Photography and the Recession – photo thoughts part 1

Posted by Matt Lange on Feb 5, 2009 in Fun, Information | 0 comments

This kind of started when I read this post by Vincent Laforet.  It’s a really great read.  Much better than anything I will write up on the subject.  But I’ll toss in my two cents.

I’m not real sure where to begin.  There is a recession, whether we want to admit it or not.  I know that it has to be a lot harder for some photographers than others.  Myself, I work a full time and do photography on the side.  With that, it gives me a little bit of a break from dealing with the downfall of the economy.  I imagine for a photographer doing it fulltime it’s got to be hard.  But what trends are taking place in the photography world with all this going on.  I hear Louisiana isn’t getting it as bad as other areas.  However, I’ve heard from one photographer in North Louisiana a couple times how it’s getting pretty hard up there, but that could be competition…..I’ll get back to this in a minute.  I’ve also heard from a photographer down here that it’s tough because they do real estate photography on top of shooting sports.  Well, sports photography is super tough to earn a buck in good times, so I know with a downturn in cash, real estate can’t make for happy people.

So what are people doing?  What does this mean for competition.  I read an article about how, during hard economic times, new and exciting companies can emerge.  It’s also going to be what exciting innovations come out of this, not just in photography.  But how will people handle their pricing and what they offer.  Since I’m not a commercial photographer, I can’t speak about that realm, but I would LOVE to hear someone’s take on that. So I can only speak on sports/portrait/wedding work.  When I first got into this, I’d say it’s going on 4-5 years now, I remember people charged a session fee, and offered nothing with it.  You paid X amount to get your wedding shot, and then had to pay X amount for the disk, X for the album, and X for prints (not including whatever else someone offered).  I have never charged extra for prints or cds with rights to print.  Just haven’t.  I always felt that I was getting paid for my talent, not the printed material someone else did.  I even got a call once from a photographer in Baton Rouge who said I was, ‘ruining the local industry’.  Man, I still laugh at that.  Now, let’s fast forward to February 2009.  Turn on your tv/computer and all you see is news about the economy, layoffs, cutbacks, etc.  So, with all that, what do we do as photographers?  Do we hold fast to our big dreams of charging $5,000 and up for big fancy weddings, still not including other things?  I really want to know these things, so let me know.  I have, however, seen an ironic change.  Hmmm….people offer disks with rights to print.  What?  That ruins the industry right?  Well, it’s different now.  You must adjust your environment.  If you have two photographers with comparible work and prices, but one photographer offers the disk with theirs and the other charges $500 for rights, what do you think 90% of people are going to do?  If you think I’m way off base with this, feel free to argue it.  Also, and I hope this doesn’t offend anyone because it’s not intended to, but what happens to the hobby photographers that moonlight as professionals?  You know what I’m talking about.  I think everyone can agree that it’s getting to the point where photographers are a dime a dozen.  With advances in technology, the elimination of film, and anyone thinking they can use photoshop…..well photographers are everywhere.  Do clients start looking harder or do clients go to the cheapest person in the first 5 pages of Google because their prices are lower?  I like to think that people will see quality over price anyday, but who knows?  I was told recently that it’s a tough market now because you have (again not trying offend, it was just the example said to me) stay at home mom’s with cameras that do this to fill time.  Do they continue?  Or does it get to the point where they have to go to work to help support the family because the other person at home lost their job.  Now I realize that I’m just throwing out a ton of questions, and just a few thoughts, but I have a reason.  I want to post guest blogs with people’s views on this.  I think I’ve posted mine, but it would be fascinating to see a collection of stories.

So this is what I want to do:  Email me through my site, comment on the blog, or email me on Facebook.  In the subject put ‘Photography and the Recession’ and a link to your site.  Only legit photographers with sites qualify for this.  I’ll contact you and then you can email me your post.  I’ll read through your response to make sure there is no swearing or remarks that will offend people, and at that point I will post your response.  I will also link to your site.  Look at it as free pub and a chance to voice some thoughts.

This is not an argument at all.  So if you send me a post arguing with something someone else said, it will not be used.  I simply want to know your stories, and views on changes taking place in the photo world, and what you all are doing to get by.

I hope this post wasn’t too sloppy.  I planned on doing it with an alert frame of mind, but it’s now 10:30pm and I’ve been visiting with out of town family all evening, so I’m tired.  Cheers!

Matt