Show Me The Money

Why are people so cheap?

This is the question I have found myself asking a few times over the last year or two and it kind of annoys me.

Sure, I don't like to throw away money but if I really like something and want to have one to keep for myself or know I'll enjoy having a certain item, I'll spend the money to get whatever it is.

Other people it seems, only truly want something if they can get it for free.

OK, here's what I'm talking about.

As many of you know I enjoy photography as mostly a hobby. There's something about it that gives me enjoyment and makes me happy. I don't know if it's the thrill of seeing something you've captured in an image or the work that goes into a finished product but I get a kick out of it.

From time to time I have sold the odd image of mine. I don't have a business and I certainly don't advertise but there have been some friends and people who have appreciated my efforts enough to want to have a copy of my work for their very own. I'm all too happy to oblige them, but at a cost.

You see, while it is a hobby, it's still time consuming and a lot of effort goes into producing a final image that you might see.

A typical shoot might last anywhere from one to four hours, depending on what I'm photographing. Could be less, could be more. That is just the first part of the process.

Next I have to go through the hundreds of images I shot on a particular subject and pick out the images I like the best. Of those, I may select only two or three photos that I really like. Next comes the editing process. In the old days this would be done in a darkroom with stinky chemicals and could take hours or days to achieve the final result you're looking for. Today, with the computers and software available, this process happens much quicker and easier but is still very time consuming.

On one image I could spend an hour or more playing with the exposure, curves, contrast, colour, white balance, layers, etc...you get my point. The image isn't done at the moment you push the shutter release button on the camera. There's a lot of time and effort that is spent in front of a computer screen tweaking things to my liking.

People only see the finished product and probably don't have a clue how much time is spent on each individual image. Not to mention the thousands of dollars I had to spend on photographic equipment and software. It's an expensive hobby.

So now that you have an idea of the work that goes into a completed image, maybe you can understand why I might be a little bothered when someone who wants a copy of one of my photos thinks I'll just give it away for free.

I don't charge a lot for my work but apparently to some people they don't think paying for a photo that they really like is worth it. That's fine with me, but don't let me catch you with a copy of one of my images obtained through other means or we'll be talking in front of a judge.

I do appreciate those who have purchased my work in the past. It's nice to know they like what I do so much that they're willing to pay for it. The money is nice but the pride I feel when others enjoy what I do is even better.

Recently I had an inquiry about one of my photos which had actually won a contest in the past. They asked if they could have the full resolution image file of the photo so they could go and have a print made themselves. Ahhhh...I don't think so. I never give out my images for others to do with as they please. No photographer with any sense of pride in what they do gives away their work or shares their image files.

They wanted the image to hang in their building which I had no problem with but when I sent them a list showing the cost for the different available sizes for the image...well, lets just say the conversation has come to an abrupt end so far. Who knows, maybe I'll still hear from them but I'm afraid they're not getting anything for free. I'd rather the image sits on my hard drive until I die than diminish my worth and my work by giving it away.

Am I wrong? Isn't my time and effort worth $25 - $100? I think it is.

Yankees Buy Another Championship

Congratulations to the New York Yankees who won their 27th World Series Championship earlier tonight by beating the Philadelphia Phillies in six games.

It seems only appropriate they won as greed and excess seem to be a popular theme right now in many areas.

What other team in Major League Baseball best personifies this as much as the Bronx Bombers?

With a payroll of over $200 million dollars this season, the Yankees did what many other teams in the league couldn't do...buy a title.

To try and put this into perspective, the top three payed players on the Yankees combined made more than the entire Florida Marlins team this season. The Marlins payroll at the start of the season was just under $37-million. Heck, my Blue Jays were only around $80-million. How could they possibly compete? Sure, money doesn't guarantee a championship but it greatly improves the odds of winning.

It might sound like I'm bashing the Yankees and I admit, I'm not a fan but that isn't my point. They didn't break any league rules and that is what bothers me even more.

The fact that rules don't exist to even the playing field and make the league more competitive is a travesty. Of course a player making $33-million is another disgusting problem with the league.

Teams in smaller markets will never be able to compete because they won't have the financial resources available to lure top veteran players looking for high dollar contracts. And with free agency, the Yankees can out-bid pretty much any other team to get the players they want. It's like poker. One player has a large chip count and he can bully other players out of the pot by betting high and scaring them off.

The 2009 Yankees are sipping champagne as World Champions primarily because the team spent over $420 million to sign baseball’s top three available free agents in Mark Teixeira, CC Sabathia and AJ Burnett last winter.

Then add in the fact they spent nearly $300 million to secure Alex Rodriguez following the 2007 season as well as more big contracts for superstars including Jorge Posada, Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera.

Until Major League Baseball does something to control this kind of spending, the Yanks will always have an advantage.

When I Win the Lottery. . .

I have an Uncle and I believe his favourite five words are…”When I Win the Lottery.” Every time I chat with him, that’s what he dreams about. Let’s face it; who among us wouldn’t want to or hasn’t at one time had a dream about the big pay day?

Unless you’re one of the lucky one’s either born into wealth, a Prince in an Arab country or have some how managed to become a self-made millionaire, odds are quite high you’ll never truly know what it’s like to be “rich”.

Oh sure, I’m rich in many ways, just not in the pocket. I have a loving and supportive family, a few close friends, many other friendly acquaintances and my health, although not perfect, isn’t as bad as it could be. However, unless some long lost relative leaves me a fortune, I’ll likely have to worry about money my whole life.

So what do those of us without money dream about…winning the lottery of course. Here in Canada we have a couple of good lotteries that can at times get jackpots up to 25 to 40 million. When you compare that to the U.S. where the Power Ball pot can reach over 100 million, it doesn’t sound like much. Of course in Canada, our winnings are tax free which means if you win a 30 million dollar jackpot, you get the whole 30 million.

Since I’m quite sure I’ll never have to worry about it, I’ve never actually taken the time to think about what I’d do with the money if I won it.

For starters, let’s say I won 20 million. That’s a nice round number. The first thing I’d do after picking up the cheque and contacting my bank is disappear for a little while and take some family with me. I wouldn’t be going on a big spending spree; I just want to get away from all of those long lost friends and solicitors who have a tendency to show up at your door.

After a short period of time I’d resurface and make sure any debts are paid off to the bank to get me back to even. Luckily at this point it wouldn’t take too much to do that.

So now the fun begins. I’d probably put 10 million in the bank and leave it there for now and use the other 10 to do a few things, including giving some money to my family. I’d make sure all of my parents bills were taken care of and I’d give them a million to start. I’d do the same for my brother.

So with about seven of the 10 left I’d probably fly to Florida and start looking for a nice house. I figure I can get a very nice home for one million. I could probably furnish it nicely for a couple hundred thousand. And of course I’d need a couple of vehicles to go in my three car garage. Nothing too expensive…maybe an Escalade and something a little less flashy and more fuel efficient as well.

Did I mention I’d never work a job again? I suppose that’s understood.

I’d also make sure I had a new home back in Canada and make sure my parents are looked after. They would be more than welcome to stay at my place in Florida as well. Of course, if they wanted it, I’d get them a home down there. My parents aren’t the flashy type and my mother is not one to spend money frivolously so their money would last a very long time.

Once I’m established and my immediate family are taken care of, next I’d make sure the rest of my family is looked after. My aunts and uncles who I still keep in touch with would probably receive a gift of some kind…most likely in the form of cash.

Boy, it’s kind of fun spending this imaginary money. So where does that leave me? I have 10 million in the bank and I’ll say I have three million of the fun ten left.

Time to go on a trip and I think I’ll take some family members with me if they want to go. I’ve seen only a fraction of the world so far having been down to Panama, Belize, Costa Rica and the Caribbean. So I’d say it will be a month long trip to Europe as I’ve always wanted to see Scotland where my family comes from and see our family castle. I figure that should take care of a good portion of the remaining three million.

After returning I’d have the other 10 million to live off of for the rest of my life. I’m pretty sure I could do that as long as I don’t go crazy spending money. I can’t foresee myself building the “Bundyland Ranch” with a zoo and amusement park.

I think I could live my life quite happily from that point on.

Alas, the reality is I haven’t won the lottery and I have to resign myself to the fact that I’ll likely be working until the day I die and won’t likely see retirement. Even if I live that long I won’t be able to afford to quit working so I’ll just have to enjoy the relaxing times when I can and pretend that my weekends are my retirement.

Yikes…that’s pretty damn depressing. I think I better get to the store and buy some lottery tickets fast.

Presqu’ile, Show Me the Money

For those of you who enjoy camping in Ontario, don’t you just love going into the Provincial Parks with their nicely paved campground roads? OK, maybe you can find that at almost every other park, except Presqu’ile Provincial Park near Brighton, Ontario.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Presqu’ile. In fact, I love it so much I’ve camped or visited there for 40 years and my parents have been going even longer than that. It has changed a lot over that time, some good and some bad, but it’s still like a home away from home. I know several of the staff at the park and they’re all super people but perhaps it’s time to stop worrying about going over budget for a change and get the park back in shape.

Believe it or not, birders, naturalists and tree-huggers aren’t the only people who use the park. While I respect those people and the fun they have, I’d hazard to guess that most of the parks revenue comes from your average campers. These are people who enjoy meeting with other campers, spending time with their families and sitting by campfires under star-filled skies. Sure they might look for the odd bird or plant but most are there to get away from the phone and to enjoy the great outdoors.

I can’t even begin to imagine how much revenue Presqu’ile generates each year. Just for fun, let’s assume the park is full for a weekend and in most cases during the summer it is. An average night of camping is around $35 and with 400 campsites; the revenue generated from only a two night weekend stay is $28-thousand dollars. Multiply that by 12 weekends from June to September and it comes to $336-thousand dollars. That's just the weekends during the peak part of the season and doesn't even count all of the sites that are full from Sunday to Thursday, the early Spring or the Fall camping. The number would grow a lot more if we counted those.

Of course, that’s just the campers and the numbers don't include senior or disability discounts. We haven't even factored in the daily passes purchased by visitors coming in for a picnic, day at the beach or a drive through to see the remaining few deer that weren’t killed during the last few culls. Believe it or not, I’ve actually seen a couple of deer this year but it is a rare sight. A day pass is around $16 per vehicle so there’s a lot more extra revenue that will come in from those.

OK, I think you get the picture, money shouldn’t be an issue. My point is this; why won’t the management of the park or the powers that be spend some of that money to upgrade the steadily deteriorating roads in the campgrounds? I’m starting to think they don’t even read the suggestions left on the backs of the expired permits. Patch jobs just don’t work anymore. Surely there must be some money left after paying the staff and any other bills to lay some asphalt and do the job properly.

Last summer the dust created by the lazy and quick fix effort to improve the camping area roads was unbelievable. It was everywhere including all over the trees and vehicles, not to mention inside the trailers. At times you couldn’t even sit outside and enjoy the day. How did the park respond to this problem? They sent around a small water truck to trickle some H2O on the roads to keep the dust down. Would anyone like to guess how well that solution worked in the 28 plus degree heat we had? The roads were dry and dusty again in a matter of minutes.

Forget the dust, how about the fact that the campers are forced to use the roads when driving and pulling their trailers to their sites. We’re talking about trailers that cost any where from $5-thousand dollars to several hundred-thousand dollars for motor homes and luxury bus models. That’s a lot of money to have bouncing around causing damage to your second home or only home for some campers. I can just imagine how many dishes, TV’s or other items have been broken over the years.

Some might argue that paving the roads might increase the speed of the vehicles in the campground. Trust me when I tell you, there are plenty of people speeding in there already and I am amazed a child hasn’t been killed yet. I don’t know why security is never around to slow people down. After the roads are paved, put in a few speed bumps or speed humps like they have in the U.S. to help with that problem. Four or five speed reducers in each camping area would be a lot better than the potholed roads they have now.

Of course, nothing surprises me anymore. Last year the main road leading into the Park was ripped up to be resurfaced just before the August long weekend. That is easily the busiest weekend of the year and the dust created along that road for the next few weeks was disgusting. The trees were white and anyone riding a bike or walking along the road had to have a shower to clean the filth off them after they finished their outing. Obviously someone who makes more money than me but with fewer brain cells came up with that idea. No doubt they did it because it saved money somehow and that’s all that matters isn’t it? Perhaps this was a screw-up on Brighton’s part since it is a county road but it still reflects poorly on the park and they should have fought it and held off until September when the peak season was over.

Someone needs to step up, open the purse strings a little and finally get the roads paved once the park closes after Thanksgiving this year. It’s time for Presqu’ile Provincial Park to stop shipping their profits to other Parks and keep some of that money for themselves, increase the budget and get the campground roads fixed. If not for the reasons mentioned above, then do it for all of those kids who are trying to rollerblade and keep falling because the roads are a mess.