[Winder]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/30/business/media/30photogs.html

[alamo5000]

Good article. I know several people who are struggling big time. Others have taken a more ingenious approach. They aren't getting rich but they are eating ok.

[cjfeola]

Good article. I know several people who are struggling big time. Others have taken a more ingenious approach. They aren't getting rich but they are eating ok.

Exactly. Being a competent professional photographer is no longer enough. A friend of mine from the Dallas Morning News who has a Pulitzer in photography talks about lining up a long shot with his FF and big glass of a tornado...and then not bothering to take the shot, because he knew there'd be dozens of people closer with iPhones. 20 years ago he'd have taken the shot, and it would have pumped money for him for years. Now it wouldn't even sell.

But that doesn't mean pro photography is over. It means pros will have to offer more than just competence: specialization, services, and all the things pros can do beyond "sufficiently well-exposed and focused."

Cjf

[NicoleC]

Service doesn't seem to be the way forward either, at least here. There are a ton of photographers trying to enter the event, pet photo and wedding biz here, most of whom aren't producing much better than snapshots, which further reinforces that idea couples can crowdsource their photography for cheap.


I've done more work this year servicing artists with product photography, notecards, etc. than anything else. Also more middleman work getting other people's pictures onto the formats people want. Big prints are still selling, plus lots and lots of notecards.


The project I am working on for myself right now is 100% art photography. I'm pretty sure that's a classic sign of desperation if you are trying to make money at art!

[desertscape]

What ruined my landscape photography business was when digital photography blurred the lines between formats. My 6x7 and 4x5 film images were now being competed against by digital camera systems costing between $800 and $2500. It used to be, that to compete in the landscape world, one needed to have at least a full medium format system costing way more than current APS-C and FF digital systems. With digital images being accepted in APS-c and FF, that opened the door for thousands of new shooters into the ranks of pro landscape shooters. Publishers could no longer separate 35mm shooters from the larger format shooters. Most of my customers would not accept 35mm work. Now with digital, that distinction is gone. Digital was not about format size and so now publishers buy work based on DPI ability of the camera with consideration of the print size of their product. Even though I have converted my film work to digital, my sales are still way off. There is just too much supply and not enough demand.

[gor80]

We in Russia are the people who began to engage in the 2000-2004 year, photographs by this time become very rich people, konencho not all, but there are not enough.
And I'm not exaggerating