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Show me POSITIVE news about our industry!
- Thread starter PenguinPhotoCo
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PenguinPhotoCo
Veteran Member
PenguinPhotoCo
Veteran Member
This is the third post I"ve responded to on this forum made by people that are CLUELESS. Totally clueless.
let me quote
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www.livescience.com
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www.boston.com
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www.prweb.com
let me quote
That's an 8% or so decline in weddings in the past 6 years. That's a pretty significant drop consider the population is growing.
TantalizingLightBeams
Well-known member
Wow. Thank you so much for calling me clueless...
By the way, what you wrote and what I wrote are not in conflict. The Photography business is forecast to grow at a rate similar to other industries. "Demand for wedding and portrait photographers will continue as people continue to get married"
The market can be shrinking and there can still be demand, and I don't dispute that the market for wedding photography may be shrinking based on the recent recession.
Alan
By the way, what you wrote and what I wrote are not in conflict. The Photography business is forecast to grow at a rate similar to other industries. "Demand for wedding and portrait photographers will continue as people continue to get married"
The market can be shrinking and there can still be demand, and I don't dispute that the market for wedding photography may be shrinking based on the recent recession.
Alan
PenguinPhotoCo
Veteran Member
I have more seniors booked for the next week than I've shot in oct/nov/dec combined in years past.
See, not all of my world is negative! LOL
See, not all of my world is negative! LOL
AcquiredTaste
Veteran Member
John Motts
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Doesn't that count as an answer to your original question?
echelon2004
Veteran Member
No, individuals don't count. They are anecdotal.
--
Anders
'It is nice to be important but it is more important to be nice'
--
Anders
'It is nice to be important but it is more important to be nice'
PenguinPhotoCo
Veteran Member
Shot a corporate christmas fundraiser dinner the past 4 years. This year it's not in their budget.
Frustrating to take a stop forward and then a step back.
Normallly 3,000 emails generates 2 phone calls, sometimes 3. Most of those turn into bookings. Last 15,000 emails sent out garnered 2 calls. Both booked.
So good news is good - but I also get too much (IMO) bad news. For about 6 years straight I had growth - some years 30% revenue growth. Starting last year this yo-yo crap started. No longer does there seem to be a relationship between 'more effort' and 'more results'.
Frustrating to take a stop forward and then a step back.
Normallly 3,000 emails generates 2 phone calls, sometimes 3. Most of those turn into bookings. Last 15,000 emails sent out garnered 2 calls. Both booked.
So good news is good - but I also get too much (IMO) bad news. For about 6 years straight I had growth - some years 30% revenue growth. Starting last year this yo-yo crap started. No longer does there seem to be a relationship between 'more effort' and 'more results'.
Richard Weisgrau
Veteran Member
A year ago I retired from a 45 year career a a professional photographer. I sold a locker full of Nikon gear, and I bought a Fuji X10 (really mice walk around camera) as my only camera. Then I got bored. (Yes, even when you are 71 years old you can be bored while in good health, of sound mind, and feeling unchallenged.) Last week (as in October 5) I decided to re-enter the pro ranks and get back into business. I sold my Fuji X10. I bought some Panny Lumix gear, as I had tested it years back in the form of a G1, Gh1 and assorted lenses. For me, the market is on the web. I don't need that heavy Nikon gear I once carried.
So now I have been back in the biz for one week. After a year away I found that my previous clients had found less expensive alternatives. While that was discouraging at first, my spirits were lifted by the fact that many of my old clients were willing to pay me the fee that they had in the past since they found that the less expensive alternative was just not as good. From October 5 through yesterday (Oct 10) I have booked four jobs with high end realtors (as in multi-million dollar houses), one sports assignment, and one industrial shoot. Total billings will be about $1500. Not bad for a week of work as a freelance photographer. Not great, but not bad.
Whether the news about the biz is good or bad depends upon marketing skills. When someone tells me they can get the work done for half of what I have quoted I wish them luck and invite them to contact me when their first choice prove to be a failure.
With all that said, let me be clear. Pro photo rates, adjusted for decades of inflation, are well behind what they were when I began my career. The biz has gone from a low volume high price to a medium volume medium price, to a high volume low price deal. The secret to success in the current environment is to adapt. In years to come fees will get lower, volume will increase, and technology will make fulfillment many times easier. Photography is not the only profession undergoing this kind of change. Good photographers often fail in business. Good businesspeople rarely fail in professional photography.
Yes, that the good news is that success and profitability can be achieved by those who know or learn how to do it.
Richard Weisgrau
www.drawnwithlight.com
So now I have been back in the biz for one week. After a year away I found that my previous clients had found less expensive alternatives. While that was discouraging at first, my spirits were lifted by the fact that many of my old clients were willing to pay me the fee that they had in the past since they found that the less expensive alternative was just not as good. From October 5 through yesterday (Oct 10) I have booked four jobs with high end realtors (as in multi-million dollar houses), one sports assignment, and one industrial shoot. Total billings will be about $1500. Not bad for a week of work as a freelance photographer. Not great, but not bad.
Whether the news about the biz is good or bad depends upon marketing skills. When someone tells me they can get the work done for half of what I have quoted I wish them luck and invite them to contact me when their first choice prove to be a failure.
With all that said, let me be clear. Pro photo rates, adjusted for decades of inflation, are well behind what they were when I began my career. The biz has gone from a low volume high price to a medium volume medium price, to a high volume low price deal. The secret to success in the current environment is to adapt. In years to come fees will get lower, volume will increase, and technology will make fulfillment many times easier. Photography is not the only profession undergoing this kind of change. Good photographers often fail in business. Good businesspeople rarely fail in professional photography.
Yes, that the good news is that success and profitability can be achieved by those who know or learn how to do it.
Richard Weisgrau
www.drawnwithlight.com
ea imagestry
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The positive in the industry may be to leave the industry
Let me explain in a quick summery. My wife was laid off from her photo industry position 7 years ago. In New York state photography is considered a dying field, and will (at the time at least) pay fully for training or college in a growth field, including full time child care. She went back to school full time for 3 years year round and is now in a field making more than twice the amount in photo industry. I myself left the photo industry 2 years and make more in my current job then in photography.
Ed
Let me explain in a quick summery. My wife was laid off from her photo industry position 7 years ago. In New York state photography is considered a dying field, and will (at the time at least) pay fully for training or college in a growth field, including full time child care. She went back to school full time for 3 years year round and is now in a field making more than twice the amount in photo industry. I myself left the photo industry 2 years and make more in my current job then in photography.
Ed
If you don't enjoy something any more, why waste your life on the negative, life is too short. Do something else. Make photography a hobby or something. Your are one of the most negative persons I've seen in these forums.
If you changed your attitude you might actually get more business. Sounds weird, I know, but it's like the person who gets new clothes, a makeover and a feels great about themselves and then life changes for them. Positive things happen because THEY are happy with themselves. Their outlook on life is positive.
And happiness breeds happiness. If you aren't a joy to be around nobody is going to want to hire you. I hope people don't find out who you are because if I was in the market to find a photographer in your area saw all your posts here there is no way I would ever hire you.
You don't appreciate people or potential clients. So negative.
--
Check out my photo galleries !!
http://www.vandervalk.ca
If you changed your attitude you might actually get more business. Sounds weird, I know, but it's like the person who gets new clothes, a makeover and a feels great about themselves and then life changes for them. Positive things happen because THEY are happy with themselves. Their outlook on life is positive.
And happiness breeds happiness. If you aren't a joy to be around nobody is going to want to hire you. I hope people don't find out who you are because if I was in the market to find a photographer in your area saw all your posts here there is no way I would ever hire you.
You don't appreciate people or potential clients. So negative.
--
Check out my photo galleries !!
http://www.vandervalk.ca
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The question is when they started to assemble the numbers for that report.
2009 was quite different compared with today.
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Finished Cleaning
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Very freedom is America gift to world. Free speech. Free picture. Free video. Free photographer. Free videographer. Free internet. Free software. Is very freedom for America. God damn communist China has twitter/facebook jail. You cannot tweet good nor dumb kid sexts ever the communist party capture your family and inside gulag. Only Russia, Israel, Iran same communism treatments. American is lucky you can imagine only you born communism.
I think China electronics will make China free in 40 years. I pray. Taiwan, S Korea, China taking lead computer, smart phone, chip, camera, consumer. Japan, US will not longer. It can likely maybe Inda, Japan, US, Iran, Europe will making lead for permanent biotech, genetics, nanotech, high energy, greentech, cleantech, aerospace, etc.
I think China electronics will make China free in 40 years. I pray. Taiwan, S Korea, China taking lead computer, smart phone, chip, camera, consumer. Japan, US will not longer. It can likely maybe Inda, Japan, US, Iran, Europe will making lead for permanent biotech, genetics, nanotech, high energy, greentech, cleantech, aerospace, etc.
I realise that the USA and Australia are two vastly different economies, although we share similar beliefs and values.
I can see Penguin's point of view because professional photography, as a form of employment is rapdily declining in my country as well. I have a number of associates that work as photographers and many of them are acclaimed, award winning artists in their fields. All of them are telling me their business is in RAPID decline and some are taking up other forms of emplyment and others are contemplating reitirement on a state pension. In Australia, that's an income of $32,417 (free of tax) for a couple.
I have difficulty imagining how $36,000USD can be considered a living income for any working 'professional'. As Penguin has previously stated, the cost of entry to be a photographer is very low, and that, combined with the technical advances in digital cameras, has resulted in a huge increase in participation (and therefore competition), particularly in the wedding and portrait business.
I saw one of the countries' leading commercial photographers, who shot brochures for Mercedes, Landrover & Isuzu, lose his entire business as a result of the Global Financial Crisis. It simply vapourised over night as the Multi-national corporations moved all their Marketing back to Europe & Japan. I was fortunate to pick up all his MFD equipment (only one month old) for less than a third of its value 'cause he needed to put food on his table.
I'm just very glad that, as well as studying photography, I chose 25 years ago to stick with engineering and science. Now I can afford to do photography for my own pleasure and fulfillment.
I can see Penguin's point of view because professional photography, as a form of employment is rapdily declining in my country as well. I have a number of associates that work as photographers and many of them are acclaimed, award winning artists in their fields. All of them are telling me their business is in RAPID decline and some are taking up other forms of emplyment and others are contemplating reitirement on a state pension. In Australia, that's an income of $32,417 (free of tax) for a couple.
I have difficulty imagining how $36,000USD can be considered a living income for any working 'professional'. As Penguin has previously stated, the cost of entry to be a photographer is very low, and that, combined with the technical advances in digital cameras, has resulted in a huge increase in participation (and therefore competition), particularly in the wedding and portrait business.
I saw one of the countries' leading commercial photographers, who shot brochures for Mercedes, Landrover & Isuzu, lose his entire business as a result of the Global Financial Crisis. It simply vapourised over night as the Multi-national corporations moved all their Marketing back to Europe & Japan. I was fortunate to pick up all his MFD equipment (only one month old) for less than a third of its value 'cause he needed to put food on his table.
I'm just very glad that, as well as studying photography, I chose 25 years ago to stick with engineering and science. Now I can afford to do photography for my own pleasure and fulfillment.
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Raymond Bradlau
Veteran Member
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