It's a commonly held conception that the widespread use of digital cameras has cut into the professional photography market. For a different perspective, read the following quotation. It comes from July's issue of Professional Photographer - it's an excerpt from an interview with Seth Godin, an expert on marketing. According to Seth:
"Since Matthew Brady - the guy who took pictures of Lincoln - for 150 years, photographers have made a great living when they had no better technology than everybody else. Making a great living at photography has never been about access to the tools....To photographers I say, 'Are you doing photography worth paying for? If the consumer's choice is between doing it himself for free or paying a professional hundreds or thousands of dollars, what is it about what you're doing that's worth paying for? I'll tell you this - it's not because you can take a pretty good photo.'"
According to Seth, it's the experience you create for your clients. He continues:
"What [great photographers] do for a living is create an experience and an approach that is so remarkable people can't help but talk about it. What they do for a living is create interactions between themselves and the people they are taking pictures of. Or to create souvenirs of what they do so that people can't help but talk about it."
1 comment:
As true as this may be, (I clearly remember a Nikon ad from the late 70's: "With my new Nikon F, I'm one helluva photographer"), I'm afraid that with all the digital snapshots being taken, and the tendency of pros to take more "Photojournalistic" shots, which really translates out to more profile views and slanted composition, the CUSTOMERS' EXPECTATIONS ARE LOWER. They are satisfied with less, as long as the cost is less.
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