Month: March 2011

The lady on the corner

When I pulled up in front of my parents’ house with a carload of kids, she was standing more or less in the middle of the intersection, shifting back and forth in the middle of the road as I pulled the car to the curb and parked the car.

She was dressed in a dark overcoat that hung to her knees, and boots that looked more like rubber galoshes than winter boots. The day was on the mild side for late winter, but still near freezing, and I noticed right away that she had neither hat nor gloves. The wind played with her thinning hair, and I guessed her age to be somewhere on the far side of 65. From first sight of her, I had an inkling that something was Not Quite Right.
Continue reading “The lady on the corner”

On photography pricing and group deals

We had a really interesting discussion on Twitter this morning about professional portrait photography rates, and I thought it was one of those conversations that would be interesting to port over here to the blog.

You know those daily coupon deals, like Groupon and Living Social and Kahoot and the rest of them? I think I get a dozen or so of them every day, and while I’ve found some awesome deals (like a free membership to the Museum of Civilization, and half-price meals at East Side Marios) most of them I delete. A few of them I snicker first and then delete. And some just make me go “Hmmmm.” There was one today from a local photographer who was offering a $120 photo package for $40. Included in the package was “One-Hour Photo Shoot, One-8×10 Print, Two-5×7 Prints, Four-4×6 Prints and 16 Wallet Prints and a Digital CD of all Photo’s” (sic). And I thought, “Seriously?”

So I mentioned it on twitter, and all my photographer friends said, “I know, isn’t that insane?” while all my non-photographer friends said things like, “Well, it’s probably good for exposure and building a client base”. And I’m sure a few people thought, “Photography is ridiculously expensive, what nerve they have charging that much.”

454:1000 Old guard versus young whippersnapper

So let’s look at the deal from the photographer’s perspective. Those deal networks aren’t free — Groupon takes up to 50% of the fee, from what I’ve heard, and the others take in the range of 25% to 30%. For ease of counting, let’s assume they take 25% off the top, which leaves the photographer with $30.

For that $30, here’s what the photographer has to do: get in contact with the client and set up an appointment, show up with all of his/her gear (or have the available studio space, which adds huge overhead), spend an hour taking pictures and say another half hour getting there and back. That’s at bare minimum two hours, or $15 per hour.

It takes me about four hours to sort through the pictures from a session, select the best ones and polish them up. (Caveat: this is my favourite part, and I linger over it. So let’s say for the sake of argument the photographer is super-speedy and can do it in two hours.) So now we’re up to four hours, or $7.50 per hour. And then you have to contact the client again for the image selection process. You either create an online gallery, or sit in front of your computer with them, or at bare and unprofessional minimum, e-mail the low-res files to them. Another hour of work. And then the client picks their faves, and you have to prepare and submit them for printing. Even at Costco’s rates, you’re looking at $10 worth of printing. So that’s $20 divided by five hours, which is $4 per hour.

And THEN you have to think about taxes (say 30%) and equipment (say another 30%). You’re at less than $2 per hour now. Realistically, I think you’re actually at a huge loss by the time you’re done, and this doesn’t even address the opportunity cost of your time as you work with all these cheap clients when you could be drumming up business with paying clients — or working at McDonalds, for five times the hourly income. And you’ve given away the digital negatives, so that client has no reason to ever come back to you for future prints and lord knows what they’ll do to the images.

So the discount deal is obviously at the ridiculously cheap (and, IMHO, ultimately worthless) end of the spectrum. Sure, the photographer may build some clients, but they’ll likely want the $40 deal next time. And I think the photographer undervalues him or herself by setting prices too low. And I genuinely believe there’s an argument to be made that it devalues the profession of photography as a whole.

I’m very lucky. I’m not making my living at this, so I have nothing to lose except my time, and I still wouldn’t devalue myself like that. I have to admit, when I first saw the going rates for professional family photography, I balked at first too. Why would someone pay $150 just for a session fee when you can get a portrait package at Loblaws for $45? I only have to look at the packages I’ve bought from Loblaws over the years to know the answer to that one. It’s like the old $10 haircut — you only have to get one once to realize that you really do get what you pay for. Some people are totally happy with a $10 haircut and more power to them, but it’s something that’s important enough to me that I invest in it. It’s worth it to me.

Pricing photography is a minefield right now. You price yourself too high and the phone doesn’t ring, but you price yourself too low and you get plenty of calls — but find yourself working for peanuts, run ragged and barely able to pay your bills.

Of course, this issue is not limited to photography. We’ve had four contractors come through the house to give estimates the repair the drywall we pulled out of Tristan’s room. Two of the first three were plenty affordable, and they would have happily slapped up some drywall for us. But the one who quoted us the highest (by a considerable amount) price also seemed to really know what he was talking about. He offered insight and advice and opinion. And we’re going with him for exactly that reason, because his prices speak to the quality of his work.

So what do you think? On twitter, the photography crowd was unanimous in their disapproval of this kind of drastic price reduction, and agreed that while there is plenty of room for specials and promos, this cut-to-the-bone approach would ultimately be counterproductive. I’m curious as to what you think!

Edited to add: apparently this is hardly an original thought, right down to the McDonalds analogy: http://thebusinesslens.com/2010/09/15/groupon-photography-sessions-vs-working-mcdonalds/

Project 365: The arrival of a long-anticipated new toy

I‘m still catching up on my 365 pictures. I’ve been taking them every day, it’s just hard to find time to write the weekly wrap posts! This week’s photos include a trip, a party, and a most excellent new toy.

I told you about the trip already, but here’s a recap of the pictures that made the cut as the photo of the day. First, this shot from the window of the plane as we’re ascending out of Ottawa. This is the Ottawa river, just a little bit west of town.

71:365 Over Ottawa

And a few dozen pictures of Lucas as he obstinately refuses to pose for me.

72:365 Lucas's photo shoot

We rushed home from Toronto to make it in time for Tristan’s 9th birthday party the very next day.

Birthday party madness

We’ve been having some wretched late-winter weather lately. Rain, then freeze, then snow, then more rain. In fact, we had so much rain late last week that we had seepage in the basement — ironically, in the opposite corner of the house from the mold issues we had last fall. Luckily, this is not our yard — but it shows the conditions pretty well.

75:365 Icy sunrise

After a successful transition to the big boy bed, Lucas “helped” me disassemble the crib this week. I’ve managed to move it to the garage, but I just can’t bring myself to turf it entirely yet. Knowing me, I’ll probably let it sit there for another year or two before I actually have the heart to get rid of it.

76:365 Unbuilding the crib

Poor Katie. This is an old obedience-school trick we learned, back when she was still a rambunctious pup. She has to wait for permission to eat the cookie, which she does, but never without the pained and long-suffering expression you see here.

77:365 Katie dog

Between the birthday party shot above and this next one of a cut flower in my mom’s kitchen, there’s a lot of yellow going on. It was right around this point that I realized that my old D40 was having the same sort of trouble processing yellows that it was having processing saturated reds a few months ago.

74:365 Yellow flower

In the end, it’s not a bad picture, but I had such a hard time managing the colour that Beloved and I started to seriously discuss replacing the aging but well-loved D40. It’s approaching 35,000 shutter activations and is nearly four years old. I adore the camera, but it’s becoming a little, um, eccentric, especially in challenging situations with a lot of saturated colour, and I think the autofocus is starting to wander.

I’ve been coveting a D90 since I started my first 365 project back in 2009, but it seemed financially imprudent to upgrade when the D40 was satisfying almost all of our photographic needs. The D90 has really dropped in price lately, and I had a little money put aside specifically from blog and photography earnings, so Beloved and I agreed that it was time to consider an upgrade. I started doing the research, and realized that for not very much more money, I could get a D7000 instead. When I read about the incredible low-light performance, and the amazing reviews it was getting (Ken Rockwell calls it the best digital camera he’s ever used, period) I was sold.

It arrived late last week, in the midst of a day so insane with a leaking basement and arriving relatives that I barely had time to pull it out of the box. But when I did, it was love at first sight.

78:365 Hello baby!

It’s the most amazing camera I’ve ever laid my hands on, and I can’t tell you how excited I am. I can see a huge difference already, and I’ve barely scratched the surface of what it’s capable of.

I am very lucky, and very, very happy. Who knew? Some things *are* worth waiting for!

Our weekend in Toronto with Fisher-Price

Phew, is it just me or has someone hit the fast-forward button on life this week? Yowza! So much to tell you about, and no time to write a coherent blog post!

As I mentioned last week, I’ve been selected to be one of a handful of official bloggers for Fisher-Price Canada. Last weekend, Lucas and I flew down to Toronto for a day to meet the other bloggers and the marketing team. What a riot!

While I love a good road trip, I don’t get too many chances to travel by air. I was going to say this was Lucas’s first time in a plane, but the last time I flew down to Toronto for a social media conference was back in December of 2007, and I was about eight months pregnant with him. He was a lot easier to manage in utero!

At the airport

I have to take a minute to say how much WestJet impressed me on this trip. I’ve never flown with them before, and I don’t know whether it was Lucas or me who was more delighted when the agent who checked us in invited Lucas over to his side of the baggage counter. He let Lucas attach the destination label to our suitcase and helped him push the button that sent our bag on its way to the plane. All the WestJet staff were amazingly pleasant, and we were even given a quick tour of the cockpit when we boarded.

I admit, I was a little leery of flying with a three-year-old, but he was an absolute angel. In fact, the business man whose face visibly fell when he approached his seat and realized he’d be spending his flight sitting next to Lucas even complimented me on his behaviour on the way into Pearson.

It was a gorgeous day to be flying out of Ottawa. We’re just banking over the the Ottawa River here, right around Shirley’s Bay, I think.

71:365 Over Ottawa

I’d picked up a bottle of water and some trail mix in the airport and Lucas snacked on them during ascent and descent to keep his ears clear, and he spent most of the flight happily playing Smurfs on Beloved’s iTouch. When we had to shut that off for takeoffs and landings (which, on the flight from Ottawa to Toronto, comprises nearly half the flight!) we had some stickers and crayons handy. I tell ya, I’m learning that the Boy Scouts were on to something with their preparation motto!

On the airplane

I tried to get a good picture of the driver who met us at the airport holding a card with my name on it — not likely I’ll get that experience a second time!! — but with one hand on Lucas and one hand on our suitcase, a carry-on bag and my purse slung around my neck, there were simply no hands free to snap the shutter.

I did, however, pull out my iPhone to snap baby’s first limo ride!

Baby's first limo ride - apparently now we're posh people! #playpanel

This is typical of how the weekend went, with the lovely peeps at Mom Central Canada, Spider Marketing and Fisher-Price making us feel like royalty with their thoughtfulness every step of the way.

We stayed at the downtown Marriott hotel that’s attached to the Eaton Centre, so Lucas and I dined in typical style in the Eaton Centre food court. (Man, and I thought the Rideau Centre food court was a cesspool of humanity! I was so anxious from the sheer crowdedness of the place that I couldn’t wait to get out of there!)

On Saturday, we spent an entire day on location in the photographer’s studio in downtown Toronto. Ordinarily, I’d’ve been in nirvana to spend eight hours in a studio, but all the excitement of the week had started to catch up with me and frankly, I wasn’t feeling well. Despite that, I had a great time meeting the folks from Mom Central, from the Fisher-Price marketing team, and the other bloggers.

We had our hair and makeup professionally done, and we had professional wardrobe consultants on site. We had three separate photo shoots: one with just me and Lucas, one with half of the other bloggers and their kids, and one giant group shot with all the bloggers and their kids. Here’s Nadia and her adorable little fellow taken from the loft above the studio.

Aerial view of the #playpanel shoot for Fisher-Price. Fun!

And here’s a close-up of Nadia’s son Thomas. Isn’t he a cutie?

Thomas

In between our turns in front of the camera, we chatted and played with Fisher-Price toys and chatted and snacked and chatted. Oh, and there was a lot of this going on:

When bloggers socialize

I’m pretty sure — but not positive — that they’re not talking to each other! 😉 That’s Nadia and our token pregnant blogger, Ilissa.

We ended up wrapping the day a little early. While we waited for our car to arrive and whisk us back to the airport, I noticed that nobody was using the studio with the white backdrop. The big softboxes were turned off, but I still had fun capturing a little private photo shoot in the studio with Lucas.

72:365 Lucas's photo shoot

And then we were off, back to the airport and back to Ottawa in a flash. A mere 30 hours after we’d departed, we descended the escalator at the airport to be greeted by Beloved, Tristan and Simon in the arrivals lounge.

It was a hectic but fun-filled day-and-a-half, and I can’t wait to see those photos! I should have them for you soon, and I’ll have more news about how the year-long campaign with Fisher-Price will go, too. In the interim, HUGE thanks to Mom Central Canada (especially Pam, Cora and Kathryn) and Spider Marketing and Fisher-Price for the amazing trip. We had a blast!

Project 365 – almost a week behind!

With all the craziness of last weekend, I completely forgot to put up my weekly 365 pictures! It doesn’t always matter, but the delay makes some of these seem positively ancient to me.

Speaking of positively ancient, it was my Mom’s birthday at the end of February… sorry, Mom, I couldn’t resist!! 😉 This is Granny on her birthday with my boys. (There was supposed to be a long and lovely blog post celebrating my Mom on her birthday, but every attempt I made came somewhere between a Hallmark knock-off and an obituary — I never did get a draft I liked enough to publish. Maybe for her next birthday! I don’t need fancy words to tell you, though, that my Mom is my best friend and the best mother a girl could ever hope to have.)

64:365 Happy Birthday Granny!

Because it was one of those milestone birthdays, I wanted to do something special to celebrate. Mom chose a girls’ night out at the local casino, just her and me. Isn’t she awesome? We had such a fun night with dinner and just enough luck to keep us busy on the slot machines for a couple of hours.

65:365 Girl's nite out!

You’ve already seen this one from an earlier blog post. This is the day before we put Lucas’s big-boy bed in his room.

66:365 Getting ready for the big boy bed (1 of 3)

This is my new brother, Bubba. My parents adopted him a couple of weeks ago from a shelter. He’s exactly what he looks like: big and kinda dumb but absolutely lovable. He’s also been a fantastic influence on Beau, my other dog brother — remember him, the one who was completely asocial and escaped to lead me on a barefoot chase through Barrhaven at 6:30 one June morning last year? Beau has come miles farther into being a normally socialized dog in the couple of weeks since Bubba arrived than he did in a year of love and patience with my folks.

67:365 Bubba

Snow. More on the way. I’m so very done with winter!

68:365 Snow on cedars

I like this one. This is the sun setting through the Eastern pine in our front yard.

69:365 Sunset through the pine

I like this one, too. This is the giant reflecting sphere on the NRC’s Montreal Road campus. I took a picture of it last year and had found a link describing the sphere and its purpose (it’s art) but the link is gone. Still makes a fun subject for shooting, though!

70:365 NRC reflecting ball in winter

That’s how the world looked through my viewfinder this last week!

Ottawa Public Library hosting a video contest: teens can win an iPad!

Thanks to my friends at CBC Ottawa, who tipped me off to this great new contest for teens from the Ottawa Public Library.

I may have mentioned a few (dozen) times how much I love the Ottawa library. And from their kickin’ new iPhone app to this fun contest to draw attention to Teen Tech Week, they continue to reinvent themselves as a relevant and modern institution in our social-mediated world.

Here’s the details on the contest, from the OPL site:

The Ottawa Public Library (OPL) is launching a video contest for teens 13 to 18. To participate, teens must create a one-minute video on Youtube about their favourite book. The video can be a book trailer, a parody, a review, a dramatization of their favourite scene, or anything related to their book of choice. Submissions will be accepted from March 5 to April 2. If the fun of producing a video isn’t enough, maybe the grand prize of an Apple iPad is incentive for teens to participate. The iPad is compatible with OPL e-books, and can use the wireless connections at all 33 OPL branches.

This contest draws attention to Teen Tech Week (TTW), which takes place March 5-12. It’s an initiative aimed at teens, librarians, educators and parents who are interested in the Library’s non-print resources. During this week, OPL wants to raise awareness among teens about all its digital offerings including e-Books, podcasts, OPL blogs and the new OPL iPhone app.

How fun is that? And here’s a clip of CBC reporter Chad Pawson interviewing Jane Venus, the Manager of Children and Teen Services at the OPL, about the contest.

You can visit the OPL’s site for more details about the contest or OPL’s Teen Tech Week. Even though they’re too young to enter the contest, I think I might have the boys make their own book-related video clip as a March Break project — what a fun idea!

A love letter to Tristan, Age 9

My dear, sweet Tristan,

Today you are nine years old – the last year of single digits! You, my eldest son, have had quite the year. I feel like I’ve gotten to know you much better as a person this year. I have seen bits of you that foreshadow the teenager you will soon be, and the man not far behind that. You already stand as tall as my chin, and you still laugh when every now and then I push down on the top of your head in an always-unsuccessful attempt to cram you back into the toddler that you were just yesterday.

Tristan at Shiverfest

You are still my adventuring son, the one with endless energy who will leave no snow-mound unscaled, no tree unclimbed, no ledge unwalked. You love to go places, to see new things, to explore new places. And yet you are also the most resistant to change — possibly even moreso than me, and I didn’t think that was possible. Our recent move was hardest on you of all the boys, but I think that six months later, you’re finally okay with it. Thank goodness for that treehouse, that’s all I can say!

428:1000 Tristan at the Farm

Tristan, in your ninth year you like Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Mario Bros, Pokemon, Beyblades, Smurfs, and playing Wii and DS games. You still love Lego, and you will spend endless amounts of time at the table with nothing but paper and pencil to entertain you. You’ve drawn your own comic books, and on an average day you create at least three or more works of art. You are a scavenger for art projects, and make fascinating compositions out of kleenex boxes, paper rolls and whatever other trush ephemera you can lay your hands on. You’re also reading way above your grade level, consuming book series like Geronimo Stilton and Percy Jackson.

438:1000 Book club

You are doing well in school, solidly in the B to B+ range. You joined the school choir this year, which you seem to enjoy. Math seems to come easily to you, but getting you to do journal entries is like herding angry cats. How can the son of a hard core blogger hate writing journal entries so much?!

27:365 Homework TtV

This year you had a fun party for friends old and new at the movie theatre, and it was another smashing success. Your cake was decorated with Sonic the Hedgehog action figures, and we all laughed our way through Gnomeo and Juliet. Tonight, Granny is fulfilling your special birthday dinner request: roast beef, mashed potatoes … and stuffing! (You sure have come a long way from the finicky eater you once were!)

Birthday party madness

You are an amazing older brother. Lately, you’ve taken to teaching Simon the math and cursive handwriting that you’re learning in school, and you have endless patience for Lucas. When Lucas and I took a quick trip to Toronto this past weekend, my heart nearly burst with pride when you drew a special colouring page full of Lucas’s favourite characters to keep him busy on the plane.

551:1000 Christmas card outtake

You have a big and sensitive heart, Tristan. You’re thoughtful and creative and very aware of the feelings of people around you. You’re not particularly good at putting your clothes in the hamper or keeping your room tidy, and the way you bicker with Simon may yet make my head explode. But you make me proud every single day, and I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to feel like we’re friends as well as mom and son.

449:1000 Yoshiback ride

Happy birthday, my darling Tristan. I hope this year is your best year ever. We love you very much!

Exciting new bloggy news

As you know, I am very selective about advertising, product reviews and giveaways. Any service or brand that gets featured here comes with my personal endorsement, which I won’t give lightly.

Not too long ago, I had a great offer for a year-long blogging affiliation that would have come with an all-expenses-paid trip to BlogHer 11 in San Diego, and I turned it down because I simply couldn’t see myself investing emotionally in the company in the way I’d need to blog about it authentically. It was a huge multinational and I’m sure you’d recognize the name, but it just wasn’t the right fit for me, and for the blog. Turning down that free trip to BlogHer was painful, but in retrospect it was 100% the right choice.

And today, I’m dancing on my toes with excitement to tell you about the offer that I *did* accept! Yep, this is the thing that I’ve been not-quite-able to talk about for weeks. *squee*

Starting this weekend, I’ll be one of 10 Canadian moms chosen to be the official bloggers for: Fisher-Price Canada! Is that not awesome? I can’t think of too many brands I love and trust as much as Fisher-Price. Our closets and toy bins overflow with Fisher-Price products, from the Rainforest cradle swing to the Healthy Care highchair (that endured all three boys and was still good enough to give away for more use) and the Healthy Care booster seat that we’re still using to the Little People sets of every shape and size to the GeoTrax that Lucas just inherited from Tristan — and that’s just off the top of my head! I’m sure there’s oodles more if I looked around. I can tell you free of any endorsement or affiliation, we love Fisher-Price toys and gear.

Lucas

So when the opportunity came up, it was easy for me to say yes to Fisher-Price. This weekend, they’re bringing all of the bloggers together in Toronto for a meet-and-greet and a (eep!) photo shoot. Lucas and I will be flying out to Toronto on Friday afternoon, and rushing back on Saturday to make it home in time for Tristan’s birthday party on Sunday. I’d hoped the whole family could go, but they were focusing on kids under five years old for this particular photo shoot.

DSC_2228

As you can see, I didn’t even have to look too hard into my Flickr archives to demonstrate our ongoing affection for the Fisher-Price brand!!

Batman!

(Although, I have to tell you, it pains me to feature some of these old pictures from a photographic perspective. Even though I’ve always loved taking pictures, I’ve sure come a long way in the last few years!!)

DSC_0569

And how cute is this? All three boys eating their first birthday cake in the same Healthy Care high chair! That’s Tristan in 2003, Simon in 2005 and Lucas in 2009, from left to right.

Tristan age 1 (eight long years ago!)SimonLucas is one

I’m so pleased to be working with Fisher-Price and Mom Central Canada for the next year on this project, and I can’t wait to tell you more about it. Our whole family is excited, including Beloved who still waxes nostalgic about his Fisher-Price Sesame Street Little People set from the 1970s. Do you have a favourite Fisher-Price toy or product?

Liveblogging the move to a big-boy bed

So I had this idea that I would live-blog Lucas’s move to a big-boy bed. I mean, this is the last time I get to do this, right? After nine years of faithful and nearly constant service (save for a quick break from 2006 through 2008) this crib has logged near-constant use.

I even sat Lucas down in his room on the weekend so I could take a few pictures of him to memorialize the occasion.

66c:365 Getting ready for the big boy bed (3 of 3)

He’s been ready for the big-boy bed for a lot longer than I’ve been ready. Beloved even proposed that we leave the crib behind when we moved in October. There was no way, though, that I was freeing Lucas from baby-jail any sooner than I absolutely had to!

66b:365 Getting ready for the big boy bed (2 of 3)

It was Tristan who traumatized me for life on the idea of transitioning to big-boy beds. He was 20 months old when we turfed him from the crib to make room for Simon and I was 100 months pregnant, and he absolutely refused to stay in his bed. We put up a baby gate to keep him upstairs, and we’d find him at the top of the stairs at the end of the evening in a little camp he’d created for himself with his blanket, pillow and soother. And I won’t even get into the midnight rambles and the shock of waking up to a toddler staring at me at all hours of the night. *shudder*

And so, here we are. I’ve read Lucas his three nightly books, secured his soother, and carefully tucked him into his big-boy bed. I’m waiting for the shenanigans to begin.

And waiting.

And waiting.

…

*nothing*

So I creep back down the hallway 30 minutes later, and he’s fast asleep, curled into a perfect little ball and looking more like a newborn in that giant bed than the oversized preschooler he is.

The next sound I hear from him is nine hours later, just a few minutes after I open my own eyes and before I’ve broken the seal on my flanneliciously warm bed. “Mo-ommy!” comes his sing-song voice from the next room. “Come and get me!” Just like he has called me after every nap and sleep for months.

Not much in the way of riveting blog fodder, I’ll grant you that — but it sure was a sweet way to wake up!

Goodbye, lovely crib. I still remember agonizing over spending what seemed like an exorbitant amount of money on it (I think it was $300 or so) but had I had even an inkling of the years of faithful service and happy memories it would bring, I would have happily paid triple that. (And now, due to changing Health Canada regulations on drop-sided cribs, it’s consigned to the scrap heap. Sigh.)

66:365 Getting ready for the big boy bed (1 of 3)