ohkphoto
Snow White
Interesting article with some eye-opening stats . . . validates what most photographers have been suspecting . . .
More Woes for the Photographer
More Woes for the Photographer
Photographer Woes
- Thread starter ohkphoto
- Start date
AC016
Senior Member
It is an interesting article. Though, if this guy was a superhero, he would be called Captain Obvious! I think if anyone were to take anything from this, it is the fact that we need to adapt with the changing times and not get stuck in the past. Kind of ironic that we read about the decline of printed material (Magazines, Newspapers, etc.) on the internet, lol
Don Kuykendall_RIP
RIP :(
I was in the One hour Photo finishing industry almost from the beginning. I was the manager of the second lab in the State of Alabama. In the beginning it cost around $250,000 to set up a proper lab. It also took a lot of training and daily work just to keep the machines in good working order and producing good prints. The reason I and a lot of other lab owners got out of the business was that the cost of the machines dropped to around $40,000 and you could train a monkey to run them. Everyone had them and most did a horrible job but it was cheap and people would get their prints from there.
Digital photography has done the same thing to professional photographers. Anyone can spend $600 and get a decent camera that takes decent pictures. They then call themselves photographers and undercharge and take away business from the good photographers. The main problem is that a lot of these customers really don't know the difference since they have been getting bad photographs for years themselves (See previous paragraph)
I think there will always be a place for the truly good photographer but it is going to continue to be more difficult for that photographer to earn a decent living as the years go by.
Digital photography has done the same thing to professional photographers. Anyone can spend $600 and get a decent camera that takes decent pictures. They then call themselves photographers and undercharge and take away business from the good photographers. The main problem is that a lot of these customers really don't know the difference since they have been getting bad photographs for years themselves (See previous paragraph)
I think there will always be a place for the truly good photographer but it is going to continue to be more difficult for that photographer to earn a decent living as the years go by.
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Rexer John
Senior Member
Times are changing for all jobs unfortunately and some jobs are disappearing, many have gone already and old trade skills are being lost forever.
Those upload figures are huge but the vast majority of pictures are snapshots.
Nothing against snapshots at all, my point is they (snaps) are not taking anything away from the professional photographer.
However, the number of amateur photographers have shot up over the years, many of them could go professional.
SLR/DSLR are still in the minority, and as we know, they give the most artistic scope.
It's a harder time for everyone these days in any given trade, professional photography will be with us for a long time yet.
I guess the bottom line is, people have less money to spend, so fewer people will go to a professional if they can do a half decent job themselves.
Those upload figures are huge but the vast majority of pictures are snapshots.
Nothing against snapshots at all, my point is they (snaps) are not taking anything away from the professional photographer.
However, the number of amateur photographers have shot up over the years, many of them could go professional.
SLR/DSLR are still in the minority, and as we know, they give the most artistic scope.
It's a harder time for everyone these days in any given trade, professional photography will be with us for a long time yet.
I guess the bottom line is, people have less money to spend, so fewer people will go to a professional if they can do a half decent job themselves.
AC016
Senior Member
Business is very much like nature: survival of the fittest. If your business does not adapt with the times, it will die. With all the time that someone spends on bitching about how someone has lower prices or that a newspaper is not buying their pictures, they are missing out on other opportunities. Business is never static, it is dynamic.
AC016
Senior Member
Exactly. With pretty much every business, you are selling something. Only way to do that, is to get in front of your potential customers. They are not going to come to you just because you have a nice portfolio sitting on your desk.
pistnbroke
Banned
I am now very worried for you OHK. Having read the article I would not like your business to go down the tubes and you end up on the street.
ohkphoto
Snow White
How kind of you to express concern for me. I am, however, doing quite well. As others have posted, the trend has been obvious for some time and I, along with others, have adapted.
I would be more concerned for the "traditional" wedding photographers . . . which would explain why they're such a "whiney" bunch . . . again, no reference to you as you have a tendency to incorrectly "read between the lines."
pistnbroke
Banned
how nice to hear you are doing ok....yes wedding photograhers are a very secretive bunch as there business is so fragile....fortunatly I am not in that positon with 46 booked for this year many for 2014 and taking some for 2015.
JudeIscariot
Senior Member
This fits quite well in this thread, donchyall think?
This is an excellent image. I send it in reply to online ads if they're absolutely ridiculous. Just the other day I saw an ad for a "YOUTH SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHER", and the ad itself mentions that the team is sponsored by the NFL and a chain sporting good store... But they can't pay the photographer, you know... It'd be good for their portfolio to do it for free!
As a random update:
The people actually wrote back and told me I don't have the credentials to work for them anyway. Never mind the fact that they know nothing about me, I didn't send a resume, I didn't send them any images, my e-mail address is not associated with ANYTHING even remotely related to photography (mine or others) and that the name it displays also would lead to nothing. This leads me to believe they are making their judgment based on the fact that they don't know my name... Which means even worse things for the entire situation... Because they're looking for free work... From somebody whose name they actually recognize.
They also said "You're also ignorant because you don't know how things work".
Yes, I'm ignorant because I know that people asking for and getting free work is slowly killing the industry.
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Browncoat
Senior Member
Someone needs to revoke Jim Pickerell's writing license. He has whined about this stuff before.
The guy does raise some valid concerns, but his entire mode of thinking is based in an era where photography was still an artisan's craft, and digital has changed all that.
Photography used to be a lot more mystical. You had to be in an apprenticeship program and learn from a master in order to get the skills. It wasn't a matter of competition back then, because there just wasn't any. People weren't lining up to learn about photography as a career path 20 or even 10 years ago. Now, anyone can buy a digital camera and create decent pictures. Anyone.
Competition for photographs has skyrocketed. Advanced, easy-to-use cameras combined with the internet, social media, and technology in general has destroyed the old business model. It doesn't even exist anymore, so there's no sense comparing then and now or talking about the good old days. They're gone forever.
This guy is a piece of work. He's always writing about the industry doom and gloom, and how there's no money in photography anymore, but then turns right around and links his book on how to be a pro photographer. Priceless.
The guy does raise some valid concerns, but his entire mode of thinking is based in an era where photography was still an artisan's craft, and digital has changed all that.
Photography used to be a lot more mystical. You had to be in an apprenticeship program and learn from a master in order to get the skills. It wasn't a matter of competition back then, because there just wasn't any. People weren't lining up to learn about photography as a career path 20 or even 10 years ago. Now, anyone can buy a digital camera and create decent pictures. Anyone.
Competition for photographs has skyrocketed. Advanced, easy-to-use cameras combined with the internet, social media, and technology in general has destroyed the old business model. It doesn't even exist anymore, so there's no sense comparing then and now or talking about the good old days. They're gone forever.
This guy is a piece of work. He's always writing about the industry doom and gloom, and how there's no money in photography anymore, but then turns right around and links his book on how to be a pro photographer. Priceless.
JudeIscariot
Senior Member
But a lot of them are memes! Or images of "dying kids" where you have to like it so they can get an operation!