I certainly don't need to justify what I do to the folks here on this board, just trying to enter into a conversation. There is usually more than one side to every issue...as there is with the disc vs. prints argument.
All full timers and old timers knows things are changing with digital. But we also know
how to make money,
how this business works. And files are
not and never will be a way to make a profit.
What is a facebook profile picture worth? $2? $10? Not more than that.
I can shoot 50 pics at a session, show 25, edit 3 and make $500 on the print sales. Or I can spend my time editing 50 images and put them on a disk. Hmm...edit 50 or edit 3? Seems like a no brainer to me! Do I get $80 for an 8x10? Yep. Can't get that for a file though....and once the file is sold you get nothing else. With the 8x10 I also may sell some wallets and a wall canvas. I won't burn out like this, and neither would you.
Your pics look pretty good (crap site, too many pics, no organization, etc). You coud be doing rather well - but you lack confidence and business basics. I bet you've never gone to your boss on your day job and asked for a pay cut, or offered to work for free on your day off. Yet you're doing this with your photography. Why?
Why don't you value it? Why are you letting folks that don't appreciate what we do take advantage of you? "But they love my pictures!" - sure, and they love mine too - but I get paid 3 to 4 times as much for mine as you do for yours. Love has a price.
You guys hang onto the expensive prints scenario as long as you can...and more power to you if you can sell it.
Just not my way of doing things.....and increasingly less successful photographers are following that plan.
I don't know about that. I don't know a single photographer that is making money at doing just files. A few wedding photogs are doing fine that way - at $4500-7000 for a 'shoot and burn'. But they are not the norm - and unless you are a rockstar (and damn few of us are, sorry to bust so many egos) we have to work with the norms, not the exceptions.
Why would I lie. I do as much work as I feel like doing. I don't need the money I make from photography. It is a part time hobby I make some money with.
I wish I had people lined up to give me money I dont' need.
As I said before there will probably always be photographers who are good businessmen with the product to match that can make that plan work.
But as time goes on that number will continue to shrink.
That is my opinion and you are welcome to yours.
Well, as a part time, burned out shoot and burner with a day job your opinion of the professional photography industry is very myopic. I would think your expertise on denstritry or radio stations or rocketry is at about the same level. It's like the blind men that met an elephant - the one that felt the leg described a very different animal from the one that touched the trunk or the ear. That's why I try to gather info from many sources and not just anecdotal bits. I sift through it and keep what works for me and toss what doesn't.
I entered this biz with an attitude not too far from yours - and quickly learned to do as others do and make money - I'm not out to change the world, the industry, human nature. Life's too short for that.
There is one established senior photog here offering a shoot and burn 'package' this year. I'm not sure how popular that will be. There will be customer for it, just like i have some for albums. Basic research will tell you what people want (prints, wallets, albums, not files). Offer files but do so at a proper price point and see what clients choose - it will be prints.
$300 for 2 hours on location, including 50 edited files? I see why you got burned out. I'd put in some product and get $1295 for that - 1000 or so above product costs. Why would I choose to work for $300 when I can choose to work for $1300? Why do you?
--
If I knew how to take a good picture I'd do it every time.
