"Baby on Board, and a Photography Business, Too"

[brucecyr]

NY Times Sunday Business section has story on mothers getting into professional

photography via DSLRs and their contacts with other moms:

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/15/business/yourmoney/15cameras.html?_r=1&ref=business&oref=slogin

 

Sorry, I think registration is required. Part of the story is that they are

undercutting professional studios because they tend to underprice their work,

partly from a lack of business education and partly from a desire to establish

relationships before going for profit. Also a factor is the desire to fund

purchase of new gear:-)

[phyrpowr]

Not a new phenomenon in business, of any kind. Friend in commercial real estate said years ago he couldn't make any money selling residential, as all the yuppie moms got licenses, and were happy as hell to sell two-three houses a month, if that. One or two, no competition, but one or two per block?

[GerrySiegel]

That people photography takes some interpersonal talent. Ability to elicit right emotion,capture a person's presence and environment. And the ability to deliver results again and again w/ the same quality of workmanship and without wasting time. I can recognize amateurism, and so can you but even an amateur can deliver a good shot once in a while...but how often and within what circumstances. Fix it in the computer,I know,I know...

 

Take real estate,as the example given. The entry price is low. You take a course,get some business cards, and you are ready to go. And that accounts for the high dropout rate of realtors. Or those that never really make it past level One. Doing what you love might even take the fun out of the pastime. A friend had a Home Portrait business going. Eventually,the problem of lugging his gear to people's houses,keeping up with the meetings and the selling of the proofs got to be a pain.

 

Real estate,mentioned above, is work and photography (as a business) is work,---let's assume you submit youre quarterly excise tax forms,mommies:-); let noone say different unless you have tried it. Professionals have always competed with Sears and the mass market mini studios. Now they will have to compete with the moms with Canon 20Ds. And offer something new,or more exciting. What might that be? sorts the wheat from the barley.

[jodie_otte]

Well, I am one that was interviewed for this article and it was quite a shock to read them lumping me into the MWAC category. When I spoke to the woman interviewing me, I was clear about major startup costs, I was clear about my studio ownership, I was clear about not having children on my hip, I was clear about charging professional prices, I was clear about all of this, but she lumped me right into the MWAC category - I am wondering why she didn't give me the same respect as the established male studio owner - why, because I am a woman? I totally agree with the male studio owner about the irritations of the MWAC trend. Not that being a mom with a camera is bad, I am talking about the negative connotations associated - like having to ask husband for permission to buy camera because they are a bored SAHM with a hobby (rolling my eyes).

 

VERY irritated with the way this turned out. But the good side is, I have gotten indordinate amounts of hits to my website... maybe something good will come of it, I don't know... but I did have to put a disclaimer on my website pertaining to this article since my interview went differently than the way the article turned out.

 

Jodie Otte

www.jottestudios.com

[brucecyr]

"my interview went differently than the way the article turned out"

 

Not the first time I've heard that! Sorry you didn't get a fair report for investing your time with the reporter.

[ellis_vener_photography]

"Sorry you didn't get a fair report for investing your time with the reporter.'

 

Yes but she got an amount of p.r., exposure and publicity that really could not have been

bought. it will be interesting to see how she uses it to further her marketing purposes.

[bobatkins]

I'd guess this is similar to the "amateur wedding photographer" business.

 

You have a camera, you can push the shutter, you can make prints, you are a photographer and can charge people for your services.

 

I believe in Germany you actually need qualifications (gasp) to sell your services as a professional photographer.

 

Reporters skewing interviews, getting the facts wrong and generally distorting the truth is, sadly, not news...

[brucecyr]

"Reporters skewing interviews, getting the facts wrong and generally distorting the truth is, sadly, not news..."

 

Actually, it is, to the extent that its an exception that proves the rule. Another example might be WMD, which we know now was a flat out propaganda campaign resulting in the senseless waste of thousand of lives and injuries, and the press played along with the powers that were to its shame and our detriment.

 

The more mundane issue, per Ms. Otte, is the extent to which the reporter trivialized the legitimate skills and business practices of a subset of this emerging group of photographers. One could argue that this trend is an offshoot of the lowered entry prices afforded by digital photography.

 

I suppose if we had the same social and economic practices as Germany, we'd all be paying higher prices for technical gear. But I think that except for legal and health professions, the market is an efficient weeder of incompetent practitioners -- if the new crop of baby photographers can't produce results that please, they won't get new business. If they do, then some current practitioners might have to find new, more specialized practice areas where they can capitalize on their superior technical skills. To me, that makes for a more efficient market.

[brucecyr]

PS: "a more efficient market"

 

A trend that has already swept and decimated many of our business sectors, with a great deal of social agony as the middle and lower classes have been decimated though outsourcing or other kinds of efficiency displacements.

 

It hasn't been a pleasant or positive experience, however much its made the economy more efficient, but there's nothing to stop it or slow it either.

 

But just wait till it somehow impacts doctors and lawyers -- you can well imagine the screaming and howling!

 

I'm not arguing that this is a good or bad phenomenon -- just noting that its happening all around us, so no surprise that its affecting photographers too.

[ellis_vener_photography]

Jodie Otte:

 

That article never describes you as being in the MWAC catagory:

 

Here is the direct mention of you in this article:<P><I>Marketing is often by word of

mouth. When Jodie Otte (of J. Otte Photography) started her full-time business two years

ago, she printed business cards after every photo session, knowing that her clients would

pass them along if the cards featured pictures of their own children.</I><P> The MWAC

tag isn't discussed until four paragraphs down and then its in the context of male studio

owners feeling threatened.

[andreahollander]

greetings,

I was hoping this forum was about how to juggle motherhood and a photography business. I did not start a portrait business in my area

because Walmart and Babies R Us offer packages at rates I could never

compete with.

Most of these "mommies" if they can weild a child and a camera then they should be getting more money that the traditional studios.

The real threat to professional photographers also threatens most industires in America. The devaluation of craft and the notion

that cheaper is better no matter what the real cost to society is.

Having said that, most photographers I know bear the contenance

of someone who survived a war. Myself included.

 

sincerely,

andrea

[ellis_vener_photography]

"The real threat to professional photographers also threatens most industries in America. The

devaluation of craft and the notion that cheaper is better no matter what the real cost to

society is."

 

Amen to that Andrea.