BeckerBiz — Larry's business blog

—Mostly Accurate with some wacky typos on the side

Well, it’s been a little more than a week and I’ve been using Dragon Dictate for content creation quite a bit. I was really excited when I very 1st started using the software because I had these fantasies of being able to crank out pages and pages and pages of dictation without a lot of [...]

This is another in a series on looking like a pro. Today’s focus is on the gear you use, especially in front of clients and applies to both photographers and designers. You’ve heard lots of pros suggest that ‘it’s not the gear that makes a great photographer (or designer), it’s the vision and the skills.’ [...]

I’ve always known that having a model release was necessary if I planned to sell a photo to a magazine, but lots of people just have a verbal agreement with their models for all kinds of things like company pictures (where the company plans to use the images for publicity), stock photography, or even pictures [...]

Formatting a memory card using a digital camera doesn’t erase the card. Surprise! Most people think of formatting memory cards as erasing everything on the card and essentially making it “blank” so you can click away and store new images on the card. And to a degree, that’s true. But really all your camera does [...]

One of the problems I’ve always had with my Hoodman Loupe (granted this is a small problem) is that the neck strap that comes with it causes the loupe to hang in a place that has a tendency to get in the way of my camera, which is also hanging around my neck. The problem [...]

Sales opportunities come out of thin air sometimes and if you’re ready for it, you might just get the sale. You run into people all the time, and if you’re instantly ready with a strong portfolio, you might just get a job or two you would otherwise never hear about. In Business, There’s No Such [...]

My review of the Apple iPad… in a word… “meh” (with a shrug). — No question, Apple does tech right! The iPad is sure a hit, but it’s not for me (at least not yet). I’ve seen all kinds of Apple faithful trumpet the strengths and the ‘haters’ slam Apple on the lack of features. [...]

Let’s say you’re a photographer or designer and you’re done working with a client on a particular job. It’s time to clear off your internal, working hard drive to free up working space, and save your important client files to an archive for possible future access. Most people would save those files to a hard [...]

—for a $20 1-time fee

Anyone with a few thousand air miles under their belt has heard of the outrageous number of thiefts of items from within checked luggage, or been a victim. The problem is that no one knows who opened your bag and stole your iPod, laptop, camera, etc. or if it was at your point of origin, [...]

My buddies Scott Kelby and Terry White are great about telling their readers to back things up. Photo libraries. iTunes libraries. General files. Everything. I agree, but my budget is tighter than theirs, so I explored a bit before jumping on board the DROBO train. There are a couple things to consider. Backup software and [...]