Well, I guess we can take the radio silence in one of two ways, either business is fantastic, and everyone's out working their butts off with no time to play on the internet... or, business is very, very bad, and everyone in the group, apart from you and I, have had to sell of ftheir computers to feed the kids!
I saw a similar thing the other day, an A4 flier taped to a power-pole advertising 'memorable wedding packages' from $150... I didn't know whether to pull it down or just cry in the street. I don't want to turn this into a rant, so I'll try to be brief, but what frustrates me the most with photography as a vocation is the accesibility these days. Yes, it's good to get new people interested, but with the glamourisation of the industry the market is just flooded. It would be okay if it was flooded with competent, talented artists who were genuine competitionfor each other, and all on a level playing field, but as soon as someone starts undercutting all their competitiors dramatically, they've taken the game off of the playing field, and are kicking the ball around in the carpark... the problem is, while the 'descerning' public know better, the 'majority' generally don't, so when they see 'memorable wedding for $150', they think "Fantastic, that's more money to go towards the honeymoon!' and not 'hmmm... what sort of quality is that going to get me?'
My sister-in-law got married early last year, they found a 'reasonably' priced photographer, ie, he wasn't dirt cheap, but definitely not top shelf either. I have to say, the quality of the prints leave a LOT to be desired... now I don't pretend to know everything about weddings, they're not my thing (I've shot about half a dozen, only for couple who knew and appreciated my personal 'flavour', and most had purchased my work before), but I had to bite my tongue and let him do his job on the day (I'd hate it if someone messed with my 'flow' when working...) but, tell me, would
you line a family up for portraits in front of a plastic walled marque when you're surrounded by beautiful gardens glowing in the light of an almost setting sun? ...maybe that's just because I appreciate landscapes... perhaps there's a very good reason why I generally don't do weddings
but still, never mind methods, the proof is in the pudding, it's the final product that counts. So, how was the final product? Soft, but not in a flattering way, soft in a "I'm shooting in RAW because that's what I read on a forum, yo ucan just print them straight up like jpg's, right?" kind of way, I won't mention any of the fundamentals of the art that were missing... ie, all of the things a camera set to auto can't do for you (framing, composition etc etc).
I'm sorry, I said I wouldn't let it turn into a rant, but I'm not going to lie, it does get me riled up. I don't know if it's because of my own insecuritues surrounding my work and feeling 'threatened', or perhaps I just feel it's an injustice to all of us who put in the years to learn the craft (and those before us who put in much, much more). I often think of some of Lewis Carols writings on photography and how frustrated he felt once it became more 'accesible' (ie, dry plates?)... I don't doubt for a second that he's look at me and think "...bloody hack, who does he think he is...?"
Aaaaaaanyway... ahem, now that I've got that off my chest (and I have to say, it
is very nice to be able to verbalise that and be a little un-PC for a moment), how's
my business going? Well, not too bad, not fantastic, but not too bad. This year is going to be a bit of a big one with family stuff, so to be honest, I'm not complaining about a bit of a reprieve. I have some flow-on business from the annual calendar sales (reproduced prints from the calendar), I teamed up with a writer to create a collaborative effort this year, so that opened up a new potential client base which I'm hoping will tide me over through any lulls. 'Business' wise, I haven't altered any of my pricing, being an artist my pricing is based on the 'perceived value in the work', which I don't believe has dropped. Maybe if all these 'GWC's (I had to google that one!) get into offering traditional prints and old fashioned personal attention, then I might have a problem on my hands...
