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Archive 2016 · Is it any wonder we struggle to earn a quid???

  
 
Mark_L
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p.2 #1 · p.2 #1 · Is it any wonder we struggle to earn a quid???


mikethevilla wrote:
Not everyone "gets" photography, and not everyone has to!

I'm ok with 99% of the world not caring about good photography, because I don't need 99% of the world as my clients. I'm happy catering to the 1%, while silently judging the Camry driver who's camping at 60 mph in the left lane.


They don’t but there are ever more photogs fighting for that 1% who will pay us enough to sustain a full time business as the camry buyers get served by mom-ographers and part-timers.



Apr 05, 2016 at 03:23 PM
mikethevilla
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p.2 #2 · p.2 #2 · Is it any wonder we struggle to earn a quid???


FrancisK7 wrote:
So what do you drive, stud?


A crusty, 45 year-old car with no AC, no stereo, and no power anything. It's the best worst car in the world.

My main point here was that we all have different priorities which influence how we spend our money (ie: on an expensive photographer or way too much maintenance on a car).

Edited on Apr 05, 2016 at 04:47 PM · View previous versions



Apr 05, 2016 at 04:36 PM
mikethevilla
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p.2 #3 · p.2 #3 · Is it any wonder we struggle to earn a quid???


Mark_L wrote:
They don’t but there are ever more photogs fighting for that 1% who will pay us enough to sustain a full time business as the camry buyers get served by mom-ographers and part-timers.


Very true. But in my opinion, that's back on us. It's on us to be better, to differentiate, to rise above them. I see it as an opportunity for further motivation, not as a setback.



Apr 05, 2016 at 04:45 PM
matsmithphotography
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p.2 #4 · p.2 #4 · Is it any wonder we struggle to earn a quid???


Great mindset, Mike! There'll always be the "mom-ographers and part-timers" gaining business because they're cheaper. But if we're losing business to that (for those of you who're already established) then there's a problem; and like Mike said it means you've gotta bust your ass to figure out how to overcome them. Either way, I don't really think the clients of "mom-ographers" are the same type of clients that are drawn to the established professionals. Thus making it a nuisance that someone else is trying to get into the competition rather than a direct threat. We all started down the chain, shooting free gigs to get experience and develop a reputation; nobody starts out charging $4,000+ for a wedding...

I'm simply trying to offer another viewpoint, not create an argument of egos



Apr 05, 2016 at 06:28 PM
glort
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p.2 #5 · p.2 #5 · Is it any wonder we struggle to earn a quid???


mikethevilla wrote:
A crusty, 45 year-old car with no AC, no stereo, and no power anything. It's the best worst car in the world.


Bah! Mines Better! It has power steer and i just mucked around and fixed the AC and quite a good aftermarket stereo it came with.
Oh, and it's only 24 years old this month! :0)

You are spot on though. I buy newer better cars for the family but I'm not interested in changing mine. My father offered me his $50K + car a while back and I said no thinks. Sure it's better, like chalk and cheese but not to me. I'm entirely happy with what I have got. I'll spend maybe a grand on it later in the year replacing a few things that are working but are getting a bit old and I don't want to fail and cause problems but that's about it.

-I- love that thing and VALUE it more than anything 10 times the price.
Not many if anyone else would but to me, it's worth a LOT.

My main point here was that we all have different priorities which influence how we spend our money (ie: on an expensive photographer or way too much maintenance on a car).

I think, no,,,,, actually, I KNOW, we as shooters forget our own personal behavior.
There is a gear thread and a flash thread going atm where a lot of people, myself especially, are in favor of the cheaper Chinese brands. Some people are adamant they wouldn't touch them and others love the things for reasons of price, value and features.

Are we not like the clients we often and frequently lament? That the cheaper option is Good enough and we are entirely happy, even more so because we perceive we got excellent valuein a product that does everything we want and allows us to have what we couldn't have in teh name brand or that we saved a load of money.

Sure the public dosen't know good photography from bad but they know what they like and what they don't and if one is highly affordable and one is not and they can't tell the difference or the cheaper option seems perfectly fine to them, which one are they going to get?
The bloody cheaper one the same as we shooters buy and love the knock off gear that works as well as the stuff 4 times the price!

We are no damn different but often get funny when our customers do the exact same thing because it isn't to our benefit. Ask a Canon or Nikoff rep what the chinese product are like and see what sort of answer you get.

It's like me. I bought a painting at an outback pub about 10 years ago done by this old guy who I think was older than the huge tree he sat under round the side doing them. I think it was 50 bux.
I look at that and think of the old fella and to me the painting has value and I like it.
Now you could put that next to a Piccasso and I'd pick the old guy painting every time because the piccasso looks like it was done by a deranged school child to me. They are mostly freaking messes to me that makes me think the dog ate the pain then threw up on the canvas.

As I keep saying, Clients dont get all princessy about sharpness and perfect colour balance and shadow detail and all the other crap shooters go on with. Their appreciation of a photo is much more simplistic like mine with art. I don't give a fig about the brush technique or the mental anguish of the artist and his inner expression or any of that which the art lovers would crap on with.
I want to see it's a picture of an old bark hut by a Billabong with a Dingo sitting on the verandah. I'm not interested in something the dog hacked up on and trying and work out from what look like the remains, what marsupial he had eaten just before the paint that caused him to have a chunder.

Maybe I am a veritable camry driver but I also know one VERY rich guy that has had camrys the last 12+ years. He could probably afford to buy Rolls Royce, the company, not just one of their cars, but there is no value in it to him and it's not because he's a tight arse.
The thing is, there are a lot more camrys out there than there are Rollers and I have never heard of Toyota being on the ropes like I have heard of rolls more than once.

Those that are on the ego trip of thinking best quality is equal to best profits need to open their eyes and look around. A lot.
We also need to remember we are supposed to be shooting for the paying clients, not our egos.
As a business it would make sense to cater to what they see value in and will pull their money out of their pockets for not just do what makes us happy.

You do that through the week with the money they paid you for what you did on the weekend!





Apr 08, 2016 at 09:13 PM
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