What will be in 2011 ?

[rashedahmed]

<p>Just thinking, what will be the business side of photography in 2011 ? More hi end cameras,more Tom,Dick & Harries,reduction of fees, price cutting Client's, dreadful weather, what not ? Any predictions ? Any light at the end of the lens barrel ?</p>

[bobcossar]

<p>How about producing an ever higher quality of work than ever before.....really strech yourself for better results? That's my plan..........none of the above negatives for me thanks....Robert</p>

[pio_sao_paulo]

<p>I think he meant the industry (as in the business side) and not the personal side. good resolution though</p>

[mike dixon]

I'm moving this from the Business forum because there isn't really an answerable business question. Idle speculation belongs in the Casual Conversations forum.

[bobcossar]

<p>Pio....I meant the business side. I have been a working pro photographer for many years. Negative possibilities are always possible. So are positive advances........So where should one focus? Positive for me all the way....Regards, Roberrt</p>

[tony_leinster]

<p>Due to the economic situation the light at the end of the lens barrel has been turned off until further notice.</p>

[rashedahmed]

<p>Pio is right.Here I indicated the photo industry.Tony-well said.I guess we have to think out of the box.Something very new. Any idea ?</p>

[User_4136860]

<p>More "Thom,Dick, and Harrys" with entry level DSLRs trying to convince themselves and other people that because the technology in the camera allows them to shoot recognizable pictures of people and objects that they are photographers.</p>

[wood]

<p>Ben, anyone pressing a shutter release on a camera is a photographer. Those just starting out with an entry level dsr can aspire someday to become a condescending pro such as yourself.</p>

[Spearhead]

<blockquote>

<p>More "Thom,Dick, and Harrys" with entry level DSLRs trying to convince themselves and other people that because the technology in the camera allows them to shoot recognizable pictures of people and objects that they are photographers.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>The answer to this elitist view can be found <a href="http://www.zonezero.com/zz/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1234:are-too-many-people-taking-photographs&catid=1:pedro-meyers-editorial&lang=en">here</a>.</p>

<p> </p>

[aplumpton]

<p>My quasi-professional interest is not enough to financially support me (running a seasonal art gallery and creating and selling a dozen or less framed photographs each year) and does little to qualify a serious response to professional photographers. However, I see some trends that might be of interest to photography in 2011, but may have also already been considered by you.</p>

<p>One is the number of local books (a reaction to globalisation?) that come out each year in my own jurisdiction (central south Quebec) and that address local tourism, architecture, history, hunting, local food production, cooking, trekking and other activities, and that are requiring high quality visual support. If it is indeed a growing field elsewhere, it may well give some opportunity. Knowing who is planning to write what can allow initial establishment of a collaboration (Local publishing houses may be a good first contact and may request services or direct the pro to the writer to first determine compatibility).</p>

<p>Another is perhaps an opportunity to provide educational services (workshops) on photography, whether technical, creative image oriented, or the use of modern image management tools like Photoshop. I personally have been looking for a course on both Photoshop and image printing for some time. Amateur photographers may well be looking for such services.</p>

<p>Smaller local businesses do not always have the budget to produce promotional material for brochures, the web or other advertising. If a pro can provide a sort of turnkey project of photography, design and production of the material, he might capture a part of this market that large communication companies may not be positioned to do. The question of the right size or nature of business and something to sell them that they find interesting.</p>

<p>Government departments or sub-departments may be good clients, as the nature and extent of of their image needs can be important and sustain a pro for a good period. Meeting the deciders of a department to show what you can do and (more importantly perhaps) how you understand their needs can be a first step, best enabled if you can contact a "champion" for you in that organisation.</p>

<p>Is there a music, theatrical, wine or other festival in your area that may be in need of visual material for tourism or special publications, books or posters to advertise their events?</p>

<p>Not being a professional has the evident downside that I am not aware of all the issues that face you, and their practical aspects, but I guess one possible attribute is not being "in the box". Anyway, the above suggestions are just my few cents worth.</p>

<p> </p>

[rossb]

<p>I think that people are spending more this year and the camera business will improve. Also the professional business will improve. As far as young people not knowing enough to be a professional photographer I think that they do. They do not know the old school stuff of film and manual settings but kids know their electronic gadgets and they know what kind of gadgets you are carrying around. My #3 daughter is going to get married this year and she already told me she is not hiring some old guy with a jitter bug (senior citizen cell phone) and a camera the size of a Honda. She said the wedding would be over by the time he got the thing out of the bag. It made me think of Disneyland that we just got back from yesterday. After 8 hours I was to tired to take my combersome D200 out of the bag and the kids (17-24y/o) had not even broken a sweat. They were taking fun shots with their point and shoot camera's while I was taking none. </p>

[Tim_Lookingbill]

<p>Below are sample pix I've taken of a magazine put out by the Chamber of Commerce promoting the art culture of the little town of Wimberley, Texas, located about 30 miles north from my home town. The cover is by a local photographer who's placed add depicted on top right pretty much appears buried among the clutter of schlock design. It infuriates me to no end being a native Texan artist for 51 years.</p>

<p>My point...in 2011 I hope there is a new crop of folks with plenty of money like these guys that have the taste and better sense about them to put out a better publication that promotes the culture and artistic value of our local community throughout the hill country.</p>

<p>Unfortunately there are far more folks too well connected that decide these things. It's been this way for decades and now that these idiots see that anyone with a point shoot can take a decent picture, they see no reason to spend money on what I can only guess is there idea of frivolity and waste of good resources.</p>

<p>Everytime I see publications like the one below (and there's tons of them throughout Texas) it just tells me no one gives a sh*t. You got all these artists in this state and they can't seem to come up with anything better. Hopefully in 2011 the appreciation of a good photographer will improve and they will see the value in paying for one.</p>

<p> </p><div></div>

[cyanatic]

<blockquote>

<p>The answer to this elitist view can be found <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.zonezero.com/zz/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1234:are-too-many-people-taking-photographs&catid=1:pedro-meyers-editorial&lang=en" target="_blank">here</a>.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Jeff -- Great commentary, haven't seen this before. </p>

<p>Tim -- I feel your frustration, but I sometimes wonder if it's more a matter of "JGE" (Just Good Enough) as opposed to people not giving a s***.</p>

<p>In terms of business (whether it's galleries, wedding shots, or pj) it has always been about what the market will bear. Some people may actually be just fine with the results of a "Craigs List" wedding photographer. More and more websites, newspapers and tv stations openly solicit contributions from viewers, often for free. Private and public, local and national grants for the arts in general (and photography in particular) are less numerous than they once were. All of this, of course, reflects that current state of the world's economy. In the US, there are slight, tentative indicators (depending on who you read and talk to...) that we may be headed into an incline, and that there is a lot of money sitting on the corporate sidelines. Maybe, maybe there'll be a lasting upturn in 2011. But, don't listen to me, I'm one of the last people who should be making economic forecasts. I'm just not adept at reading those entrails.</p>

<p>Continued technological advancements in 2011 will only increase the democritization process. Features once relegated to DSLR flagships will become more and more available in the P&S market (as has already occurred). ILCs, translucent mirrors, improved EVFs in 2010...who knows what innovations will come up in 2011. </p>

<p>The competition in all genres of photography will most likely increase. I think Arthur already laid out some thoughtful ideas in his post. While competition is greater, so is potential access to certain markets. In the end the old guidelines apply -- provide a good product, attend diligently to the business end, and be a savvy marketer and promoter of your work. I may dislike marketing and self-promotion, but there's no escaping the fundamental truth of their necessity.<br>

</p>

 

[Tim_Lookingbill]

<p>I don't see it as a lack of money or trying to make good business decisions. It's a lack of having the right folks who KNOW and have a sensitivity of what looks good and enriches a community wanting to promote an art culture and they do it by hiring professionals.</p>

<p>That's a bi-annual publication put out by people who should have better business sense. They're primarily trying to sell real estate to already established art professionals. There's a lot of famous artists that live in that town and it's quite expensive to live there compared to the rest of the community.</p>

<p>My point about this is that it doesn't matter how good you are as a professional photographer or how competitive from the numbers of good photographers available when you have the people who make buying decisions that don't make sense as demonstrated in that publication.</p>

<p>In short you have more people with money than brains even in this day and age of high tech sophistication. And I'm hoping they grow a brain in 2011.</p>

[jim_service]

<p>Tim - Good luck with that.<br>

A camera club I was in several years back here in San Francisco had a judge one evening who was a professional who did postcards for the local tourist trade. First he put up a slideshow of his work and it was stunning, knocked us out. Someone asked to see some of his biggest sellers in postcards and he showed his Top Ten. Complete schlocky crap. He went on to explain that the general public wants to see and buy what they expect of a place, that image that is already in their mind, the image they have seen a thousand times before on tv and in magazines.<br>

Really good art requires a special audience. Not the audience that the Wimberly Chamber of Comerce is seeking... no, not seeking, I'm sure it never occurred to them. They just wanted "pretty pictures".<br>

As to the origional subject, I'd like to see further improvements in one-off publishing of coffee table books.</p>

[GerrySiegel]

<p>Rashed,<br>

I foresee greater popularization of self publishing to a targeted (call it niche ,no longer a slur as we are all nichenics in the net) market.A for instance.. A gent contacted me after spotting an old old chrome in my gallery to ask to use one of my photos for one of his history books he does with this company.<br /> http://www.lulu.com<br /> Aimed at those who served at a now closed military base. Marriage of words and images, maybe only electronic, so can be a one off almost sale. With business opportunity,, for those who aid such efforts. Ease entry to that growing niche world, and still garner a profit.<br /> Big investment on chip plants and R and D via big name consumer electronics companies, Panasonic and Sony, clearly has to be a kick in the jockey shorts to C and N to get moving with something new and bold.<br /> What else? OK. A viable stereoscopy, a genre in itself, still a few more years coming on to shooters in the neighborhood, but I can see that happening faster than most might expect here, I mean here in PN. (Why not, NASA did it on Mars Rovers and that is a long way to send a two lens camera :-)....)</p>

[gordonjb]

<p>Jeff, thanks ....good read.</p>

[jtk]

<p>Rashed: There's literally a world of difference between the economies of US (and Europe) and India. The latter has a booming middle and upper class (albeit tiny), the former is in extended constriction (at best).</p>

<p>IMO this will be a good ten or twenty years for America as shock and austerity allows more of us to contribute to development of new, or redevelopment of almost-forgotten values...maybe even reinvestigating the best of what we were about in the Sixties. Maybe some thought will be given to our adventures in Civil Rights, Vietnam, and our other personal crusades...rather than polarizing around race and religion and "opinions", as we've been led to do in the past few years.</p>

<p>I don't think vanity photo books (lulu.com et al) will have much influence in photography, but there's undoubtedly a market for them, especially for people who don't write.</p>

<p>IMO blogs have tremendous untapped potential (despite their currently typical babbling), especially for people who actually do have something substantial to contribute. For example, <a href="http://www.beaconart.blogspot.com/">http://www.beaconart.blogspot.com/</a></p>

[GerrySiegel]

<p>Pedro Meyer, that you linked to, Jeff, has a lot to say and to show in photo. I got him bookmarked. Mexico is no picnic and yet he keeps his bearings. And today, we add a hopeful <em>Hau'oli Makahiki Hou</em> <strong>... </strong>( Happy and Prosperous New Year.)<strong><br /></strong></p>