At the risk of wading knee-deep into the debate on the professional photographer’s shrinking market, I wanted to share my thoughts as someone who does not make any money from photography. In case you are coming to this post without knowing my story, I am learning the craft of photography and have been for the past two and half years. As I work full-time, most of my learning takes place in the evenings, on the weekend, or when I can take my annual vacation. It’s a slow road to hoe but one that I am enjoying immensely. I have no planned route or grand design to make a living at this; I just want to be an imagemaker, a story-teller, a photographer.
If any professional photographer believes someone like me is a threat to their livelihood, I’d like dispel that myth with something I’m going to call the photographer’s value proposition (PVP). A “value proposition” is the reason why a consumer would buy your services over those of your competitor. For the wedding photographer who sells a package for $500, their competitive advantage is cost. Their clients probably have to choose between having no product or a $500 product. For photographers who choose to serve this target market, they will have limited appeal and maybe an income at best. I’ve tried my hand at wedding photography last summer when my friend Rebecca got married. Once you check out my images here and here, I am pretty sure you will agree that I am no competition.
Let’s say you’ve been able to build up a business by pursuing a strategy of providing a product or service that optimizes time, quality, and cost (TQC). Maybe you were able to do this because you really understood how technology and tools could help deliver what your customers wanted–tools and technology like Lightroom, Photoshop, and the lighting gear photographers rig up to create beautiful portraits. Your TQC value proposition means that you are now making a profit. For me to bite into that profit, I would need to be able to afford to buy all that software and gear. That won’t happen because I cannot claim it as a business expense and I don’t have deep pockets. I also cannot spend the hours one needs to learn how to use these tools and technology because I am working full-time at a non-photography related job. But maybe on weekend I would learn from you. I could attend an intensive weekend workshop you’ve developed on small strobes and location lighting. I could even join your 5-day photo workshop to Oregon, spend the golden hours shooting along the coast and the afternoons learning digital workflow. And now your PVP includes me and I am your customer.
As a professional photographer I’m guessing that you’d like to do more than just make a living; you’d like to be able to sustain your passion and make a life. It is a bigger challenge to build or define a value proposition in this economic space and that’s why you see so few photographers here. To do this I think you need to innovate, to have not just insight but also foresight–all skills that are inherent to photography. One of the best examples I can point to is David duChemin’s eBooks. He makes them available at a cost of $4 to $5 but the value they represent is worth much more than the miniscule price we pay. The eBooks are content-rich and move us to hone our craft without forcing us into bankrupcy. They are also an important part of the overall PVP which is the engagement of customers into a culture and a community. This is no one-night stand. No ”here today and gone tomorrow camera giveaway“. There is real involvement with photographers who have a similar PVP like Jeffrey Chapman, Matt Brandon, and Gavin Gough. In this community I can learn and grow, share my experiences with others, and in doing so, help build a sustainable customer base. I have become your champion.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Mark Olwick. Mark Olwick said: RT @SabrinaHenry: I'm tip-toeing into the debate with "The Photographer's Value Proposition" http://tinyurl.com/yj82unk Well said [...]
I think you’ve just expounded upon what I hinted at in my comment to your last post. Eloquent post Sabrina, it will be interesting to hear other points of view.
Hi Ed.
Your comments on the last post about building relationships as part of learning photography resonated with me because that is exactly how I feel. When I wrote the opening piece on my home page, I was writing about my hopes for this blog. I never expected it would become what it has so I’m very grateful for everyone who visits and engages with me and others who share this passion.
Thank you!
I am new to this debate, as I am new to photography like you. Have only been serious about it since last summer and am a lot like you: Evenings and weekends are all the time I have, which is split between family and other responsibilities.
But I like what you are saying. Photographers worried about a shrinking market should try to market to those coming up under them, help them, invest in them, make some money during the process, instead of trying to hate all the new photogs out there because they steal your market share?
You know, this wedding photog Melissa Jill (amazing photographer) does this very thing. She throws a MJ2Day thing every year to help train those below her on how to shoot weddings, etc. So instead of hoarding her craft in fear of losing income, she’s discovered how to market herself not only to the wedding industry, but also to those photographers wanting to BE like her.
It’s amazing how successful she’s become in the process. Makes me think a little.
Also, the picture on your frontpage of the tree and clouds…that was a natural shot huh? Friggin’ breathtaking…loved your Africa work.
Hello Mike, nice to see you here.
If you’re anything like me, you are probably trying to learning from as many sources as you can. That’s what makes us great customers. I hope that you will be able to tap into a community of photographers like I have. I think it’s really neat that in your comment you’ve done exactly what this post talks about–championing Melissa Jill. Now I’m off to check her website.
Thanks!
…Oh and thanks for the compliment about my image on the home page. All natural indeed. The skies were amazing that day and that particular cloud changed every two minutes.
Making money from photography does nothing to enhance one’s craft of nor deepen one’s love of photography. If anything, it might actually dilute it.
Sadly Jeffrey, I think you might be right. I am penning this comment after reading a thread on a review of workshop failures by a wedding photographer. It started out with a photographer being unhappy with a $1500 workshop they attended and then the mud started to fly. At the end of the day, the value proposition is not so much an economic argument as it is about who we are as photographers together in this community.
Thank you for dropping by…I always love it when you do!
I couldn’t agree with you more, Sabrina. Around the blogs this week this has been a hot topic, and I am guessing it was triggered by the NYT article.
I am not striving to be a pro. Photography is a passion of mine because it is my goal to make an image that I am proud to share with others. To have people stop for just a tiny moment in their day and contemplate a scene, the colors or the composition. To show them that the moments are there for all of us if we just slow down a bit and pay attention.
Amateurs help the pros and vice versa. The amateurs are starved for knowledge from the pros. And because of the power of the internet, word can travel quickly as to which pro is kind enough to share their knowledge, their successes and failures openly. The photographers mentioned in your post come to mind for me. So in return of their knowledge share, I honor their talent and craft by purchasing their books, eBook or perhaps one of their prints. It’s my way of saying I support you and thank you.
Welcome Jan.
It was the NYT article and some of the responses to it that got me writing about this but it was actually a presentation a scientist gave on innovation and the economic value proposition that this model is based on. I like to use cross-disciplinary thinking to reflect on issues and problems and to solve them. It is also an important theme in my learning that I wanted to share with others.
I’m glad you dropped by especially as it seems we have a lot in common!
I know this is a serious conversation, Sabrina, and I pretty much agree with what you’ve said. It’s just… well…
I want to know where I can get a Sabrina Henry bobble-head doll.
You can order your own bobble head doll from this place http://www.youbobble.com/index.shtml but if you want one of me, you’re out of luck. That is unless I can have one of you in a red safari hat, purple cape, and with a Nikon D700.
That is so cool! A SABRINA BOBBLE HEAD! haha. I’m too exhausted to get much further than that. lol. I LOVE your bobble head though. I need one..
[...] 4) The post on someone else’s blog I wish I have written It caused me the most trouble, really. I guess it was the biggest reason I haven’t sat down and write the 7 links post earlier. In my longer, tips driven articles I usually talk about technical aspects of photography, not about philosophy. So the “I wish I wrote” this post is exactly what would not come very easily to me. But there are a few blogs which I systematically follow and which provide some inspirational content and make me think more about my photography. Sabrina Henry’s Learning Photography Chronicles is one of them. This particular post articulates her thoughts, which I share, on growing amateur photographers numbers and presence, online and otherwise. That we are not, for most part, competitors for all the pros out there, getting their clients or assignment jobs, but a great source of additional income [...]
[...] do you define your value proposition in these days of ubiquitous [...]