A sign of the times…
- This topic has 24 replies, 10 voices, and was last updated Oct 15, 2009 at 4:15 pm by
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I am coming in at the end of this, but altogether, it [s:21h1qexf]could[/s:21h1qexf] would make great textbook text.
Has anyone broached the subject of ease of entry into the profession? When I was shooting Hasselblad, and some 35mm, I knew that every time I hit that shutter button MY COST was roughly 1 dollar. Forget the education, the overhead, all the CODB’s – that single dollar was enough to keep a lot of wanna’ be photographers at a distance. Now, digital has not leveled, but tilted the playing field, where anyone on any given day can “take a picture”. I say “take a picture” in the pejorative as those who know, know there is a difference.I am curios when I see ” … hope for photographers and artists and other creatives is the ability to drive their own content like the guys at Catch Magazine”. If it’s a for profit venture, I would assume advertising drives content in some classic sense? And does “driving your own content” become a worthy substitute for food on the table? I mean, what are the rates at Catch Magazine? Inquiring minds need to know.
Micro stock? I just know too many people who are making real money at it to bash it. This may be heresy, but sometimes there’s no better place for “spent” (as in used up) images to go to die. Why not think of micro stock as a facet of any modern business plan? The guys who shoot this stuff successfully, use their spare time (empty studios), spare talent and trend research to generate images that are of exceptional quality, but nothing like their day-to-day work. In fact, one rarely finds photographers whose day-to-day work is in high demand at stock agencies. The biggest sellers are typically the blandest to my eye. Just like that newfangled internet, the micro stock genie is out of the bottle, and there is no power great enough to ever get it back in the bottle. The good old days are never coming back, and the specialists who used to look down their noses at generalists such as myself, are now calling on the phone to ask how to shoot, how to price, how to market … how to survive. That last one always gets me though. The fact that I have time to write this much could tell everyone something.
Ben Cochran – you’re preaching religion! I think I have a man crush. Absolute pearls of wisdom. At the same time though, there’s a case to be made (in the new paradigm) for turnkey service – not simply windshield wipers or lug nuts, but the whole shooting match. I spend a good deal of professional energy (these days) not working horizontal markets, but looking for other business partnerships with synergies that can lead to dominant vertical integration. At the same time, I don’t delude myself into thinking I can be a jack-of-all-trades; I find those who are better at other things and try to pull it all together.
Closer to home, any still photographer who does not get on the video bandwagon, is in my opinion, leaving money on the table. In the near future, in my opinion, potential art buyers are going to say, “Do you do video too?”, as one of their top three questions – bank on it. Bandwidth is driving that train.
What’s that sound? I think my phone is ringing!
Shannon
I was talking to a friend recently, who told me of a family relation who *was* a very successful event photographer. Not quite the same as celebrity paparazzi but along the same lines. He’s had to drastically re invent himself due to the simple fact everyone, everyone has a camera on them now, be it a digicam or cellphone. His “buyers” are being fed a steady diet of images by the public, who probably only see their name in print (if that). His business and compensation hasn’t wilted, its gone.
A couple of the papers I read daily now have ads on their sites stating something to the effect of “Share your news” whereby the public can upload images and the papers get free liscence to use them how they want. I wonder how many front page images come free by way of cell phones/digicams. Now thats a rights grab, atleast time still paid a token amount.
So its not just how dslrs have made it considerably easier for people who are interested in photography to take it up, and from there be happy with snappy snaps, or attempt to take it further a little or alot by investing the time and effort to learn. For some they might wantto learn about the basics, others still will delve into DoF, where the human eye is drawn naturally and hoe to hold it, and others still will then want to learn about the qualities and characterstics of light.I’m sure though that if we tried hard enough we could paralels in many “professions”. Writing? True you would need to understand some basic principles ( ISO, SS, aperture), any decent word program can take it from there. Experience what you write about? Anything and everything you might need to know about a place or subject is readily available.
The net.My point is that all have survived in some form. Im sure photography will to. It may not be as lucrative, it may not be as mysterious (welcome to the information age) and the landscape will almost certainly change. Those who work at it (treat it as a profession) will continue those who dont…
YES! I see news gatherers everywhere interested in free content provided by a phone toting public. If you want to know why that is, there was a wonderful interview on NPR the other day – a writer talking about his book about the new paradigm where advertising no longer underwrites the cost of delivering content. The classic news organizations are struggling to adapt to the new world order of internet. I will dig into NPR, it may have been local KERA, and see if I can find a link to that interview. It was so prescient.
This is what I got back from Local KERA:
Topic
The Future of Media
Guest
Bob Garfield
Description
Is a new world dawning and more importantly, are we prepared to live in it? We’ll spend this hour with Bob Garfield, co-host of NPR’s On the Media and author of the new book “The Chaos Scenario, Amid the Ruins of Mass Media, The Choice for Business is Stark: Listen or Perish” (Stielstra Publishing, 2009).Jeff Whittington
Senior Producer & Host
KERA 90.1 / KERA 13
KXT 91.7
3000 Harry Hines Blvd.
Dallas, TX 75201
214-740-5474I still have not found audio archive though.
Shannonhttp://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111623614
This IS the interview, but don’t listen unless you can handle the end of the world as we knew it.
Shannon
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