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glort Offline [X]
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HAha.
Yes, I agree totally and that's what I have done. I sent the politest email I could muster saying that unfortunately It would not be viable for us to do but If I would be happy to talk to her about end of year or concert pics.
I think any time there is the possibility of getting in front of a lot of people and taking pics there is an opportunity but whether you can make that opportunity worthwhile and financialy viable is another thing.
I was pretty sure I'd walk from the start but i have learned a lot here and I know very well there are a lot smarter people than I around who may be able to give me a heads up to something I hadn't thought of.
If there was a way to approach this and make a Dollar out of it, I wasn't aware of it so I let it go.
In the back of my head I was thinking I bet there are 100 keen people that got a Camera for Christmas that would love to do this and the returns are not important to them.
If this was a day or even maybe a weekend, I would have probably given it a go and seen if I could have pulled a miracle out my backside and got something out of it.
having little to no confidence I could, 5 days was way too big a commitment to risk.
I did do some research on the net and found some interesting things.
It seems " attraction" photography is really taking off despite the complete contradiction that has to the rest of the market and modern living.
Companies are investing big bucks in technology to photograph people going to tourist venues like Big wheels, zoo's, aquariums etc. They are developing new and varied systems to cater to the unique requirements of different locations.
I have to say in all smugness, I found a lot of satisfaction in this.
I went after "volume" photography years ago seeing much greater potential in that even just from an ability to market myself POV. It's been very successful and I have made very good money out of it.
I have been lambasted and ridiculed so many times for doing " Sausage machine" and " production line" photography instead of the more creative work which seems to be loved by the starving artists.
I'm in this for the money. It's my profession and business. When I want to go out and be arty farty and creative and indulge my ego, I'll do that on my own time. Other than that, I have to run the business like a business, not an excuse.
It's pretty clear to me that right now, the only sort of photography I can find that is not going backwards at 100 MPH let alone progressing, is in fact the volume type work like the attraction/ event work.
Haven't heard of any shooter opening more studios , putting on more people or progressing beyond anything near a small business in ages. Everything in fact is how things are getting harder and there is no money in the game.
We have to move with the times and stay ahead of the game and the influences thrust upon us. Nothing new about that, same as always.
We can't control the fact every phone now has a 6 Mp or better camera so no use crying that our traditional markets have died in the arse. what we have do do is what these rapidly growing attraction photography companies are doing and that's look for new inroads we can make the tech available work for us.
Wasn't so long ago we were all uploading things to the net and selling that way seemed brilliant at the time and gave us an opportunity we didn't have. Now that's past it's use by date and we have to look at other ways to sell what we do and make a decent buck.
I learnt a lot from the bit of research I did. The main thing was these people are not selling photos. They are selling the experience, they are painfully aware they are in the tourism NOT the photo market and they are selling the presentation and value added aspect of the visitors trip to the facility.
In a lot of my work, I have made the presentation Minimalist, first to save on costs and 2ndly, because I didn't believe it was as important as delivering a quality photo the client would frame, put in an album or do nothing at all with.
These attraction photo companies are actually using the presentation in the for of folders and more so booklets to be an integral part of the product and not something used to protect it during handover and the journey home.
It's probably pretty obvious thinking about it and that's part of the problem. We don't stand back enough and take in the big, whole picture and see what really is important and motivates our CLIENTS rather than what we think does or what we want to do.
I have a lot to think about now and if nothing else, the heads up this approach to do this work has given me has been a good and worthwhile thing.
Have to work out how I am going to restructure this side of things now and the angle I am going to come from with regards to presentation of the images and integrating them to be a whole package.
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Aug 04, 2016 at 12:02 AM |
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