Cost Per megapixel

[paulmoorestudio]

and how clueless were we in the digital beginnings to pretty much just give away internet usage??...and now there are some clients who want and demand that you shoot both still and motion and will only pay creative fees for the still because that is going in print and the motion is "just" internet.  Seems I have always paid about over a grand per megapixel.. once you figure all the stuff you need to make it work for you..
 with motion you use to be able to roll film for about 80,000 grand at least now you can have a red package for what, about 80 grand?.. but on the bottom its a different story..a af100 set up is not much more money from my old canon xl1 system, but the quality is not even close.  

[mmurph]

Wow, talk about meticulous. I found this fascinating to see the way you had recorded all of your costs in such detail. See I was only out of commission for a few weeks and I got to cost per megapixel, imagine if was longer where I would've gotten. Its amazing the things you wind up doing when your sitting in a room alone all day. ...

Yeah, can you say OCD? (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) 

How about $ per MTF on the lenses? THAT should help me make great photos!   

I hit the wall with chronic pain/injuries about 4 years ago and had to give it up. Doing anything physical hurts, just picking up a camera. Hard to take eBay photos to sell stuff.

I just got an MRI 2 weeks ago and I'm starting to get it all sorted out. But I'll likely need fusion of 3-4 vertebre in my neck. Which just leaves the torn shouler, first rib, low back, and leg pain ...

I am hoping to find a younger photog to collaborate with in Jan/Feb.  I love lighting, studio, fashion, styling, and still have a good kit.   I am only 53, so I need to do something! In the mean time, I am bored as hell.

But - I am still alive, my wife works (as long as she willl let me hang around.)  Sorry, I really don't mean to whine!

I hope you are back at it soon! I live vicariously now, so I can't have y'all out of action! (envious ..)

Cheers! 

[theguywitha645d]

Or dollars per mm? The new 25mm from Pentax is $200 per mm, but my used 300mm is $2 per mm.

[mmurph]

Or dollars per mm? The new 25mm from Pentax is $200 per mm, but my used 300mm is $2 per mm.

Wow, that 300 is a good deal! You think I could chop it, and make 12, 25mm? At 12x25$x200 = $60K off a $600 investment! Can you say "1%"? 

[mmurph]

It's just saying my business model has changed, or should I say "our" business model has changed.  It's impossible for me to pre produce, shoot multiple cameras, process, purpose, edit and deliver everything with just one or two people.  

All you hear about is tech, tech, tech.  This forum is fixated on it, some photographers have built their careers around brands and tech and blogs and I can promise you that it's not tech that sells a project, it's the human resource.

Content/image/vision is the 80%. The technical and production is the balance.

But now that there is no way to make a living on the low end, you also have to do complex process/project management + perfect execution + vision to earn any kind of niche with a livable return.  You can't make a go of it on headshots or portraits while you learn the craft/art.

You are smart to build a good team and trust them. It is **hard** to do both the creative (right brain/left side/ intuitive creative) and technical (left brain/right side/analytical) + project/people/budget management all in the same brain at the same time.  

As my memory started to fail, and I was whacked on my pain meds, I had to do lighting diagrams, timelines, & shot lists for all of my shoots.  Every lens, aperature, background, styling change mapped out, so I could hand that to an assistant and let them mange me! Pretty pathetic!

So now I can do the analytic/technical. Too tired and medicated for the vision, at least right now.

When I was in grad school for photography (for 1 semester), the basic attitude was "We can teach someone all the technical they need to know in 6 months. Start with a good creative ..."

In undergrad, there was a woman who was 1 year ahead who is still a good friend. She was dyslexic and couldn't quite remember the technical or how to work her camera, but she has made a good career in photography.

Content trumps technical. But photogs are really the most conservative of "artists."    Equipment is safer than talking about content, talent, meditation, vision, spirit, voice, energy - all that creepy stuff that so threatens your ego!  And **that** is why Annie L. is a stupid bich!  

[Rob C]

And **that** is why Annie L. is a stupid bich!  

Now that's too obscure for me to get.

I watched her sister's docu Life through a lens and enjoyed it very much - have watched it many times to fill the void when the tv sucks (often, indeed, even with a full range of UK and Spanish channels available) and then I saw her book Vida de una fotógrafa 1990 -2005, which I took to be the book they were planning in the film, and out came the credit card. It was, and it wasn't. In the event, it's a personal journey through her private emotional life, not at all what had been suggested (or understood) via the documentary. I would like my money back, though will certainly watch the film again.

So what exactly did you mean?

(You have my sympathy regarding health: I've had two heart attacks, two stents, and that friggin' fantastic Gitzo G 410 with its wonderful pan and tilt head is just too damned heavy for me to use outdoors. Period. I can manage a toy Slik. That's a very good reason for my coveting an M9 with a 35mm optic. Santa?)

Rob C

[mmurph]

So what exactly did you mean?

Meant to be sorta ironic snark.  

About how wannabes and techies rag on her - "she doesn't even do her own lighting", "she just walks in and pushes the button."

I think, like you - she is doing it, I'm not. It's all just jealous sniping based on gossip.

When you have the vision, and consistently deliver iconic, world class, stunning imagery on the highest level. Well, take a close look and see what you can learn from someone who delivers, day after day, for 40 years, on the biggest, riskiest, most expensive and high pressure shoots.  "Marie Antoinette" stills from that movie about her, etc.  I still have that on my photo archive server, I'll have to watch it again for inspiration.

I realized when I woke up at 4 am that your post probably went astray from the "too complicated" thread? Oh well.

*****

I am really stunned to hear what you have gone through health wise! Congrats on making it.  It is sobering to think that X numbers of years ago we might not still be here ...

It gives you a bit of perspective, doesn't it? It is so hard to adjust to limitations as we get older. Sounds like you are on the right track, with a good team you like and trust.

There is a good - though dated - book called "Men's Passages", about how our roles become less about "I" and more communal as we age. As you said - it doesn't matter who pushes the button  And photography is so physically demanding.

Wow, I am glad to hear you are doing so well. Please take care of yourself! OT, but the one thing that helps me most, more than my 5 pain meds, etc. is meditation. I'll just leave it at that for now.

Cheers! I hope you are almost healed! M.

[theguywitha645d]

WOW! Why are photographers so snarky? Is there something about Annie's work that is raining on your parade?

She is a very talented photographer. It appears she made some bad business decisions, but given the state of the world economy, that does not seem that unusual, even in professions that should know better like banks and stock companies.

Naturally, if you are absolutely perfect and your work is second to none, then I guess you have a position from which to look down on your peers...

[mmurph]

It was a joke about how everybody rags on her, because she doesn't clean her own lens and do her own photoshop.

I think she is kick-ass great, to quote my 23 year old MUA.

Personally, I am hoping I can get downstairs to get a cup of coffee in 2 hours. Maybe get dressed.  That, to me, will be a successful day!  

[theguywitha645d]

It was a joke about how everybody rags on her, because she doesn't clean her own lens and do her own photoshop.

I think she is kick-ass great, to quote my 23 year old MUA.

Personally, I am hoping I can get downstairs to get a cup of coffee in 2 hours. Maybe get dressed.  That, to me, will be a successful day!  

Not if we keep quoting your posts! What do you think about that? 

[mmurph]

Not if we keep quoting your posts! What do you think about that? 

Anything that makes the minutes pass! Cold day and not enough sleep.   Eff everything ....

Maybe I could become a professional troll?  There must be some profit in that, if I could get paid per click!   

[ixania2]

It was a joke about how everybody rags on her, because she doesn't clean her own lens and do her own photoshop.

I think she is kick-ass great, to quote my 23 year old MUA.

she shot the queen, disney, agassi, most of her luios vuitton ads, clooney and so on with canon 1Ds and ef 24-70, which seems to be her favourite glass even for high-class-acts.
only-primes- and mf-lovers, listen: it's the photographer...

[theguywitha645d]

she shot the queen, disney, agassi, most of her luios vuitton ads, clooney and so on with canon 1Ds and ef 24-70, which seems to be her favourite glass even for high-class-acts.
only-primes- and mf-lovers, listen: it's the photographer...

One false conclusion does not support another. To follow your logic, let us just use cell phone cameras. But the equipment does impart qualities and it does hinder or complement a workflow. You would be also wrong to conclude that technical perfection is the point of comment. A Holga is as fine a tool as any camera is, if the qualities of the Holga are what you want. Annie's equipment choices are hers--I have other ideas about my work that lead me to my choice.

[ixania2]

One false conclusion does not support another. To follow your logic, let us just use cell phone cameras. But the equipment does impart qualities and it does hinder or complement a workflow. You would be also wrong to conclude that technical perfection is the point of comment. A Holga is as fine a tool as any camera is, if the qualities of the Holga are what you want. Annie's equipment choices are hers--I have other ideas about my work that lead me to my choice.

who shot louis vuitton campaigns with a cell phone?

[Brian Hirschfeld]

she shot the queen, disney, agassi, most of her luios vuitton ads, clooney and so on with canon 1Ds and ef 24-70, which seems to be her favourite glass even for high-class-acts.
only-primes- and mf-lovers, listen: it's the photographer...

Actually if you watch her documentary, she shoots, 35mm, medium format film, and medium format digital on most of her shoots....and she uses profoto, broncolor, leaf/mamiya/phase (you see it in the doc), Leica (m and s), and she uses Hasselblad for her Marie Antoinette pictures (which I think are some of her best modern pictures)....Although i have no doubt she owns a lot of equipment, I suspect a lot of it is rented, especially since she travels so much, it would be a rather large pain to lug too much...

[theguywitha645d]

who shot louis vuitton campaigns with a cell phone?

Hey, if it is only the photographer, then what does it matter what they use.

[Brian Hirschfeld]

Hey, if it is only the photographer, then what does it matter what they use.

Oh so is that your clever way of implying that the gear DOES matter

[Rob C]

Why does so much stuff here end up as nothing but point-scoring?

All you need to win that is a natural ability with words - that implies nothing special and no greater mind.

Some folks use this and others that; there's room for everybody and room for very few. That's why the constant struggle, the competition and the occasional bitterness that comes wafting through. But relax, it's in the nature of life and was ever thus. Andy was more prescient than he imagined.

Rob C

[theguywitha645d]

Oh so is that your clever way of implying that the gear DOES matter

[Brian Hirschfeld]

Some I'm inherently twice as good as you because of my sensor?

(I'm kidding)