What I learned from my work @ Image Group

After work around 3 months at Image Group, I learned a few things:

1. First world rules! Seriously, paying rates are higher but things are cheaper. You work more, but probably in less time and in a smarter way. Technology is seriously cheaper than in the third world.
2. First world companies aren’t so smart, but they do a few key activities properly. If I used to said that Chilean companies are 1% smart and 99% dumb on their activities, American do 10% smart and 90% dumb. The issue is that it has to be the right 10% of activities (mainly core money generation).
3. The master is the faster. ¿how do you distinguish an expert on any subject? Simple: experts actually play for some time so they look good, but they are able to the work within an instant. If you want to be master of something, you have to get fast on it.
4. People is willing to spend money in photos. Actually most photo buyers are women. Anyway, at $25 each picture, you will have some clients saying that is too expensive, but a lot of people will just pay it, and many times they bought 3, 4 or 12 photos at $25 each.
5. Nikon’s dslr sucks; when I first got my D300s, Raimundo (good friend and Nikon user), explained me that “the advantage” of Nikon interface is that almost every setting is at a reach of just one button. At that time I thought that was good idea, but never get used to that. When the time to work with the camera came, it was a hell. Any rubbing or accidental touching of the camera result in an unwanted settings change. For me was a white balance that leave 200 pictures green (luckily some correction was possible at lab, but I got a warning anyway), my friend Daniel got ~300 pictures so over exposed, that they were no useful at all. After a few weeks, all photographers where using paper tape at the camera controls, so they weren’t accidentally moved (at studios).
6. The value of the print; Digital is great, but for the client, the print experience is irreplaceable. At the vessel we printed all pictures, no exceptions. Printing make the process of “selling” the picture so much easy. Is a so important issue that perhaps I’ll dedicate a post to it.
7. Posing no-models people. Posing a model is easy, most positions will look good. Posing normal people, fat people, old people and groups, is another thing, is kind an art by it self. It is a lot to talk about it, but if you are in a hurry just go to Hanson Fong, despite his web could look not much professional, trust me, for posing imperfect people, he is the man.