The “I’m quitting Photography” cry is something that I have been seeing a lot on social media. Lots of so called photographers proclaiming that they are going to be quitting photography. The so called reasons are plentiful and all equally weak; and the most annoying thing about their posts is the attention seeking by declaring they’re quitting.
Too Many Photographers/Too Much Competition.
This is the one I hear the most. People whining that there are too many photographers. And people who are charging way too little and undercutting prices etc. etc. These are just excuses. Usually that say the person has little to no business acumen at all.
In general however; the public proclamation is an cry for attention and a desire to have people spew accolades and encouragement.
My typical response is that from “Friday”; “BYE FELICIA!” I tend to love it when people quit photography. It’s not like there’s a shortage of people with cameras out there who are calling themselves photographers.
My question is often why do you care about the other photographers? What do they have to do with you? After all you are creating value with your images and products aren’t you?
If you’re not then you damn well better be concerned with competition. I however do not worry about competition. I’m to busy with domination to compete.
I am not one of these photographers who charge bargain basement chitterlings circuit prices for the service I provide. I know the value of what I do and have the body of work to back it up. So why would I try and compete with bargain basement photographers?
Those who want to pay those kinds of clearance aisle; bargain basement, discount bin prices simply aren’t my clients. Why are they yours?
No One Wants To Pay For Photography!
What’s this you say? No one wants to pay for photography? Let’s keep it one hundred as the kids say. No one wants to pay for YOUR photography. That’s right. Let that marinate for a moment.
It’s you; not them. It goes back to the idea that you need to create value; and you just haven’t created that value. People still pay for photos, and nothing has changed with that.
You have to ask yourself if you’ve got the skills the quality of images that makes people want to actually book you to shoot them.
Another thing that I see is that most of these so called photographers don’t offer prints. No one leaves me without purchasing prints. Be that an album; photo box, wall art whatever but they are getting prints.
They get digital images of each image they purchase.
Print is Dead. Everyone Only Wants Digital Images.
Absolutely false. School pictures still come in print. Much like the whole no one wants to pay for photography claim people just don’t want to buy prints from you. If you’re not selling prints here are three reasons that could be responsible.
- You don’t have any print samples to show your clients. You sell what you show. You want to sell albums then you better have albums to show.
- You’re not creating value for prints and giving them reason to purchase prints.
- You’re not educating your clients as to why they are going to want prints.
See where I keep coming back to? What the common denominator is in this discussion? It all comes back to you. So before you start thinking about quitting take a look at how you do business.
I can pretty much promise you that is going to be the problem with your business. But make no mistake that I have no problem helping ya’ll pack and hold the door open for you.
