That's the latest word from Fujifilm, which today just announced a major worldwide price increase for its film lines.

GoPro has seen better days. The company just announced that it will be cutting its workforce by 7%, roughly 100 people, after seeing big declines in sales of its action camera.

Things definitely aren't looking too hot for you if you're a fan of Samsung's digital cameras. The South Korean company has been showing off many of its latest and greatest products in Las Vegas at CES 2016, but there hasn't been a single mention or appearance of a Samsung camera.

Photographer David Hobby is best known for his popular blog Strobist, which has introduced countless photographers around the world to the art of shooting with off-camera flashes. Today, Hobby just officially announced a new endeavor called The Photographer's Oil Collective (POC): it's a service that turns photos into one-of-a-kind, hand-painted oil reproductions -- a tangible product that pro photographers can be proud to present to clients.

Back in July 2013, we shared how major filmmakers had banded together to rescue Kodak by committing to purchasing film from the company. One of the big names was J.J. Abrams, the director of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which opens this week.

The new Star Wars was shot on Kodak film, and thanks to a number of other major productions using Kodak as well, Kodak says it may be profitable starting next year.

Adobe announced its quarterly results last Thursday, and investors are happy: the company beat market expectations by doubling profits from a year ago thanks to a huge growth in Creative Cloud subscribers. It seems that the shift from boxed software to digital subscription plans is paying off big time for the San Jose, California-based company.

Flickr could soon find itself with a new owner. Yahoo is reportedly considering a sale of its struggling core Internet business, in which the photo sharing service Flickr -- acquired back in 2005 for around $25 million -- is just a small piece of the pie.