Is Photography Dead?

 One of the biggest questions amateur photographers ask everyday is, “is photography dead?”. Many believe that with the invention and lowering cost of technology and professional equipment is is easier now than ever to be a quote on quote photographer. The general population of clients see their friends and family members who have a DSLR cameras as being good enough to take their maternity photos or engagement photos and even sometimes even their wedding photos. This creates a deficiency and problem for the entire industry. These, what I call “friendly photographers” produce very low quality unedited images that may please the client at that time but in ten years when technology and editing styles change they will look horrible and the client will most likely regret their decision.

However a lot of the blame has to be placed on the ever growing “cheapness” of consumers. It's been proven in studies that consumers would rather pay a much lower price for something then a higher price for a better product. With this economy price is everything.

 So why not change your prices?

  I've been asked this several times and have been laughed at by clients when I give them a quote for my work which was way over what they were expecting to pay, sometimes hundreds of dollars over.  Even after I tried to explain to them what the cost is for. I do this because the majority of people see photography as a photographer coming out and spending 1-2 hours and taking pictures and that's all they do. Then you tell them this service is going to cost them $800 (just pulled that figure out of my head). To them that seems way overpriced and in their minds they're thinking who do they know that owns a camera that will do it for $50. These are what I call simply “cheap clients”. And you aren't going to fix their cheap ways unless you are really good.  You have to think outside the box on how to explain your price.

Ideas

  Make your original quotes 20-30% more. And when they say that's a little to expensive for them, shoot them a deal and take 15% off or 20% whatever, you have 30% to work with. General psychology of marketing and sales will tell you people love to feel like they won, they got one over on you! This is prevalent in car sales. Read books on marketing and sales and educate yourself. The more your educate yourself the better you'll be.

If you are unable to sell to clients with your work quality or with your sales tactics, then yes is the answer to your question.  Photography as a business just might be dead for you. As the saying is in golf, “driving is for show but putting is for doe”, the same could be said in photography, “shooting models is for show but general clients are for doe”. Don't restrict yourself to one thing. Branch out and work events, weddings, etc. and do some modeling work on the side. I can almost guarantee you will not have a successful career in photography just shooting models unless you work really hard and make your name known. 

This is part one of the “Is photography dead” series. Stay tuned for part 2.