Could we have a few more photographers please!?

Today's blog post is a repost of Zack Arias' blog post dated September 22, 2010. Zack knows first hand what it's like to start as a photographer, lose it and then come back a 2nd time and finally make it big! He's a hero. At least, he's my hero.  Links to his blog can be found at the bottom of this post. Enjoy!

Everyone wants to be a photographer these days.

Let me warn you now that this blog post is currently in it’s third state of revisions. It’s a real rambler. If you’re up for it, I’m up for it. More after the jump.

If you hang out on Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and the like enough you can “stumble upon” some trends without even trying to. Lately I have seen a number of articles flying around about the over saturation of the photography industry, the unsustainability of the microstock market, and the pros and cons of working for “free”. The “abuse” we photographers receive at the hands of our clients and totally absurd Craig’s List postings of people wanting work for free or photographers giving away the farm for nothing.

Here are a few of the articles that most people are talking about these days.

• Photo business guru John Harrington over at Black Star Rising talking about the 12 excuses for shooting for free. This article is the one that got me thinking about doing this blog post.
• Don Giannatti (Wizwow) has this article on shooting for free, and this article on getting experience. Great reads here.
• David Hobby (Strobist) about working for free. Another must read.
• Rob Haggart (A Photo Editor) about the unsustainability of the micro stock industry. Canary in the coal mine?

Let’s start with the “over saturated” market premise.

I, Zack Arias, am part of the over saturated market. I am one of the many who are filling the waters of this industry. Every job I take is a job off of the table of another photographer. I am a working photographer in large part due to the prevalence of affordable DSLRs, the expense of film and development being removed from my up front overhead, and the Internet.

I’ll be so bold to say that if you have entered this industry in the last ten years then you too are part of the over saturation equation. If you are thinking about becoming a pro photographer, whether part time or full time, then you are over saturating the market as well. I would say the “standard saturation” photographers are the ones who have been in the game, full time, without gaps, for more than ten years.

Let’s break this thing down.

In the days of Kodachrome and dinosaurs there were some pretty set rules of engagement and paths of entrance into the photography industry. You usually started by going to photography school or you started working in a lab. You had to get your feet wet somewhere and school and photo labs were a good place to get started. Once you were ready to move forward you started assisting working photographers. Many times you would have done this for free. I have assisted and interned for free many times and I have met countless photographers who started by schlepping bags and fetching coffee for nothing or next to nothing in pay. It’s what you did. It’s how you got to see how a “real” photographer worked. It was called… get this… “paying your dues.”

These days those paths aren’t so clearly defined. You can go to school via blogs, workshops, YouTube, and DVD’s. You can upload pictures to Flickr and suddenly get a message from an art director wanting you to shoot a job. You can be a kid from Canada, travel the world, shoot some bands and end up shooting campaigns for a company you aren’t even old enough to buy their product. You can be inspired by your own wedding photographer, buy a camera, a fast lens, and rise to the top of your zip code within a year. You can go to Wal-Mart, buy a cheap DSLR, shoot your friends and family, shoot their friends and families, put a blog together, and start a business. There are so many easy entry points into the market now. There is an abundance of inexpensive cameras, free learning portals, and free advertising routes that allows just about anyone with a camera to get out there and make a little or a lot of money with it.

The worst part about all of this is you don’t even have to be all that good of a photographer to get into the game. That really is the worst part about it all but hang out at enough photography water coolers and you’ll hear stories from “back in the day” about the same damn things. Being a crappy photographer with a profitable business is nothing new. There were just more up front costs to deal with back then. Now it’s just easier to be a crappy sucksessful photographer. Add insult to injury… You can be a fairly mediocre photographer these days and have a workshop teaching others how to be just as mediocre as you are. Meh. Whatever. It is what it is.

Add to all of this the deteriorating morale in the corporate workplace, the need of many to make an extra $100 here and there, unemployment, the recession, blah blah blah, and the fact that a lot of people find it a whole lot cooler to say “I’m a photographer” at social gatherings instead of saying “I’m a systems analyst at a health care company.” Bring this all together into the perfect shit storm of an industry filled to the gills with Joe and Jane Photographers trying to do something cool with their lives AND make some money doing it. I mean, Quicken and Quickbooks didn’t really over saturate the accounting market did it? Maybe I’m wrong.

I’m right here part of it all. I’m part of the over saturated market. You’re part of the over saturated market. Don’t bitch and moan and complain about it because you’re in it with the rest of us.

What do we do with that information? Here we all are. Up to our necks in each other. We watch ten leave because they can’t take the pressure and twenty more take their place. It all gets just a little tighter around here. The last thing in the world you need to do is complain about the situation… unless of course, you’ve been at this for twenty or more years. In that case, my apologies to you. I know you’re feeling the pressure of all of us new kids in the pool but here we are and it’s the only pool in town for us. Complaining about us isn’t making us leave and don’t think for a second that I didn’t just notice the water around me get a lot warmer.

Blah blah blah. Metaphor upon metaphor.

So it’s competitive. Guess what? Photography has always been competitive. I don’t know of any other time in this industry when it wasn’t competitive. The nice thing about the industry these days is it seems that most of us are now open to share our experiences with others. Gone are the days of everyone playing with their cards close to their chests. If you are still trying to stay in this industry with that sort of attitude your days are numbered. It’s a real hippy love fest around here these days and we young punk kids ain’t got no time for your old ways of doing things.

Us young punk kids actually really need you to stick around. We need the long established pros to help us out. I know you want us out of your pool but that isn’t happening any time soon. The better you can adapt the better you can survive. Part of adapting is now requiring you to kind of be a life guard even though  you’d probably just be as happy to watch us all drown.

So. Yeah. Over saturated. Your attitude should shift from “This sucks.” to “So what?”. Big Deal. More at the party dude!

How can I run a business will all these $500 wedding photographers in my town?

That’s the next thing we are going to look at. I’ll let you in on this… I’m all for $500 wedding photographers. For many different and sometimes conflicting reasons. Then we’ll look at the micro stock situation. Is it the canary in the coal mine? Then let’s have a conversation about what it all means at the end of the day and will the industry adjust and what will that look like?


The dog days are over
The dog days are done
The horses are coming
So you better run*

*I actually like to listen to the song above as “The dark days are over” and the horses coming aren’t here for destruction.
Cheers,
Zack
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Zack Arias is a music photographer based in Atlanta, GA. You can follow his blog at www.zarias.com

Expanding your network

When most people hear the phrase, "Expanding your network", many think of friending people on Facebook. I have come to the conclusion that one's network is far wider and far more powerful than a list of names on Facebook, MySpace or LinkedIn.

This past Monday, I had to take Charley, my brindle-coloured French Standard Poodle, to see the vet. The only times that one visits medical/veterinary people is if you or your pet is sick or you need a refill on a prescription and the doctor/vet needs to re-evaluate your condition before letting you pop more pills.

I took Charley in because he constantly shook his head as if something was stuck in his ear. I looked inside, didn't see anything, but certainly smelled the tell-tale odour of an ear infection. I arrived at the vet around 10 AM, and the place was packed out with dogs (and cats) of all shapes, sizes and breeds. Some were pretty aggressive and others were just the cutest things you can imagine. I typically, tend to keep to myself, not wanting to intrude into others' space, but the marketing class I attended this past weekend taught me that every encounter with another person is an opportunity not only to make friends, but to expand your network and to grow your business. While this isn't a new concept to me, it is one that decided to embrace with a certain amount of fear and trepidation. I can work a crowd of 30+ people without batting an eyelid, but chatting and becoming friends with random strangers, is another matter entirely.

The woman to my right had a sweet dog who had been neutered the week before, but his stitches had come out. The poor thing had a helmet around it's head that was meant to prevent it from getting to the stitches, but apparently it hadn't worked. I made small talk with the dog's owner, but she clearly didn't want to talk and her body language demonstrated it. You can take a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink. A woman with the cutest baby came in with her Mom and dog and sat down next to me and she started chatting almost immediately. We totally hit it off.  I learned that her husband is an opera singer who loves singing Wagner (he needs headshots), their baby was a mere 2 months old (needs beautiful photographs) and they want to have a family portrait taken.

I had my iPhone with me and showed her a few photos that I keep on there and she loved them, but it would've been better if I had a bigger screen like my iPad.  Consequently, I now carry business cards and my iPad wherever I go. I gave her a card and invited her to contact me (need to be more pro-active and get her information so that "I" can contact the other party) right as Charley's name was called to see the vet.

What did I learn? Just because one person says "no" doesn't mean that everyone says "no". People have so many things going on in their heads, at work and at home that they may not be in the right place to be receptive. Consequently, don't sweat the small stuff and move on. Building your network isn't "friending" someone, but it is "being a friend" to another person and genuinely showing interest in their lives. If an opportunity comes to talk about what you have to offer, that's great, but if not, that is also fine because we shared our humanity together.

The Dark Side of Photography

Let's face it, photography is supposed to be about beauty, occasionally. There are times when we feel compelled to capture an amazing sunrise or sunset, the yawn of a cat framed against the streaming rays of the late afternoon sun, but then there are those times we have to capture reality: the harsh violence of war, the anguish of a mother or father who have lost their child, the devastation caused the hurricanes and tornadoes and droughts. Photography is a depiction of the world they way you see it. You get the idea.

A side of photography that many people don't think about is what I call the "darker side" or the business side of photography. I can already sense you yawning and about to click to another website. Don't move that mouse or your finger! Read on. This won't be a long post and anyway, I have some recommendations below :grin:.

Doing business is tough for me. It's not part of my nature, but if I am to succeed in my photography I have to do business. Basically that means I have to offer:

• Great customer service
• Knowledge
  
• Value for money
  
• A product that no one else offers, i.e. a draw-card for people to choose me over someone else
• Fair prices

Briefly, what entails great customer service? You have to have the interests of your client at heart. It's not all about the buck, but making sure that you client has images that they are more than thrilled with. You've gone the extra mile and both you and the client knows it. Customer service also means that you set up contracts to protect both the client and yourself from any unforeseeable mishap, and yes they happen. Customer service means you carry insurance, not only on your equipment, but liability insurance. What's more, you tell your client this upfront, so they know that they are protected.

Your knowledge, which is then translated into incredible photographs, is what sets you apart from the point-and-shoot photographer at the wedding you're photographing next Saturday, or the competition entry of food that you're setting up in your living room. Knowledge is power, but what I continue to be amazed at, is that so many great photographers are happy to share that knowledge with both noobs and pros at no cost whatsoever. Get involved in a photo club in your community, mentor kids at a local school or after-school programme. Share your knowledge and obtain knowledge from websites such as Fred Miranda, Open Source Photo, Strobist and many others, and let them critique your photographs. Don't settle for "oh that's great!" Improve. Get better. Push the limits. Light the baseball/cricket ball/orange differently! Get out of the rut of mediocrity. Btw, rut is just another word for grave!

Last night, someone asked me where they could find a place online that could tell them how much to charge for their photographs. I told them that there isn't any place like that. There are places that can guide you, BUT pricing your product is not simply about making a buck. It is a combination of your experience, demand for your product, combined with satisfying the client's needs. Price yourself too high, and you'll have no clients. Price yourself too low and you won't eat. What's more, if your prices are too low, clients will often wonder why your prices are so low. In other words, your price structure can put you out of the game before it even starts. Sometimes other photographers will share their information with you, or you can even find it listed on their websites, but if you're a member of ASMP or PPA call someone up in a city in another state with similar demographics etc, cost of living to yours and ask them. More often than not, they will help you, because you're not a threat.

Finally, what do you offer that no one else around you does? How do your photographs different from those of Jim Photographer and Mary Shooter? Why should anyone hire you for still photographs over Lee Videographer with his new Canon 5D II that shoots still AND video?

So, here are two books that I would highly recommend every photographer have as part of his/her library:


Please note that Harrington has a new edition coming out this coming October!

That's it for now folks!