Dead or Alive Photography at a Crossroads
I’ve read a lot of articles as of late, about photography being dead.
I’ve heard this from friends, posts on Facebook, photography groups, and on-line publications.
If photography is dead, why do magazines like The Knot, National Geographic, and Cycling produce pages filled with amazing photos each month? It’s quite obvious that large corporations spend boat loads of money getting their messages across via photography, to those interested in their products, services, and agendas.
If photography is so dead, why is it that Facebook users upload approximately 250 million photographs to the service every day. That’s equal to 10.4 million per hour, 174,000 per minute, or 3,000 photographs per second? Granted, a large portion of photos are of food about to be consumed, with bad preset filters applied to them. But no matter what the pictures are of, the numbers are staggering. With the advent of camera-enabled smartphones, matched with Facebook and Instagram’s API’s, the number of pixels uploaded is growing by leaps and bounds. Think about your inner circle of friends and family… How many of them have smart phones and take pictures with them? Do you still think photography is dead? Huh?
I am of the opinion that photography is not dead. In fact, if you look at the numbers, it seems that it is more important than ever. More people now have access to phones with very decent cameras in them, capable of taking really nice shots. It’s the “game” that has changed, and if you haven’t been keeping up, the blame falls on you, alone.
Some will say that photography itself is not dying— just film and darkroom work. “What used to be a rather specialized talent for developing and printing work, is no longer a domain that takes schooling and capital in order to purchase specialized equipment. It used to be that a photographer had to be in the right place at the right time to reap the benefit of a unique capture. It still is that way; except that now there are at least fifty cameras pointing at the same action or event”. Agreed, it’s hard to sell your professional work when there are dozens, if not hundreds, of “faux-tographers” and angles of a single moment from which to choose. This used to be a rare occurrence. Now it’s almost guaranteed
Is professional photography at a crossroads? Of course it is! There are many things you still can’t do with a camera-enabled smartphone. There are events where you need a giant lens and high resolution fast glass. However, the number of set-ups where that is true seems to be diminishing each and every day.
This is why you don’t want to be going after the low-hanging fruit. If that is your business model, then you shouldn’t be surprised to find out that someone will always be willing to do it for less. The other guy may even offer it for free… and, why shouldn’t the client choose them?
What should you do? I say aim for the bigger client. Raise your own worth, and let the others fight over the fruit about to hit the ground.
The name of the game and the value of your work has been dispersed. But, photography at the professional level is more important than ever.
Filled Under : Things Iv'e learned
Re: low hanging fruit, you're definitely right about that. You have to gauge yourself and your ability to do quailty work and price yourself accordingly. Someone will *always* be right there, just underneath you in price. Doesn't necessarily mean more value, just cheaper.