Focusing on a reality check with a DOF that will make you Shudder
Times are changing very rapidly in the photography business and professional photographers must quickly learn to adapt and find their niche if they are to survive. Fifteen years ago if someone had told me that major camera manufactures would announce there were going to stop selling 33mm cameras in the US market place or that companies such as Kodak and other major film and camera companies would all but do away with 33mm film development services and products, I would have laughed at you - but they did. Then to see companies such as Ritz Camera and other similar companies practically fold and go out of business over night because the sudden switch to digital was simply too fast and too much for these companies to manage.
When I first began taking pictures “real” film was all that was available in the marketplace and I would go purchase several rolls of 35mm - 400 film with 36 exposures and carefully plan my pictures. I would then take the rolls of film to a local high quality film processing company. When one hour possessing took off it was great, especially when some local drug store chains jumped on the band wagon and invested in much better processing equipment and offered commercial accounts for photographers.
Overnight digital cameras came out and PP programs like Photo Shop took off and along with the affordable prices of small photo smart printers these items quickly combined to become the nails in the coffin for 33mm film processing and its equipment and this happened almost faster than you could get a roll of 35 mm film developed with double prints.
Digital equipment evolved just as quickly as I my last camera was considered “revolutionary” in the field of digital photography and garnered all the best reviews and accolades when it was unveiled, however today (five years later) that same camera is considered a dinosaur and the company Konica Minolta who manufactured it is out of camera business.
As mentioned the print media has suffered huge changes as well, look at how many long standing traditional newspapers and magazines have gone belly up. The print medias still around are struggling to even pay their bills, much less their writers.
Professional photographers have to understand the huge changes in the field of photography combined with the abundance of available photos and the rapid increase of the number of people who have taken their photography skills to the next level.
Ten years ago there wasn’t 8 gig memory chips that could store 4,000 pictures, the was no 20X optical zoom lenses, or even 20 mega pixel cameras, not to mention there wasn’t Flicker, Photo bucket, or the social networking sites that exist today on the internet. Today millions of images are uploaded daily onto the internet, which only cause hobbyists to become more qualified with equipment and technology not to mention great forums like this one where photographers get together and “network” sharing all their skills, tips and equipment experiences while newbie’s and hobbyists lurk in the shadows picking up tips and learning how to shoot pictures just like the professionals.
In the end it’s only going to get harder to sell your “professional” photographs for any real profit, as the competition is growing faster than Kudzu on a Carolina highway. The only way you will be able to make it in this business is with the best customer service, greater attention to even the smallest details, “more” and better professional equipment, and in at the end of the day it will probably be just like capturing a perfect picture - being in the right place at the right time with the proper lighting.
