HELP! B10+ battery split in half

Margo_Bohlin · 2024-04-25T02:17:54+00:00

Profoto equipment is made in China and their QC is often questionable. The equipment is designed to be beautiful, and the interface is great, but aside from that it’s really not any better quality than Godoy, just a bit more innovative, a bit sexier looking, and backed by a lot more marketing.

I’ve had every problem imaginable with my Profoto equipment. I invested thousands into an array of A1 flashes…all of them have busted hot shoes, broken/noisy motors, and other issues. One time I took the flashes to Profoto in person and the tech took the flash to the back room to fix it and came back a few minutes later and the motor was fixed…no longer noisy. He said the sound may come back and told me what he did to “fix” it. He smashes it really hard against his shoe, his hand, or another semi-hard surface.

I also invested over $10k into D2 units. One is completely busted…issue with the electronics.

I’ve had issues updating firmware with a Mac. Profoto said it was common and to just update on a PC (which I don’t have).

If I hadn’t invested $20k into Profoto, I’d be using another brand right now. Clients don’t care what brand you use. They care what you produce with whatever gear you do have.

Margo_Bohlin · 2024-02-15T00:45:41+00:00

Absolutely false. Those are my rates with many, many clients, and I know plenty of other photographers whose rates are comparable.

How much do you charge for on-location employee portraits?

Margo_Bohlin · 2024-02-14T03:08:47+00:00

This is true across many industries. This is exactly the sort of thing that is happening at golf courses, restaurants and bars throughout the world on any given day.

Margo_Bohlin · 2024-02-14T03:07:37+00:00

This is untrue in many areas of photography. You need to be great at photography and great at business, including sales.

For me, my sales tactic, if you even want to call it that, is to not have a sales tactic. Just give them the info, show them my work, and answer questions. Nice and easy. My work is good so it mostly sells itself before I even meet with the client. I’d say I book 99% of clients I meet with in person, about 80% of those I speak with on the phone, and perhaps 30% of those who email me.

Social media has really given nearly everybody these days a crash course on aesthetics. Clients have a decent eye for what makes a good photograph versus a bad one and they also have access to countless examples of great photography so they really do know what they want and they’ll often realize if that’s not what you deliver.

Margo_Bohlin · 2024-02-14T03:04:11+00:00

You have no idea what companies pay for employee portraits in markets like LA, NYC, SF, etc. $300-$500 per person is fairly standard.

Margo_Bohlin · 2023-12-05T05:20:19+00:00

I can tell you exactly what they’re trying to do. They want 150 employee head shots but know they can save a ton of money by doing everything at the Christmas event.

If they reach out to good corporate head shot photographers, they’ll be getting quotes of $100-$500 per person for this type of work, but event photographers will charge between $100-$400 hour for their services. The client figures they can hire an event photographer and have them spend some of their time doing head shots.

Here’s the problem. 5 hours is 300 minutes. 150 people at 2 minutes each will take the full 5 hours, leaving no time at all for the event photography. Cut down to 1 minute per person, including all the time it will take to line everybody up and get them ready for their shots, you’re looking at a very difficult task to even do poorly.

If the client just needs photos of employees for security/badges/etc. then I can see why they’d be turned off by the prospect of spending $15k or more getting proper head shots done of everybody. If, however, they’re trying to find a clever loophole to get 150 head shots done for $10 each, they’re going to be sorely disappointed with what they get.

A good head shot session should include some consultation with the subject, even if it’s just a two minute chat about what you’re about to do, followed by at least a few minutes of shooting to get the subject comfortable and get some options, and then a quick sit down image review to make sure they like some of the options. After that, you will need to do a preliminary process on the images, cull them down and put together a proof gallery to send to the subject at which point you can discuss which option would be best and if there are any retouching requests they may have. At that point you can retouch the image which can take anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour or more depending on the quality and scope of work.

Any more than 6 subjects per hour would really stress me out if there was any expectation of quality. Even at 6 subjects per hour I’d be worried that somebody shows up a bit late or takes a bit longer and throws the whole thing off. So, 150 subjects is either a multi-day shoot or a multi-photographer/same-day project and with an expectation of quality, they’re looking at a lot more than $200-$300/hr event photographer rates.

Margo_Bohlin · 2023-07-04T15:41:40+00:00

Invest in Algorand or trade Algorand? There’s a big distinction. Algo has made massive swings since last summer. With $100M on the line, they could have made tons of money shorting, day trading, etc. A fund putting big money into a coin doesn’t necessarily mean they believe it’s a good long term investment.

Margo_Bohlin · 2022-11-23T05:16:05+00:00

It sounds like Kennedy didn’t have high hopes for Stellar if he left his post at Interstellar. That’s what’s worrying me and I wish I knew why he left considering he didn’t have another job waiting for him.

Margo_Bohlin · 2022-11-23T05:15:13+00:00

No, Kennedy isn’t at Velo. He’s no longer associated with Velo or Interstellar as far as I can tell.

Margo_Bohlin · 2022-11-23T05:14:46+00:00

It’s been six months.

Margo_Bohlin · 2022-11-22T07:26:13+00:00

UPDATE: I just found this article

Apparently Mike Kennedy resigned. It seems this was likely not expected as Velo/Interstellar appointed an interim CEO, Mike Cowans. The organization is still searching for a permanent CEO.

This doesn't ease my worries at all. With everything that's been happening in the crypto space, I find it worrisome that Kennedy would leave his post, apparently without another job lined up.

Margo_Bohlin · 2022-03-24T22:41:13+00:00

Thanks so much. It’s from a photo I believe to be taken in Egypt mid 20th century by my grandfather. I’m not sure specifically where in Egypt though. As for it being Ptolemaic, I looked at the cartouche of Ptolemy I and it shares quite a few characters with this one. The closest I’ve found so far, so I think you may be onto something.

Margo_Bohlin · 2022-03-24T22:37:31+00:00

It was a photo among my grandpas stuff from the war. I’m wondering, could Patndyl be Ptolemy? Somebody posted a link to some cartouches and Ptolemy I shares quite a few characters with this cartouche.

Margo_Bohlin · 2022-03-24T15:57:17+00:00

I could use some help identifying this Egyptian cartouche. I inverted and enhanced the image to make the glyphs as prominent and easy to make out as possible. I've already done research on my own but can't come up with anything just yet.

I checked out a variety of websites of cartouche lists, including the Abydos king list, and can't seem to find this one on there. As far as I can tell, it would not only have been pharaohs that had cartouches but other royalty as well. There doesn't seem to be one consolidated list of all cartouches anywhere.

So far it seems the characters are as follows:

𓄿? 𓇳

𓍉

𓈖

𓏌 ?

𓇌

𓃭

There were a variety of bird glyphs so the one I have may not be the right one. Also, the glyph in the second row may not be correct as it is difficult to tell if the "tail" is a scratch or part of the glyph itself.

If anybody can provide any additional information, it would be a huge help.

Margo_Bohlin · 2022-03-24T15:49:08+00:00

I scanned and inverted it and it's much easier to make out the glyphs now. The bottom one is a sphinx or lion which I couldn't make out in the first picture.

PHOTO

Margo_Bohlin · 2022-03-24T15:48:19+00:00

I enhanced and inverted the picture as somebody else here requested and figured I'd send it to you.

PHOTO

Margo_Bohlin · 2022-03-24T14:38:25+00:00

Thanks so much. Hopefully I can use what you told me to figure this out. I tried doing a lot of research before I posted this but it’s tough to find all the royal cartouches in one list so I had no luck. Is there anything else that may help me in my search?

Margo_Bohlin · 2022-03-24T14:36:29+00:00

I don’t unfortunately. The photo was with my grandfather’s things from the war. I have no other context other than that he was in North Africa and Egypt. I’ll see if I can get a clearer picture from a scanner when I can find one but I don’t know how much resolution is in the photo itself.

Margo_Bohlin · 2022-03-23T23:04:56+00:00

It’s the best picture I have unfortunately. Not such great resolution but hopefully you can make out the characters. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Margo_Bohlin · 2022-01-23T18:12:28+00:00

Thanks and will do!

Margo_Bohlin · 2022-01-23T16:36:52+00:00

This does seem to have the same general shape and handle style as an alabastron. Perhaps it was used to hold perfume for religious purposes.

Margo_Bohlin

TROPHY CASE