Good Morning Everybody,
I sure hope today's post title got your attention today, but more on that later. We arrived safe and sound in New Orleans today and are finally settled into our beautiful hotel room here at the Westin on Canal Street. I have to say, LaDawn and I really enjoy our trips to New Orleans. We were here last in January for the Imaging USA Convention and thoroughly enjoyed our visit then. After eating our way through the city, I swear, I think I put on 10 pounds! I sure can't let that happen this time around. But, I suspect we'll still put on a pound or two from all the good eats around here.
Test Driving Canon's New 600EX-RT Radio Controlled Strobes
Don't forget, I presenting my one day program tomorrow here at the Southern Pro Exposure Convention [link] and I'm really looking forward to it. My good friends at B&H sent me three of Canon's new 600EX-RT radio controlled strobes Canon Speedlite 600EX-RTto work with for the next few weeks. I'm planning to give them a thorough testing. You'll get all the details of my shooting experience with them right he at DigitalProTalk.com. I've only had them for a day and have just scratched the surface of e bible thick manual, but my first impressions are quite favorable. More next week after I've had a few day to run them through their paces.
It's Time To Give Your Work Away - I'm mostly Serious!!!
You know, I've been involved in this business for many years and I've seen wedding photography iterate through many, many changes over all those years. I remember when I first started business a long time ago. Everybody was trying to make as many double exposures as possible. They were the super cool images in the seventies and eighties. 
Everyone was trying to do it and the clients loved the results - hokey as they were by today's expectations. We and the bride and groom floating above the wedding ceremony. We had the groom in the bride's silhouette – I has a bride call it the "brain shot". My staff and and I always tried to come back at the end of heady with at least 5-6 of these eye grabbing double exposures. I know, it sounds kind of crazy in today's wedding market but it was still trendy and popular back then.
Also, Back in the good old days of wedding photography, and that wasn't very long ago, it was the parents of the bride that made the buying decision for the wedding photography. They were used to making bigger ticket purchases – they had bought a home, a car, braces on their kids teeth, etc. Today the buying public is mostly the bride and groom themselves. This is a generation of buyers that has been brought up on a Wal-Mart and Target mentality where everything is on sale all the time and retailers continue to beat up on each other as they continue to lower prices to compete.
Everybody is always looking for the lowest price everywhere. It blares from our TV screens, Google Ads, billboards, just about everywhere.
There has been a seismic shift in the business of wedding photography in just the last few years. I blogged on this topic at length over Scott Kelby's blog about a year and a half ago. You can read that post right here. It's a lengthy read so allow enough time to make it through all 9000 words.
Anyway a quick recap: this seismic shift was created by a in no particular order with the advent of smart phone cameras, Facebook,, craigslist, and easily accessible and inexpensive printing from Wal-Mart, Sam's Club, Costco, Walgreens, Shutterfly, etc. I mean like $.20 or less for a 4x6 - how's a pro going to compete with that? Couple that fact with the fact that most folks don't even print their images - they can get a quick shot from their smart phone quickly to Facebook and are happy campers. People just don't care about good photography anymore - it's just not as important to today's buying public as it was just a few years ago. Therein lies the seismic shift of the business - professional photos are not that important to people anymore and most everyone wants their photos for cheap.
Don't get me wrong here. I still think we have some, albeit a much smaller segment of the photo buying public, who will pay a premium price for premium photography. Yes, a few customers can tell the difference and are willing to pay for it. But for too many other people, fine photograph is unimportant. The camera phone snap is "good enough". Sorry folks, but those are the sad facts about the profession these days.
Is There A Future For Today's Wedding Photographer?
Yes, I still think there is but it demands a completely different way at looking at the business and how you want to position yourself on the new "playing field" of wedding photography. Does moaning and groaning solve the situation? Of course not. We can all wallow in each others self-pity but that certainly is not a constructive way out of the current situation.
The reality is that There are several photographers doing quite well in the photography business these days. Most of these photographers have adopted solid sales and marketing techniques that are really lost on so many other photographers struggling to make a living in this profession. Just two weeks ago we had our PhotoPro network summer school. Two of our speakers were young and upcoming photographers, Ty and Shannon Fischer, who are running two successful studios in the Midwest. They've got their act together when it comes to sales and marketing. Gang, that's really one of the BIG secrets of success!
I think the bottom line is this. If you give your work away then that client will recommend their friends and family members. And the sad fact is that those new referrals will also be looking for the free photographic lunch so to speak.
Remember, Cheap Customers Recommend Their Cheap Friends
Many years ago I was offered some of the best business advice ever by local photographer I met at a meeting of the local professionals he in Cincinnati, OH. I was new to the Association and feeling quite nervous when I attended my first meeting. This photographer – his name is Craig Elbe - walked up to me, put his finger my chest, and said "so you're another wedding photographer, are you?". I felt a bit intimidated by the encounter but before I could react he gave me the best business advice ever. He said, "Let me tell you something kid. If you do work for cheap clients they'll recommend their cheap friends. If you do work for rich clients the recommend their rich friends." I have to say, it was a rather brash way to make the statement but the gist of his message is important for all photographers working today.
How do you want to define your clients? Which market segment to wish to work for? These are decisions you need to consider as you build your business. You simply can’t be everything to everybody. Pick your market and go for it!! Its the only way to achieving lasting success in this profession.
I also think part of the solution can be found in how we set our pricing. No longer do I think its about "How much is it for an 8x10?" Heck, you can pick up and 8x10 for $.99 ar Sam's Club or Wal-Mart. We need to start thinking about is pricing ourselves. We need to be selling ourselves. It's no longer about how many 5 x 7's or 8x10's you're going to get in Yu wedding album It's no longer about how many images you're going to have on a DVD. It's about selling your services as the end product and selling your services for what they are worth. Ehen it comes to GE images - just give them away, who cars! Position yourself as the artist that is to be hired, no commissioned, for the job. Take the prints out the the equation completely.
Just How Much Are You Worth - Good Question!
That opens up a whole another line of conversation. Just how much are we worth. We are worth what we make ourselves worth. With so many shooters out there offering two hundred dollar wedding coverages and three dollar photographs, I guess they know what they're worth. I personally know how much time and effort goes into producing an event for my clients. I work very hard when I photograph the event. We spend hours editing is images and tweaking them so we can make a great presentation to our clients. We then meet with our clients and help them make their final selection for their wedding albums.
Yes, I'm still a huge fan of delivering a finished product – a wedding album my clients. Anything less than that means that the wedding day memories will eventually fade away and then, no longer be memories anymore. It's an album – that large, heavy, solid album sitting in the bride and groom's lap that they can enjoy on their anniversary that makes all the difference in the world. It's enjoying that album years down the road, with their children and grandchildren that will bring the flood of memories back of the wonderful times they shared with themselves and their family and friends on their wedding day.
But I digress - let's go back to building value into yourself. I think one of the best ways we can do that is to bill ourselves as an artist, not just a wedding photographer. And, how can we do that? I've been doing it for years. As we travel around the world my camera is always over my shoulder. I'm always looking for new things to photograph whether it be a beautiful sunsets, gorgeous landscapes, or urban abstracts. Over these many years I’ve got a wonderful collection of images that go far beyond my wedding images. And, for these past several years we've been building that collection work into a wonderful portfolio.
Along the way we've been sharing a portfolio of images on websites like Fine Art America and Imagekind - two websites where people can find "David Ziser" images [link] that are not wedding images. I also blog about my fine art work and my landscapes. Those of you reading this blog know that to be the case. In fact, I just blogged an escape landscape image a few days ago which I liked very much.
By defining yourself as an artist you're actually setting yourself up part from so many other wedding shooters out there. You're offering a level of expertise and creativity that photographers are not going to get from the run-of-the-mill craigslist advertiser. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to put down the craigslist wedding shooter. But let's face it, the craigslist photographer is looking for a little spare money at the end of the day that - I call it beer money. Again I'm not trying to put them down but, if you're going to make a commitment to building a successful business in photography you're never, ever going to do it on craigslist.
Build Value, Build Respect, Build Credibility, Build Brand!
It's about building value into yourself. And people shopping craigslist are not looking for the value of a photographer. They're looking for the deal in a photographer.
To build value for yourself you have to continue to build credibility. That credibility comes from creating a special relationships with your vendor buddies within the community itself. That demands that you get involved in charities throughout your local community to show that you are doing more than just trying to book a few weddings on the weekends. You need to set yourself aside from the photo crowd as a photographer who does something more than wedding photography and is involved in the community. You have to market yourself differently.
All these things have to work together to show that you, the whole package, is much more than just the average wedding shooter with the camera over your shoulder available for hire for some quick candids at the next wedding event. You have to position yourself as an artist in the field, somebody who has raised to the next level his/her craft into an art, someone who will make that extra effort and go that extra mile to produce a body of work for their client's wedding that goes far beyond their expectations and far beyond what so many other wedding shooters are doing out there.
This has to be an ongoing quest. Were talking about constantly climbing the hill to perfection – perfection in photography, perfection in marketing, perfection in selling, perfection in creating client and vendor relationships that carry you from one generation to the next generation of wedding clients.
Folks, this profession will change again in the not-too-distant future. I don't know what that change holds for the photographers out there shooting 10 or 15 years from now but I can guarantee you that it will be different. Too many of us don't even realize that our cheese has moved and will continue to move again. We just can't keep scrambling around in our lives doing the same thing over and over again expecting the results to change.
The fact of the matter is that we need to continue to change with the times. We need to be aware of what the customers are looking for in these changing times. We have to be proactive and constantly seeking what these ever changing, shall I say fickle customers, are looking for and constantly be proactive in making the changes that we need to make to accommodate the new photography marketplace.
The bottoms line is building tremulous value in yourself as the commissioned artist. be someone who is hired for their talents, professionalism, creativity, and service. Forget the prints - give them away. All you have to sell these days is yourself. Make your self the best you can be and price accordingly. Make it you mission And do it proactively only moving forward, never backward, never singing the doom and gloom song.
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Hey gang that's it for me today. We're going to check in with our New Orleans friends, enjoy a bit of the city today and get ready to go to work tomorrow. If you happen to be in the area at the Louisiana Convention this weekend, please come by and say HI.
Adios everybody, David
Announcing my 2010 Success Collection! http://digitalprotalk.blogspot.com/2010/05/announcing-my-2010-digital-wakeup-call.html