How to Save the Photography Industry

If you spend any time chatting with photographers or milling around in the photography forums on LinkedIn you'll get a pretty desperate view of our professional industry.  Everywhere you look photographers are complaining that clients have smaller budgets, other photographers are stealing their business by shooting for free, moms with cameras are taking over!  The truth is - photographers need to learn how to evolve!

The photography profession is rooted in tradition.  It's a craft that is both art and science - both creative and technical.  As such, there is no right way to do it.  Just as there are numerous ways to take a photo, there are numerous paths to pursuing it as a career.  You can go to school, you can assist another professional, you can read books to educate yourself on the technical aspects of photography but the hardest thing to learn is the business of photography.  Because there is such a lack of information on how to run a successful photography business we tend to copy or learn from those who have been successful in the past.  We look to other working photographers as a model on how to run our own business.  We send mailers, we run email campaigns, we network.  This is how the industry perpetuates itself.  Each new generation learning from those who have blazed a path before us.  Unfortunately, this is exactly why our industry has grown stale!

One thing I've learned from working in the SF Bay Area is just how quickly an entire industry can move. Silicon Valley is THE birthplace of today's computer technology and I've seen it grow, evolve, boom, bust and transform in the 20+ years I've lived here. I'm not sure why the entrepreneurial spirit here is so high - maybe it's the weather, or maybe it's because we have more venture capital firms than anywhere else in the country.  One thing is certain, the Valley never quits.  There is always some new idea, some new technology, some new college graduate thinking they have the next Facebook!  You very rarely hear people complain about the competition, or blame their customers for the lack of business, or whine about technology moving too fast.  When business starts to slump they look internally, not externally, and will change their business strategies on a dime!

If the photography industry is to survive, we need to adopt these types of business practices.  We need to stop clinging to business models that were created in the days of film.  We need to stop thinking that we are "owed" a successful business just because we know how to use a camera. We need to stop comparing ourselves today to the photographers of yesterday.  Yes, the industry has changed. Yes, technology moves fast.  Yes, everybody can take great pictures now.  So look internally and ask yourself "What else can I bring to the table?"

If your clients aren't paying you what you think you deserve it's because they don't value what you offer.  Commercial photography is a service industry and you can either be a $20 table massage or a $200 spa treatment, the choice is up to you.

Young Executive

This weekend we organized a test shoot with a fantastic model by the name of Eric Stackpole to try out some new corporate looks.  A "test shoot" allows us the chance to work with new talent and try out some concepts without jeopardizing a client project.

For this shoot we were trying to capture the unique qualities of a Silicon Valley tech company.  The Bay Area has a unique style of business when compared to other metropolitan areas and we wanted to capture that style.  The Bay Area, a hot spot for technology game-changers like Apple, Twitter, and Facebook, has a very casual approach to business.

Eric is a great example of today's high-tech workforce - young, creative, and smart - and he did a great job by giving us the energy of a young entrepreneur.  HP was gracious enough to allow us to shoot in the lobby of their newly acquired Palm building in Sunnyvale which was the perfect venue for a high-tech, corporate look.

See the whole set on our Flickr page.

Location Equipment Kits

We often get asked about the kind of gear we shoot or the equipment we use on location so in response we thought we'd give you a sneak peak into our "black boxes".


THE DSLR KIT
Our DSLR kit is the most used kit in the group and the first one to get pulled out for a job. We're definitely a Canon shop. Our digital kit contains a full-frame 1d Mark I body for landscape and wide-angle shots and the 10fps 1d Mark III body for sports and timelapse shoots. If all things are equal, the quality of your image will come down to your choice of lens so our kit includes the Canon 70-200mm f4 L, the Canon 24-70mm f2.8 L, the incredible Canon 85mm f1.2 L and a Tamron Aspherical 17-35 f2.8 to round out the bunch. The rest of the kit includes a set of neutral density filters, Sekonic L-758dr light meter, spare batteries for both bodies, a set of 2-way radios for the crew, an intervalometer for shooting time-lapse, battery charger for the 1d Mark III, various trigger cables and my photographer credentials. This all comfortably fits into the Pelican 1510 watertight case.

THE MEDIUM FORMAT KIT 

As good as digital technology is these days, we still love to shoot film! When a job calls for medium format resolution we turn to film and our medium format kit which includes a Mamiya RZ67 Professional with a 150mm f3.5 portrait lens and 220 film back for studio work.  For location work where we need a more hand-holdable solution we use our Mamiya 645 Pro TL with winder grip, 80mm f2.8 and a 150mm f3.5 lenses. If you're curious how film fits into our digital workflow we bring our rolls to a local vendor for quick turnaround then scan the films through our Canon Canoscan 8800F film scanner. Our last camera in this kit is the Canon G10 with various lens attachments which we use for location scouting or anything that require a really small digital camera with manual control. This all fits into the Pelican 1500 watertight case.

THE LIGHTING KIT

When it came to lighting we made an investment in Paul Buff's Alien Bee lighting system. We found their feature/price ratio to be unbeatable and their customer support to be top notch! The contents of our lighting kit include 3 AB800 monolights with the standard 6" reflectors, an ABR800 Ring Light, a Canon 430EX Speedlight with a set of Gary Fong Lightsphere diffusers along with some various grip gear. We completed our Paul Buff system by selling our Pocket Wizards and buying the CyberSync wireless triggers and the CyberCommander control unit which we love! The CyberCommander allows me to control up to 16 individual lights right from my camera. For good measure we also threw our Bogen 3021 pro tripod into the frame as well. All of this gear fits nicely into the Pelican 1620 watertight trunk.

THE LIGHTSTANDS & MODIFIERS - The last bit of luggage we bring on locations contains all the other grip and light modifiers we might need. This kit consists of 6 air cushioned light stands with assorted clamps and grip, two Dynaphos silver umbrellas, one white Dynaphos shoot-through umbrella, two small Dynaphos softboxes, one Dynaphos 6-foot strip lightbox and a large Dynaphos octobank. Our favorite light modifiers (which aren't pictured) are the 5-in-1 reflector disc by Dynaphos and two Paul Buff 22" High-Output Beauty Dishes.


So there you have it! That's a little bit of what it takes, in terms of equipment, to produce quality photographs on location.