One of the pitfalls of being self employed: not getting paid

I’ve been wanting to write a blog post on this subject for a while now but I’m happy to being doing that now.

It’s been a busy year for my little business. I pushed it in ways I never thought possible being totally out of my zone of comfort but it has paid off in so many ways.

However, with the increased work load, I’ve experienced not being paid on now two occasions. I really don’t know why these businesses don’t pay up as they’ve received the promised and given digital products and are even being used online on websites and social media. It’s a strange experience, seeing ones photographs on the net and yet they haven’t been paid for!

I always pay businesses straight away because I know how important cash flow is to me and them.

On with the reminder emails because I won’t give up and I’m currently updating my terms and conditions which have unfortunately I’ve got to do to help prevent this from happening again.

If you’ve been in a similar situation, please do reach out to me. I would really find that helpful!

Ray

Why I went mirrorless - what some photographers won’t tell you!

Earlier this year, I made a change from digital single lens reflex (DSLR) to mirrorless. My 6d’s and 5ds were a few years old and I was realising they had a few flaws which I didn’t like!

I like to shoot my portraits, most often business portraits, at my lenses widest aperture, sometimes at f1.2. I like the look of a portraits taken at f1.2 and I like the natural vignette at this aperture.

However, I was realising that some of my portraits, after bringing them into my software, Lightroom, that some portraits were soft when I zoomed in 100%. To compensate for this, I would take several shots of my subject and with a safer aperture of say f2 or above.

Even though I used to send my lenses away to be calibrated, that wasn’t enough!

Eye Focus

This is where eye focus came in handy with my new mirrorless cameras. AI (artificial intelligence) enables me to select a subject to track and my camera tracks it, particularly when I’m up close to them, their eyes and their nearest eye are locked on to. It’s really cool.

My workflow’s changed dramatically. I take less photographs, saving space on my computer, and I now zoom in 100% and have amazing accuracy.

Video

I do quite a few videos for business where a lot of my clients are talking direct to camera, eye focus is really useful here. I also film myself quite often and eye focus has enabled me not to worry about focus, so I can concentrate on other technical details!