It may seem like I\'m really busted on Jed, but I\'m really not. I just feel the need to help people understand how their perception limits their business potential.
Jed Eltom wrote:
I\"m not frustrated at Tony or any of the big dawgs. Some of these are amazing photogs that deserve all the credit, and should be making lots. I\'m mostly frustrated at what you mentioned here,
I know a lot of CRAPPY photographers who are way busier than many GREAT photographers..
This really boils my blood, because you can see that they don\'t put in as much effort in their work as you do, yet they have more business than you because they have better marketing.
Why does this anger people? Well, I think I know why, I think its sour grapes and jealousy. It is really not helpful to look at the other guy and say, \"oh sure he gets business, he MARKETS his work\" and turn your nose up at the thought. Sorry, making the photographs is only a fraction of being a pro. Making the photographs something that another person might actually want to own is a bigger part of the professional game. That\'s what makes the pro a pro. And its really silly to denounce the other photographer\'s work because evidently actual, paying clients are very thrilled to own it. If you can\'t say the exact same thing about your own work then maybe the other guy\'s priorities are more in line with his perfect clients than yours?
I think it takes a ton more effort and hard work to make a business run efficiently than it does to become a good photographer. That isn\'t to say that I don\'t respect the craft of photography (I do, very much) its to accentuate how difficult the act of running a profitable business is. Don\'t run down the guy who creates work that you don\'t like but is making a solid living - he is in the trenches taking fire.
Its easy to look at another photographer and dissect all the ways they suck (I, in fairness, do this too). But it doesn\'t let us off the hook for doing the work that the other guy is doing. I have yet to meet a photographer who\'s work speaks for itself and sells without any form of marketing. Marketing is not a dirty word, we all do it all the time.
- trr
Mar 24, 2011 at 11:18 AM
Previous versions of TRReichman's message #9433067 « Giving Discounts »
