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

Whats a GWC - Guy With Camera

ConDigital wrote in post #9148237
Whats a GWC - Guy With Camera

Yes.

airfrogusmc wrote in post #9148260
Yes.

Thanks

Photographers that truly understand and can see, use and capture light will always be in demand. Understanding basics like quality of light and how it effects the final image will separate you from 90% of the low ballers and GWCs out there because they are for the most part button pushers.

I noticed a drop off in business with a big client about 5 years ago. After about a year or so I suddenly started getting a lot more work from them again so I asked the director of communications what had happened. He said they had hired a manager that said she could shoot picture to and started doing some of the things that I had been doing (stuff they though wasn't that important like shots for the internet, internal communications, etc).

One of the VPs complained to the director that the work wasn't close to the same quality that they were used to seeing and to so whatever to get it back to where it was. What we do goes or I should say what we should be doing is going far beyond pushing buttons.

Seeing light to be able to capture what you see and being able to compose well is something that the MWC (manager with camera) couldn't do becasue all she did was turn on the flash and shoot and the images looked like it. They had gotten used to seeing something very different.

Most major companies are very aware of image and understand if you let substandard work that is suppose to be representing your company/image it can have a distructive effect on people perceptions of your company. Those clients that think like that are the ones you want. Though I lost some work originally they wound up back and I'm shooting more for them that I've ever shot.

And you have shown what I stated earlier...if you can turn in a product that Joe/Jean Smith cant reproduce, then you will remain in demand..its just going to be a smaller market..smaller but with much better images as only the very good will probably survive (I hope to one day be included in this small group..have to get the lighting thing down first)...

Probably result in higher pay as well in the long run..(hopefully)

This is an interesting thread, though I'm just getting into photography and having a blast at the amateur level. I have little prospect of making enough money out of it to even pay for the equipment. For that, as this thread suggests, I will need to discover an unexploited niche. In any case, I will not be concerned about putting a professional out of work (BTW I don't work for free). I like the long-term results of competition, even if at times it causes great hardship to some. Sorry.

At home, I drink instant coffee for the convenience. To have coffee with a client, I go to a quality restaurant. I take fun pictures for friends and family, and some are not bad for the purpose. But then I don't have to worry about my pictures being better than those of a competitor, or worry about opportunities missed. Should I host a special occasion, I would surely hire a pro to guarantee quality work that takes full advantage of the opportunities regardless of the conditions (e.g. inebriated guest plus rain at an outdoor wedding). There will always be some work for some professional photographers. Probably less of the boring kind.

airfrogusmc wrote in post #9148121
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.

I was actually just restating the central question of this thread.

Although the commercial/advertising arena differs in significant ways from the personal commission arena, most of those are differences of proportion rather than kind, and they are frequently analogous to situations faced by many other craft-artisans. The problems originate at least as far back as the beginnings of mass production.

We are involved in creating custom products as crafts-artisans, and to the extent that mass production reduces both the desire and the need for custom services, it's going to reduce our market. Moreover, tight economic times will cause clients to question even more closely whether they need custom quality or even need the service at all. DSLR technology isn't a new kind of threat. DSLRs are like H1N1...the latest strain of the same disease, and as always, a new strain hits everyone until they gain an immunity, and it may kill the weak before they gain immunity.

The word processor wiped out the general "typing pool," but executives still have secretaries. People who merely want their grass cut will do it themselves or hire the guy with the 4x6 card on the bulletin board at Kroger's. People who want to improve the value of their homes will hire an expert landscaper.

What are we losing? We're losing the bottom of the market--those products that have now become easy DIY and those products that don't demand custom quality. It doesn't really matter how well we socially massage our clients, at the point that any of them determine a cheaper alternative is good enough, they will choose cheaper over better.

For some products, it doesn't matter that we can do them better--the fact is that the client may not care about "better." Thus, some products are likely gone forever at the low end. Brides who have always considered photography to be a "necessary evil" will be gone. They never cared about "better" anyway, so what they get from the GWC or even their guests cell phones will be good enough from them. But those brides who understand that the photography is what they will have left twenty years after the wedding will still be our customers.

Portrait clients who doen't want anything more than a 5x7 or 8x10 "record" shot will be lost--they will be perfectly happy with what they get from their own cell phones or Uncle Bob. Those who want wall portraits that their grandchildren will fight over thirty years from now will still be our customers.

^^^ Funny you should say - with video on cell phones and cameras, now, everyone's a Cinematographer. You see some of the garbage on YouTube?

ConDigital wrote in post #9148237
Whats a GWC - Guy With Camera

airfrogusmc wrote in post #9148260
Yes.

or Gal...

or anyone with a first name starting with "G"... LOL...

RDKirk wrote in post #9150483
I was actually just restating the central question of this thread.

Although the commercial/advertising arena differs in significant ways from the personal commission arena, most of those are differences of proportion rather than kind, and they are frequently analogous to situations faced by many other craft-artisans. The problems originate at least as far back as the beginnings of mass production.

We are involved in creating custom products as crafts-artisans, and to the extent that mass production reduces both the desire and the need for custom services, it's going to reduce our market. Moreover, tight economic times will cause clients to question even more closely whether they need custom quality or even need the service at all. DSLR technology isn't a new kind of threat. DSLRs are like H1N1...the latest strain of the same disease, and as always, a new strain hits everyone until they gain an immunity, and it may kill the weak before they gain immunity.

The word processor wiped out the general "typing pool," but executives still have secretaries. People who merely want their grass cut will do it themselves or hire the guy with the 4x6 card on the bulletin board at Kroger's. People who want to improve the value of their homes will hire an expert landscaper.

What are we losing? We're losing the bottom of the market--those products that have now become easy DIY and those products that don't demand custom quality. It doesn't really matter how well we socially massage our clients, at the point that any of them determine a cheaper alternative is good enough, they will choose cheaper over better.

For some products, it doesn't matter that we can do them better--the fact is that the client may not care about "better." Thus, some products are likely gone forever at the low end. Brides who have always considered photography to be a "necessary evil" will be gone. They never cared about "better" anyway, so what they get from the GWC or even their guests cell phones will be good enough from them. But those brides who understand that the photography is what they will have left twenty years after the wedding will still be our customers.

Portrait clients who doen't want anything more than a 5x7 or 8x10 "record" shot will be lost--they will be perfectly happy with what they get from their own cell phones or Uncle Bob. Those who want wall portraits that their grandchildren will fight over thirty years from now will still be our customers.

Yeah, thats why if you're going to be successful moving forward you had better find a way to move away from all of those areas and find a place that won't be hurt like those at the bottom and if your not getting established with firm client bases you could be in trouble soon.

airfrogusmc wrote in post #9154122
Yeah, thats why if you're going to be successful moving forward you had better find a way to move away from all of those areas and find a place that won't be hurt like those at the bottom and if your not getting established with firm client bases you could be in trouble soon.

Hence why I think the wedding 'togs must be taking a hit.

Con, I think you have quite a bit of reason to believe what you do. Friends of mine who use to shoot weddings for 7K+ without a broken stitch, now are harassed at 5K. One friend who works at a studio who shoots over 300 weddings a year, with quality clients and deep pockets.

The Pro-sumer camera's will indeed hit parts of the market at the lower end. But as stated here, there are several areas where Pro's will be untouched. One can argue against it all day long, but as long as Flickr, Strobist and other forums exist where people can learn lighting and shooting through a video on the internet, it will weaken the true Professional's business.

Even now, I hear so many of my clients accepting the sitting fee's but want the digital files thrown in for next to nothing. I more or less tell them Hell No!!! People just don't get it and is why the Pro_Sumer market will weaken but not the Professional one. Nice question. Best of Luck.

ConDigital wrote in post #9154170
Hence why I think the wedding 'togs must be taking a hit.

The high end not so much because most of the clients wouldn't consider a low baller and most of the photographers in that arena get a lot of their work from wedding consultants.

airfrogusmc wrote in post #9154585
The high end not so much because most of the clients wouldn't consider a low baller and most of the photographers in that arena get a lot of their work from wedding consultants.

The high end of anything never really gets touched, but they're a small end.

No different to $80,000 - $100,000 kitchens. Not to many people will DIY a kitchen costing that much, but that doesn't stop the billions of dollars spent every year on kitchen DIY renovations.

Internal/external house painting used to be a good trade to be in. After walking down any hardware store isle nowadays and seeing how DIY is geared up for the average Joe to paint their own house, it wouldn't be a trade I'd consider to enter if I was leaving school, but again....as usual of course there will always be the high end willing to pay not to soil their own hands.

ConDigital wrote in post #9155202
Internal/external house painting used to be a good trade to be in. After walking down any hardware store isle nowadays and seeing how DIY is geared up for the average Joe to paint their own house, it wouldn't be a trade I'd consider to enter if I was leaving school, but again....as usual of course there will always be the high end willing to pay not to soil their own hands.

Or the low end guy paying to have a pro fix what they messed up! (that'd be me, I really, really suck at DIY)

RDKirk wrote in post #9150483
DSLRs are like H1N1...

hahahahahahaha funniest thing i heard today