August 31, 2022

Considering a Master’s Degree in Photography

Smoke and Mirrors. Photoshop & Lightroom.

In 2017 I visited the School of Visual Arts in New York, to see if their Graduate program in photography was any good. I talked to a few professors and some students. Student life revolved around a bunch of New York Buildings—I could compare to the Benilde campus and the School of Design and Arts at Taft Ave. in Manila. I interviewed a student to tell me about the coursework. It was mostly photoshop, printing, and story-telling. As for potential opportunities I could unlock with the network of students and professors at SVA? Nothing fantastic. When asked about it—or if he knew anyone that had successfully broken into the commercial photography industry in big ol’ New York—he literally had nothing to share.

A look inside the SVA Photography MFA Photography Program. Photo by Alexander Severin

He biked from Brooklyn and did part-time work at a gallery as an assistant. I expected a more senior position to be quite frank. He told me to follow his Instagram Account so I can see things he’s been working on—basically just stitched up and photoshopped images— which was quite similar to what my creative director back in Manila was doing for publishing. If this student was a customer testimonial for the school, it would’ve been a terrible example of one. I chuckled and realized that the whole thing was a sham, especially when he mentioned that the main focus was mostly on Photoshop Editing. You can read all about my thoughts on getting a photography degree here.

The program director who met with me, made it sound like the program taught students ground-breaking concepts and added the game-changing technologies being practiced in the Photography Industry, being cooked up by the institution. I took home a bag full of weird school-published materials, mainly the program director’s name printed on the bylines. Well, let me tell you that it’s all a bunch of bullshit. It’s all smoke and mirror. No substance. The network was terrible, the subjects dull. I wasn’t impressed at all. The value of an MBA or even a degree in a user experience track is by far a more fitting answer IMHO, to the demand for better customer experiences for many of the biggest global businesses and markets. While creativity will always remain a subjective topic, a framework/methodology will always be a starting point in delivering the best outcomes. Something that the SVA MFA program clearly doesn’t offer. And if they do, they don’t clearly emphasize it.

A look inside the SVA Photography MFA Photography Program. Photo by Alexander Severin

My hot take re: a graduate degree in the arts? Taking photography and the arts won’t really have a significant impact on a successful career in the arts. This study shows that 9% of Americans with a master’s degree only increased their employability by LESS than 3%. That isn’t a pretty figure to look at. Unless the directors for undergraduate and graduate programs shift the curriculum to something more groundbreaking and impressive—schools offering photography degrees will soon chop these departments off their prospectus. It won’t happen immediately but it will. I’m looking at you DLS-CSB!

August 1, 2022

Should I even consider a degree in Photography?

In a decade where the pandemic accelerated innovation and technology, highly marketed 3-year Photography courses are becoming money traps that only cater to the wealthy and privileged. If you wanna make money consider taking a different course and forget about that pesky degree in photography.

Thinking of getting that photography degree? STOP and consider what I’m going to tell you. Unless you’re hopeless and filthy rich, feel free to do whatever you want. But I don’t need to share the many horror stories of individuals and their student loans, affecting these people physically and mentally, years after matriculation. This study sheds light on the negative effects of student debt. Apart from this is the shift to a highly digital environment—print media is either dying or dead—people are consuming more video content. This is why Instagram’s algorithm prioritizes reels over images. So it’s quite surprising to see certain educational institutions still marketing Photography Degrees. When investing on education or offering it, doesn’t it makes more sense to choose a program that addresses the current and future needs of the market?

Videos vs. Images: Which Drives More Engagement in Facebook Ads? | Databox Blog


Photography is in steady decline

The simple Google Trends search below shows you the steady decline of Photography Degree as an interest. It’s obvious that the Tiktok generation had significant influence over this. In 2016, you’ll see how Film and Photography interests significantly diverge, with Film taking the lead. We can surmise that—since video content is the more valuable format—people would tend to position themselves to earn a Film Degree. While a photography degree is nice, a degree in Film or video production already considers photography as a prerequisite. With the looks of it, a degree in Film is more advantageous and valuable, as it addresses the need for video content production in most if not all industries that demand it. Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Paramount+, and HBO Go are already competing giants in the video streaming platform industry. The keyword is VIDEO. We haven’t even scratched the surface of Twitch and Youtube. That leaves photography/print media in the dust.

A steady decline in photography compared to the steady increase in film and a sharp increase in UX Design. Film/video production and User experience will be key skills in the next 20 years.

For a more bang-for-buck investment, I would suggest that the creatively inclined focus on more flexible or agile programs and courses like UX and UI design, or Multimedia arts (Note: DLS-CSB has the best MMA program amongst top design schools offering this course in the Philippines). The fact that I and other Multimedia Arts Graduates were able to pursue a career in photography, is already telling of how minuscule the impact of Photography degrees and programs are in making competitive and successful photographers post-college. A well-versed student of the internet can literally learn photography from loads of content, sometimes uploaded by famous photography professionals themselves. Free on Youtube, paid on Udemy or Coursera. You get my point. There’s no need to spend money or incur debt for a degree that can’t compete in terms of innovation and demand.

camera studio set up
Tip: The essential Strobist blog is already a good place to start when you want to understand light.

You don’t need a degree to be a photographer. But maybe you need to be Jewish?

Alfred Stieglitz and Irving Penn are some of the most widely recognized photographers of the 20th century. Stieglitz didn’t have a photography degree, Penn on the other hand had a diverse visual arts education—and goddamn, he’s the most celebrated of the bunch. I was quite fortunate to have visited his Centennial at the Metropolitan Museum.

They were masters of the camera, a fairly complicated device for the common folk who didn’t have access to such contraptions and chemicals—since most of the 20th century was still based on analog photography that required an understanding of chemistry. While you can still learn traditional film photography, you don’t have the same barriers anymore when it comes to digital. Most of the photography art and history can be found on the internet. Even the technical aspects are easy to find on Youtube. But there are a few things that will set you apart from your typical facebook group photographer.

What Photographers or Creatives should Focus on:

  • Learning WYSIWYG website design for your portfolio
  • Digital marketing to market and retarget customers and visitors
  • Improving business acumen and financial literacy
  • Creating a valuable and diverse network of mentors, experts, and customers. You can start by avoiding the Canon 2021 Ambassadors except for Jilson Tiu—Jilson dropped his sponsorship.
    Canon wake up! I don’t like this! Canon Wake up! [Echoes Eddie Munson from Stranger Things 4]
As a product marketer and content producer—mentored by the country’s best—this line-up makes me cringe. Whoever came up with this idea in the Canon Philippines’ marketing department can shove his foot up his ass for setting the bar so low for the Philippines. Hello! Where the hell is Pilar Tuason? Sara Black?

Basically, you should be looking for a mentor. A good one with a good track record. Working on the job is the best experience. Sure an education helps, but again, you don’t need a photography degree to learn from the best. I know a few, feel free to ask via my contact page or the comments below.

What should you do then? Be Valuable.

For the value of a 3-year course, take a 3-day workshop instead. Photography isn’t as complex as people would make it. With the vast array and availability of online learning portals, racking up on online certificates from Coursera and getting Linkedin Certified profiles is instantly more valuable than a three-year photography course. Remember that photography is just one skill. With more marketable skills comes more value. It’s better to be a generalist nowadays than a specialist. While there is certainly a place for specialists, generalists make up a larger chunk of many successful organizations. Globe Business (Globe Telecom) for example, restructures certain business units inside their organization every year or so. When looking at the profile of the employees, you’d be surprised that most if not all lean toward a generalist profile. These people are more valued because of their various skillsets.

July 30, 2022

Today, it’s more difficult to become a professional photographer in the Philippines—here’s why.

At the end of the day, we’re all just trying to make a living. It’s an uphill battle now. God—the challenges photographers have to deal with? It’s tiring!

In the last twenty years from the early 2000’s to the 2015’s, the commercial photography industry in the Philippines is perhaps driven by the opportunities that the advertising, publishing, and media industry brought. But as the trend of media consumption shifts to digital content, commercial photographers will be losing out to stock images, and in the near future—AI generated content. But right now, most aspiring photographers don’t even have the business acumen to get things going. What the hell are we gonna do now?

In the 2020s consider your dreams of being a famous photographer with a decked-out studio dead. Unless you’re some lucky chap who actually runs a studio for business, highly privileged $$$, or is a breakthrough case, your chances of having a productive and financially stable life as a photographer are an uphill battle, especially in the Philippines where photography is treated like some side-hustle where it’s okay to get paid seven $7 (around 380 Pesos) bucks an hour. It doesn’t make sense to spend on specialized equipment with the abundance of studios to rent. With the rising rental rates in the city, maintaining your own studio for personal use for your photography simply cannot be justified. You have to rent it out to share the burden of overhead.

This statistic shows the revenue of the industry “photographic activities“ in the Philippines from 2012 to 2017, with a forecast to 2024. It is projected that the revenue of photographic activities in the Philippines will amount to approximately 66,3 million U.S. Dollars by 2024.

Little to no innovation

Photography practices haven’t changed in the Philippines for the past decade—that’s pretty sad and quite disconcerting. No new forms of innovation or practices have emerged from the fray of talented photographers. No laws to protect and uplift the profession. Save for the era of self-published magazines, the shift to mirrorless cameras, and maybe Shelter Fund which is a very small and niche project. Portfolio reviews are rare. People have stuck to photography like glue, and many aren’t willing to learn more marketable skills. With the most basic skills of computer operation and a working laptop, you’ll be making more money as a virtual assistant today than spending time pursuing a career in photography in the Philippines. Only the best of the best will make it with big brands and corporations. The rest will be relegated to obscure retail mall outlets with fragile business models dependent on a niche market of customers. This is what happened to The Picture Company which offered jobs to photographers at very entry-level salaries (minimum wage). You’re still better off making it on your own.

No photo description available.
I once met a recruiter from this business and I immediately declined. My position in publishing was more challenging, offered better terms, and exposed me to a network of people—and even fellow photographers—who were the cream of the crop. If you wanna improve in your craft; surround yourself with people who are better than you.

The problem of making photography a profitable trade persists for many aspiring photographers/creatives who want to get into the business. The problems are all so compounded, but I’m sure of a few things:

  • People are preferring video content over photo content. This is very evident in the age of Tiktok. The age of Instagram is long gone. In fact, Instagram is experimenting with prioritizing reels over images.
Videos vs. Images: Which Drives More Engagement in Facebook Ads? | Databox Blog
In the perspective of marketing and advertising in the digital age, almost 60% of clicks are driven by video content. Sorry folks, video is simply more effective than images or plain photographs.
  • There is no knowledge base for creatives or photographers in general. An online compendium of business practices is lacking. No templates for contracts, agreements, and concepts like an NDA are non-existent. Luckily things like Docracy exist! You can find a template for legal contracts and agreements here.
  • Customers prey and low-ball creatives because they are unaware of how difficult photography workflows and processes can be. This is why commercial photographers are valued very low in this country. Best to read the references I provided below and explain to customers why you priced your services in a certain way.
  • Poor quality of education (comprehension) and No one listens to their basic accounting or business math classes. It’s hard to learn how to do accounting if comprehension is poor. It is paramount that you know how to compute for VAT and be able to price properly, and track your cash flow, or expenses. But how can you do that if you can’t understand certain things? The lack of comprehension to develop business acumen doesn’t help at all. If filing taxes escapes you, then you can get a service to help make things easier. You can read all about this here. If you’d like to outsource the accounting work to Taxumo, feel free to ask me here in the comments, or via my contact page. I know someone who can help.

Read this if you want to master the business of photography

There are several books I read through to inform me of the different practices for different types or genres of photography. Photography isn’t a one-size fits all service. The processes and contracts in wedding photography, for example, are quite different from stock photography. You’ll find that John Harrington provides a wealth of information already but I’ll recommend rare but handy books for your collection. You’ll be lucky to find a copy of John Harrington at Fullybooked. Last I checked they had the 2nd edition still available in the photography section. Best to get the latest edition.

Best Business Practices for Photographers, Third Edition: Harrington, John: 9781681982663: Amazon.com: Books
Best Business Practices for Photographer (Third Edition) by John Harrington


For the more legal aspects, I go to Richard Weisgrau and Nancy Wolff’s published handbooks which are reviewed by respective photography associations. Something that Filipino photography associations don’t do. I sourced these from the COOP at HBS.

Licensing Photography | Book by Victor Perlman, Richard Weisgrau | Official Publisher Page | Simon & Schuster
The Professional Photographer's Legal Handbook by Nancy Wolff


May 28, 2018

How to register as a freelancer at BIR and issue receipts | Part 1

FINALLY the time has come!

I’ve quit my 4 year stint in publishing and have decided to become my own boss. I took it upon myself to hit the final nail in the coffin and bury the freelancer’s dilemma: How to register as a freelancer in the Philippines. I refuse to pay people  make someone “palakad my papeles.”

My knowledge from school won’t help; THANKS DEP-ED/CHED for not including adulting classes. Even Jesus can’t save me now. So I’ve turned to the internet!

via GIPHY

I’ve encountered too many photographers, graphic designers and general creatives who refuse to register, confused or are just freaked out by the whole ordeal–well some of them just don’t want to pay taxes, YIKES–and I can’t blame them.  It’s like everyone’s being left out because there isn’t enough information circulating when it comes to registering as a freelancer plus we all know how corrupt and shitty the government can be. I dedicated the whole month of May 2018 to do my research and register as a freelancer. Lets go through the whole experience.

via GIPHY

I started by doing some research on Google.

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Most articles talk about registering at DTI, getting the mayor’s permit and applying at BIR. This is the standard procedure. So I called BIR and asked them the proper process of registering for an official receipt. A guy answered and told me to just submit the following stuff I found on Google.  I caved and followed it so I registered my trade name at DTI and went over to the barangay to get a clearance.

I finished and received my DTI permit and barangay clearance in two days.

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The next step was to go to Makati city hall to get the mayor’s permit. I  talked to the business registration counter but before getting processed they told me to go all the way to the old building to get a locational clearance. That means I have to eventually pay for things I don’t need like sanitary permits, fire code stuff, and like you have to pay 12.50sq/meter for the locational clearance. I realized that the whole process was ridiculous because I didn’t have an actual office space to declare and I felt like the whole thing was rigged to take money away from me. NO THANKS! I REFUSE TO PAY FOR UNESSENTIALS AND MULTIPLE GOVERNMENT PERMITS I DON’T NEED.

via GIPHY

So I  went all the way to BIR Makati to get a list of requirements.

They handed me this.

I saw the options and started asking people online on how to register as a professional and verifying that with my own personal experience. There were so many conflicting opinions.

 

YOU NEED LGU PERMIT

 

NO NEED FOR LGU PERMIT

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I wasn’t having any of it.

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I turned to Google again.

Sadly there aren’t enough articles that talk about freelancers BUT I found this website.

https://www.wfhr.io/bir-tax-registration-guide-for-freelancers-and-online-professionals/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The blog revealed a solution by registering as a professional.  Finally a facebook friend messaged me how he just registered himself as a professional. Thanks at Paelo! All you have to do is submit an OTR (Occupational Tax Receipt)?? or PTR (Professional Tax Receipt)??

Theres a list that summarizes where you fall under.

https://psa.gov.ph/sites/default/files/4publication.pdf

Multimedia Artist is under 3131. THAT’S ME!

via GIPHY

So I called Makati city hall and asked if they issued the OTR/PTR.

THEY DON’T.

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The level of frustration. I SWEAR.

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I called BIR again and asked if there’s a way to register as a professional. A lady answered at my RDO. Her name was Tina and I explained everything from registering DTI and all that shebang. Bless her patience!

via GIPHY

She enumerated all the things I needed to show her since I can’t give an OTR.

  1. Government issued ID’s or NSO Birth certificate. Basically any document that proves you’re a real person
  2. A contract from a company or business that proves you really are indeed a professional (instead of an OTR or DTI/Mayors Permit)
  3. BIR Form 1901 (Select Professional in General)
  4. Proof of payment of Registration fee (RF)

FINALLY I’M GOING PLACES

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REMEMBER TO PHOTOCOPY ALL OF THESE REQUIREMENTS.

Like 3.4.5.6.7.8 times just to be sure.

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OFF TO BIR I GO

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I submitted everything, paid my registration fee at RCBC Makati (an accredited bank), and gave Tina my all my documents.

She told me to comeback the next day and she’ll have everything done.

BTW attend the short seminar/talk.

They offer it at my RDO every 2PM Fridays. Its just in a conference room with some guy who can answer all of your BIR/accounting related inquiries.

via GIPHY

 

True enough I came back the next day (Friday) and all my documents were ready for the next step.

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All I had to do now was have my ATP (Authority to print) done so I can issue official receipts. So after photocopying the documents she gave me, she passed me on to the ATP guy just beside her.
The guy processed my papers and I was off to the “officer of the day” to pick which Tax Type under the new Train Law I’m going to apply for as a NON-VAT TAXPAYER (since I’m below the 1 million something earnings).

OPTION 1: PERCENTAGE TAX AND INCOME TAX
Percentage Tax 3% on Gross Sales/Gross Receipts for the quarter
Income Tax Use graduated income tax table on Net Taxable Income

OPTION 2: INCOME TAX ONLY
8% on Gross Sales/Gross Receipts for the quarter in lieu of Income Tax and Percentage Tax

I asked for advice from an accountant and my dad and they suggested I go with OPTION 2 because it’s easier to manage. The officer of the day pointed out the same option and applied me under professional/occupational code 7494 Photographic Activities. The BIR system was not updated for the Multimedia Artist code so she just put me under the activity I’ll be doing most.

There are a few things you have to understand. You are in a sense a business but you’re going to register as a professional instead of using a trade name. If you’re hiring employees then you’ll have to definitely register as a trade name and sign up for all those LGU permits. Here’s the formula

Professional service based = BIR
Sole-prop business = BIR + DTI(or SEC) + LGU + Other units like BFAD if you’re in the business of food, cosmetics or drugs

And that’s it!

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All I have to do now is wait for some two weeks to get my official receipts!
I’ll update you guys if anything comes up but for now, Imma get them projects rolling!

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READ PART 2 discussing Books of Account and ATP (Authority to print receipts)

https://www.patricksegovia.com/2018/06/14/happens-get-certificate-registration-bir-plus-tips-get-hell-part-2-register-freelancer/

Featured Image by rawpixel on Unsplash

Reach me through my contact page, facebook page or comment for any questions.
Don’t forget to follow me on Instagram! @patricksegovia  and subscribe to my newsletter!

 

 

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