Is the era of "Paid Photographers" drawing to a close?

PMCphotography wrote in post #9143382
Ok, fair enough, but I was referring to ME, and why I don't personally have a flickr or spend much time browsing it.

I don't have one, because what my clients think of the photos I produce- whether the client is triathlon australia, a wedding couple, or a kids session- to me is much more important than what strangers think of them.

Yep I follow your train of thought, makes sense.

You should get a flickr anyway, so you can market yourself and target new clients. Marketing is extremely important. Google my name and see why I like flickr.

Karl Johnston wrote in post #9143947
You should get a flickr anyway, so you can market yourself and target new clients. Marketing is extremely important. Google my name and see why I like flickr.

That's actually quite impressive, Karl. I didn't realize a flickr could have that much impact on google rankings. Thanks for bringing that to my attention!

I dunno why but I get a lot of commercial inquiries through flickr, prints and the like..even though I don't print with snapfish, anything helps.

POTN gives me killer rankings too. When I have nothing to do (most times now that school is over) I go on here and drop key words. If you go in the lens forum and do that a lot - change your Username to your real or business name) - you also get crazy link referrals on google. Not sure anything about how it works but it helps
/hijack

Thats interesting.

ConDigital wrote in post #9132213
And just because people charge money that also doesn't mean they know how to create a moment.

The question is not whether everyone who gets paid is good, the question is whether even the good can get paid.

RDKirk wrote in post #9147451
the question is whether even the good can get paid.

I think it will get harder, never obsolete, but much harder.

airfrogusmc wrote in post #9134170
Thats at the mall but at some of the finest restaurants theres still long waiting lists to get in even with reservations. So why compete with the masses? Find a niche.

This is very true. My town abounds with chain restaurants, and they do okay, but all of the family-owned ethnic restaurants do booming business, as well as a few old family owned restaurants that have developed several generations of clientele.

From what I can see, there had been a "professional photography bubble" that occured from the latter 60s into the 90s--roughly from the fact that photography finally vanquished hand-painted illustrations in nearly all areas of publishing.

To a certain degree, that bubble has simply burst--not so much because people are not using photography, or even because there are more amateurs taking pictures, but because people are willing to use photography of less artistic merit and craftsmanship. This isn't only true in photography, but also in journalism...CNN treats "ireports" as though they are real news, for instance, and the only people on CNN doing original journalism (finding their own stories instead of chasing the blogs and reading news releases) are O'Brien, Amanpour, and for gosh sake, Moos.

Professional photograph is not going to go away, but it will depend on those people who continue to desire a higher level of artistic merit and craftsmanship than they can provide themselves.

Karl Johnston wrote in post #9143947
You should get a flickr anyway, so you can market yourself and target new clients. Marketing is extremely important. Google my name and see why I like flickr.

That's a good point, Karl

Mebbe so, but I don't envy them. When I was in my teens, we fully expected our generation would finall fix the world. We were wrong--the Boomer generation has failed to make any social improvements not already put into place by the War generation.

But I would rather have grown up with our with great expectations rather than with today's general cynicism.

The problem with the internet is that it's not yet clear whether the deluge of garbage data will overwhelm the fraction of worthy data. It's not a dissimilar situation from what's happening with journalism and photography, which are part of the situation. Will the populace of tomorrow actually be better informed from a million blogs than from a few hundred newspapers and television stations?

I dunno. I saw "Idiocracy" and it depressed me immensely.

RDKirk wrote in post #9147813
I dunno. I saw "Idiocracy" and it depressed me immensely.

Does that movie accurately depict the people you really know?

If not, don't assume that the vast majority of people you do not know are more stupid.

People in general are smart, energetic and innovative. If we were not then we would have died out thousands of years ago.

Good point(s).

RDKirk wrote in post #9147451
The question is not whether everyone who gets paid is good, the question is whether even the good can get paid.

Depends on your client base. There will continue to be a need for good photography. If you have positioned yourself correctly and have strong, solid relationships with that client base then you will probably be fine and get what you command. Its going to become more about KNOWING your client and having an expertise in a field that the client needs your skills and someone thats not experienced working inside that field wouldn't be a consideration. In other words your KNOWLEDGE and skill are NEEDED.

RDKirk wrote in post #9147525
This is very true. My town abounds with chain restaurants, and they do okay, but all of the family-owned ethnic restaurants do booming business, as well as a few old family owned restaurants that have developed several generations of clientele.

Yep so to be successful in photography you are going to have to separate yourself in someway from the masses and the GWCs. The client will need to have a reason to pick you just like the customer of the high end restaurant picks that over the chains at/by the mall. The high end restaurants don't even consider the chains their competition because they positioned themselves in place where they're not. We need to do the same.

Develop an ability to do something well that few others can (or will) and you will always have a job. After all, even Mr. Methane—http://www.mrmethane.c​om/—gets gigs and sells CDs.