Canon G11 Announced

The G11 was announced yesterday and some review sites are already putting in their two-cents as to why or why not this iteration of Canon's G-line is a worthy upgrade. Here's a snippet from Photography Bay:
'The G11 has less megapixels on its sensor than its predecessor, the G10. The series went from 14.7MP down to 10MP, therefore satisfying the needs of photographers who wanted cleaner images. Further, with the coupling of the DIGIC 4 engine there should be less of a problem with the processing of the image noise in the your photos. One poster in the DPReview forums (via 1001 Noisy Cameras) made a connection that there may be a Sony sensor of some sort inside the body of this little digicam.'

If you wind up getting one of these, either to hoist onto a pole or snap some detail shots of an interior, let us know how it performs.

Check our the complete article here.

Delivery Options

We're doing an ongoing review of different ways to deliver your photos to your clients - other than burning them to a DVD, that is. Two reasons discs are a pain: first, burning files to a disc wastes time and plastic. Second, it wastes energy physically delivering the disc either in-person or through the mail.

There are a number of ways to transfer your files electronically, one of the simplest being email. However, email has a number of drawbacks. Attachment size limitations, full mailboxes, junk mail filters, attachment filters, clients accidentally deleting emails, etc. The list is endless. The most efficient method for delivering your files to clients is on a server of some sort. Clients have access to their files, the clients can't mess with the files, the files are always there, etc. This list is also endless.

So enter the question: how do I get a file server of my own? Well, you can set your own up with relative ease, but there is some cost involved. For those out there who are less interested in the simpler route, that's where we come in. We're going to make some recommendations of various file-delivery services and weigh in on the pro's and con's. So stay tuned, there's one coming around the corner.

Episode 105: Software Part 2

Podcast Schedule

One question we've gotten multiple times so far is about when the podcasts are posted. In short, the answer is: the beginning of the week. More specifically, Monday or Tuesday of each week. Like many of you, I'm a professional photographer - and most of you would know that the profession can keep you very busy. I try to put the podcasts together over the course of the week and record over the weekend. Sometimes, I'm not able to do so and the recordings get pushed back into the beginning of the week, bumping the podcast post date to Tuesday. Hope that information helps.

Tax Trouble

The last thing you want on your hands as a successful business-person is the issue of back-taxes. Some of the time it's because you decided not to pay them - most of the time it's because you didn't know you had to pay a particular tax. Depending on which state you reside in, and how you deliver your photos to your clients, you may or may not be subject to sales tax.

Check out an excerpt from a Photopreneur article on this matter:
"West argued that the demand for sales tax was wrong because even though he gave the completed film to the clients and didn’t even retain copyright over the images, his transactions were for services rather than tangible personal property. He also claimed that his relationship with his clients was that of employer/employee – a definition even few photographers would want to support. That meant the client always owned the photographs and he didn’t need to pay sales tax for what was effectively a salary. The court, perhaps not surprisingly, didn’t agree. He was ordered to pay 4.5 percent of the gross receipts of each sale for the three years covered in the audit."

Read the complete article here.

Also, Read Dan Heller's article, specifically the licensing guideines:
"Another situation in which sales tax is not charged is when you license images. (Licensing is when you sell someone a right to use an image, but you're not transferring a physical asset.) In California, licensing images is not subject to sales tax, but some states have different laws on this."

Read the complete article here.

Episode 104: Software Part 1

Gizmodo on Lenses

I'm a huge fan of Gizmodo (as well as many others) for gadget news. They are your go-to site for up-to-the-minute gadget releases, commentary, and an overall humorous slant on the world of consumer electronics. That being said, I don't tend to look to them for articles about photography. The following article that popped up today that caught my attention - it gave a quality overview of various types of lenses (zooms, primes, wide-angle, etc.).

Here's a clip about wide-angle lenses:
"Why is this? Film is flat, so light can come in at any angle, and the film will mostly record it. But camera sensor pixels are concave, and don't do well with light coming in from the side. Think of the pixels as little water glasses, says Sigma's Dave Metz. "You can fill them up with water by pouring it in from above, but try shooting it in from the side with a garden hose, and it's going to go all over the place." A telephoto by definition is pulling in light from directly in front of it, whereas a wide angle by definition is bringing in light from the sides, too. Hence the trouble, and the added expense."

The article is lengthy and may seem overwhelming to those just wrapping their minds around this information.

Check out the complete article here.

Accounting Options for Mac

MacWorld posted a quick summary of some accounting programs for Macs. I know that not everyone out there uses Apple products, but half of the article was geared towards web-based solutions as well - so I figured the post was worthwhile.

One of my favorites is QuickBooks Online. Here's what they have to say about it:
"Intuit’s online version of QuickBooks offers a lot of options, even at the free level. All versions provide you with the ability to create and send invoices, charge sales tax, track payments, print checks, and track expenses, for example. Some of the more sophisticated features, like creating estimates, time-tracking and billing by customer, and importing data from the desktop version of QuickBooks are limited to the $35 per month QuickBooks Online Plus product. It’s also accessible on smartphones including BlackBerry devices and iPhones." 

Check out the complete article here.

Episode 103: Exterior Equipment

 

Google Voice for your Business

We all know by now that Google's new (currently beta) service, 'Google Voice', is pretty neat - it allows you to have a single number that rings all of your existing lines. We just wanted to point it out as a great potential business tool. If you are starting your business, have a cell phone, but don't want to give that out to a bunch of strangers - then put in for a Google Voice invitation. Even if you don't have 2 or more phones you want to ring, it can easily be used to mask your personal cell phone number as you add a bunch of other features such as voicemail transcription, free SMS messaging, and assigning rules to particular groups/call screening.

If you have your own business, you more than likely have a BlackBerry, iPhone, or an Android Device. Both the BlackBerry OS and Android already have Google Voice apps. These allow you to dial out using your Google Voice number so the receiving caller sees the number they know. The apps also allow you to send and receive SMS text messages. There's a bit of a snag with the iPhone app, so we'll see where that one goes.

The one question that many people aren't asking is, 'Is Google Voice reliable enough for my business?' Well, at the moment, the hard truth is that the experience isn't trouble-free. As frustrating as phone companies are, they do connect calls reliably. Personally, I've had issues with Google Voice - some calls coming from Verizon Wireless phones were receiving a message telling them that they were calling a non-working number. I've been talking to friends when Google Voice has prompted them for a 2-digit code in the middle of a conversation. Little issues like these tell me that it's not ready for prime-time use yet, but it's an impressive start.

It should be noted that you can get a phone number from a variety of places online - one with the intended function of call-forwarding exclusively. However, watch the fees for these numbers. Many of the phone numbers you can get online (including the Skype's) will charge you forwarding fees per minute. Yeah, that's right, per minute.

So score an invite to Google Voice, test it until there's nothing left to test, then decide whether or not it's right for your business.

Check out Google voice here and submit a request for an invite here.