In 2009, we shared with you a series of behind-the-scenes videos leading up to the historical inauguration of President Barack Obama. The video - Inaugural 'Pre-Game' Behind-The-Scenes Video - showed the different angles available to those covering the event. In 1992 we found ourselves on the North Riser, and every inauguration since we have been on the south riser. This year, we opted for the Ballustrade - a change up to be certain - something new.

Below is a video which illustrates from start to finish the set up we used to capture the swearing in ceremony - once which lasts for approximately 60 seconds. The set up and configurations, a bit longer. IF you're getting this in a feed, click here for the link.

(Comments, if any after the Jump)

---

Please post your comments by clicking the link below. If you've got questions, please pose them in our Photo Business Forum Flickr Group Discussion Threads.

TIPS60 - Using music in your videos, shoot sessions, website - should you?

Here is another of our videos offering tips and inisights into the business of photography. a transcript of the video is included after the jump.

(Continued after the Jump)

TRANSCRIPT:Here a few thoughts on using music in your photography business. I'm John Harrington. You need to be very careful about using music in your photography business because even if you're using the music to entertain a subject when you're doing a portrait session doing so in that commercial environment requires a license from ASCAP or BMI. Those are the two major ones. You want to make sure you have permission to do that if you have music playing in a studio that you have a brick and mortar facility. Having that music play actually requires permission. When it's on a website, when it's in a video you delivered to a client, you need to have a separate and specific license for that use as well. Generally speaking you shouldn't be using any music on a website because brides and grooms if they're looking for you or a couples are looking for a family portrait photographer, corporate commercial clients don't want to see music coming up when they are trying to sit in their cubical searching for a photographer for whatever reason when their at work. So just don't use music in general.

---

Please post your comments by clicking the link below. If you've got questions, please pose them in our Photo Business Forum Flickr Group Discussion Threads.

WHAT WE USE - Wimberley Tripod Head

We took the Wimberley tripod head to the Presidential inauguration to see how it handled. Here's a video illustrating it's use. Quick Link - HERE To learn more about the heads, visit www.TripodHead.com .

(Comments, if any, after the Jump)

---

Please post your comments by clicking the link below. If you've got questions, please pose them in our Photo Business Forum Flickr Group Discussion Threads.

Eyes Right

 There are times when you have to feel good about India. In the prevailing atmosphere of extreme negativity, it is easy to fall into the trap of despair. Patriotism may be the last refuge of the scoundrel (no thanks Samuel Johnson), but it has its uses and I don't mind being a scoundrel. The Republic Day parade is one such occasion, to feel good.

I know very few watch the parade these days, but it is an eminently watchable spectacle. Other countries put on a show like this - the Bastille Day parade in France and the Victory Day parade in Russia, being the more prominent. But the Indian parade is extremely impressive and can raise goose pimples, especially if you can understand the honour and significance of it.

It all begins with the laying of the wreath at the Amar Jawan Jyothi - the tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the sounding of the Last Post - a tribute to the fallen. The Parade itself is rich in tradition. The President's bodyguard gives the order for the National Salute and you cannot but help feel a lump in the throat as the National Anthem in played. After the Parade Commanders, come the living recipients of the Param Vir Chakra and the Ashok Chakra - India's highest gallantry medals.  This year it was nice to see all the three living PVC holders in the parade - Subedar Major Bana Singh, Naik Subedar Yogendra Singh Yadav and Havaldar Sanjay Kumar. The 61st cavalry often leads out the marching contingents - this is probably the last Cavalry regiment anywhere in the world ; old traditions kept alive.  The impeccably turned out Army contingents lead the parade - this year the famous Maratha Light Infantry, the Dogra Regiment, the Kumaon Regiment, the Garhwal Rifles were all there - regiments with traditions going back 200 years. The Air Force contingent had a surprise with Flight Lieutenant Heena Pore leading - probably the first time a lady officer was the commandant . When the camera cut to probably her family wildly cheering, you could not have failed to be moved. Contingents vie with each other to win the best marching contingent award. To me the highlight is often the NCC boys and the NCC Girls contingent ; when she gives the call to salute the President, you can't quell the surge of emotion.

I normally discount the cultural shows that follow ; the military parade is the highlight. Its is an honour to march - if you wish to know how much of an honour it is and how much of training and selection precedes it, read this lovely account by Smriti Rao.

The dampener is the extremely poor coverage by Doordarshan. For a lesson on how not to cover an occasion of such grandeur, turn to Doordarshan. They have to cut all the time to show the faces of sundry VIPs - this being Delhi after all. How can you cut away, when the commandant's deep bass voice is giving the command for the salute. They couldn't even get the national anthem right - there was static and blackouts. Yuk !

But despite Doordarshan, this is an event that can make riveting viewing. You can watch it here, if you like.

Which is why, I say - I am sorry Colleen Braganza - I simply cannot stomach your article in the DNA.  There is a time to protest and make your voice heard. There is also a time to honour and cherish.

TIPS60 - A few tips on handling the late-paying client

Here is another of our videos offering tips and inisights into the business of photography. a transcript of the video is included after the jump.

(Continued after the Jump)

TRANSCRIPT:Here are a few thoughts on dealing with late paying clients. I'm John Harrington. Dealing with late paying clients is the bane of every photographer's existence. Heck, I'm sure it's the bane of most businesses existence, especially those that deal with people who provide services and then pay at a later date. In the end ultimately you do need to get paid and the first thing you need to do is if that particular person you're dealing with is not in the accounting department reach out to the accounting department in that company. Talk to them, ask the invoice is in their system. Ask if it has been approved and set to pay. Once you learn these things, if it's not in the system, provide the accounting department with a copy of the invoice and your W-9, letting them know that you anticipate being paid soon. Also provide them with the contact information for the person who originally secured your services. If you're dealing with a particular client that's an individual or a family, make certain that you're dealing with them directly not providing the finished product until you've been paid, will minimize the likelihood that you're going to get paid late by any individual client.

---

Please post your comments by clicking the link below. If you've got questions, please pose them in our Photo Business Forum Flickr Group Discussion Threads.

Out of the mouths of babes ......

Isn't that a brilliant question.  This is a question asked by 7 year old Loulou.

 

This is part of Facebook initiative by the Holland based banking giant ING . Its is part of their recruitment portal called ING Careers and this idea is called Next Generation banking. In it they are asking children to ask simple questions and for prospective employees who wish to join ING to answer them.

 

Here are some of the answers

 

• We need banks to keep money moving and safe
• Banks are also a safe place to put your money and not only that but the bank will even make sure the amount you gave them increases over time by using it in different businesses
• We need banks for your money:
  1. To be safe - Your piggy bank can get lost, stolen or empty.
  2. To grow - Do nothing and see your money grow each year because of interest.
• So banks were a place you could keep your money safe and also get some extra money if you agreed to pay it back soon
• So you see banks are there to help people. They have a lot of helpful ideas to make life easier for everyone
• We need banks because there are two kinds of people, people who has money and want their money to be in a safe place where they could get it anytime they want and people who wants money to make things and sell them in order to make more money.
• To keep it very simple. Banks make our life easy

 

------- And so on and so on.

All perfectly true of course. The problem is that this is no longer what banks mostly do.  If senior bankers read this and reflect, perhaps some blinding truths may strike them.

 

Maybe every industry must do something similar and try and explain their reason for existence to children. They may find themselves squirming and very uncomfortable.

 

As it is said in Psalm  8:2 , "Out of the mouth of babies and sucklings hast thou established strength ......... "


PS : This blogger had to hold his nose and go into Facebook to get the material for this post. He has quickly exited and is somewhat affected even by this short experience. He won't be going anywhere there in a hurry !

TIPS60 - The importance of having a website - For Staff Photographers!

Here is another of our videos offering tips and inisights into the business of photography. a transcript of the video is included after the jump.

(Continued after the Jump)

TRANSCRIPT:Here a few thoughts on, if you're a staff photographer, what you might need to be thinking about as far as the possibility that you might go freelance. I'm John Harrington. When you're a staff photographer, you think everything is all set you're going to end up retiring from the company that you're working at and that will be that. You'll have your retirement, your 401k, and you can ride off into the sunset. The reality is, it's nowhere near the case. Most staff photographers are being transitioned into contract or the company has just decided to use freelancers. So it's really not a matter of if, it's just a matter of when you go from staff to freelance and you really need to be prepared for that. One of the steps and one of the things you really should always have at the ready is a great website. A website that showcases your work, shows that you're a talented and skilled photographer, and really gets your work out there. Not necessarily for side freelance work, although that's a great fringe benefit to having a website, but so that when you are ready to go, unexpectedly, and no one is really ever ready to go, you'll have a website that showcases your work and really lets people know that you're a capable and skilled photographer. So if you're a staffer you have got to have a website.

---

Please post your comments by clicking the link below. If you've got questions, please pose them in our Photo Business Forum Flickr Group Discussion Threads.

TIPS60 - Weddings - why take a deposit and when to collect the balance

Here is another of our videos offering tips and inisights into the business of photography. a transcript of the video is included after the jump.

(Continued after the Jump)

TRANSCRIPT:Here are a few thoughts on wedding photography deposits and the balance due. I'm John Harrington. We do weddings and we require a deposit when we do that work for that client. That deposit upon the moment when they sign the contract locks in our time and means that we're not committing that time to any other wedding client on that day. In addition, you're taking your balance and collecting your balance due. Oftentimes deposit is fifty percent with balance due at fifty percent some photographers will do twenty five, seventy five. We strongly encourage you to make sure that you are collecting your balance due a week before the wedding. Why a week? You don't want to be turning up the day the wedding with your hand out saying I need my balance due. That money should have been collected it also makes certain that you can make sure that the check is cleared by the time the wedding actually occurs. You want to make sure you have all of your money before the bride and groom head off to their honeymoon because who knows how that money will be spent after that point and you want to make sure you've been paid.

---

Please post your comments by clicking the link below. If you've got questions, please pose them in our Photo Business Forum Flickr Group Discussion Threads.

The Eighth Deadly Sin

Alongside  wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy and gluttony - the seven deadly sins - should surely be added "money". For it is now proving to be a deadly sin even in the Vatican.

News came out on Wednesday that all forms of plastic money - ATM cards, credit cards, debit cards, etc have stopped functioning in the Vatican. So if you want to visit the Sistine Chapel, you have to fork out cash for admission - cannot wave your plastic.

This has happened because the Bank of Italy (Italy's Central Bank) has suspended all electronic operations by banks inside the Vatican in exasperation at the Vatican's continued inability to follow anti money laundering and anti terrorist financing regulations. This has been going on for a long time - the Vatican does not meet the anti money laundering requirements that all countries have to meet and has not been able to set this right for years.

Part of the problem is "Ramamrithamisque". Regulations demand all sorts of KYC forms and it is quite likely that the Holy Fathers have not been rigorous enough in filling 74,432 forms - their minds being, hopefully, absorbed with higher matters. Here, my sympathies are with the Vatican.

But the other half of the problem is serious. The Vatican, as indeed many successful religious organisations are, is a huge business enterprise. In this, they must follow laws that seek to curb international crime. But they usually turn a blind eye to where their money comes from , and this is an unpardonable eighth deadly sin.

This problem is not unique to the Vatican alone. Every religious organisation, I dare speculate, would fail the test of anti money laundering. Much of their finances are murky, shady, and accounting rigour, transparency and tightness of control is conspicuous by their absence.  If you stretch the argument, is it right for the Tirupathi temple,to accept donations from every scoundrel who goes and makes an offering of a fraction of his ill gotten wealth as appeasement ?

Religious organisations have to be whiter than white. These days, they are as much business organisations as religious ones, commanding large capital and cash flows. Excuses that they are solely concerned with matters temporal, won't fly. They must meet every test of international law, as all of us are expected to. Failing which they must be blacklisted, as the Bank of Italy has tried to in a small way.

"In God we trust" cannot be an empty slogan.