| Hi all, Over the year's, on this list and others, there has been a lot of agonizing over "where" photography is heading. It's not like it used to be - change happens. Some folks are excited about the possibilities of such things as digital and microstock markets, and others won't touch 'em with a ten-foot (three-meter for the metric folks) pole. Personally, I've been taking it all in, feeling my way through it all, agreeing, disagreeing, etc., ad nauseum, etc. And, I'm not professionally mature enough to have ridden through all of this, even though I've been following it all for years. And, it's also because of these changes that I am able to now call myself a professional photographer. A few weeks ago, a very successful graphic designer friend recommended to me a book by Chris Anderson - "The Long Tail"
read, and I found it to be an enlightening and pleasant book. So, here's my brief book report. Mr. Anderson is an editor for Wired magazine, and he has thoroughly researched his book. His basic premise is that with our technological changes (computers, digital cameras [in our cases], the internet, etc.), the world has significantly changed from the economics of scarcity to the economics of abundance. (And, don't take this too far, as we all know that there's not an abundance of oil!) There's an abundance of computers, web sites, digital cameras, users of digital cameras, digital photos, consumers of digital photos; you also may have noticed that the consumer has a changed mindset from "please help me find this" to "I'll help myself to find it." As I read this book, I was constantly asking myself, "so, how is photography affected?" Photography is hardly mentioned, explicitly, but it seems that it's follow
First, there are more producers of photographs than ever before. This is due to the increase in the number of digital cameras and the ease of distributing/sharing images on the internet. Second, there are more "aggregators" of photography out there, on the 'net, than there were in the pre-internet days. In the "old" days, just ten or fifteen years ago, the aggregators were galleries or stock agencies. Now, most all of us have our own galleries on the 'net and have images posted in a number of other places. Here are a couple of examples that came to my mind while reading the book regarding how the long tail has changed and is changing photography. In terms of wedding photography, I run into possible clients who tell me that my price is too high, that they'll have their cousin shoot their wedding for them (more producers, more production tools). And, couples want to have their digital images on a CD/DVD now, rather than
um from which they can choose and order images (control). Shifting the subject to stock photography, we've all seen the advent of the microstock sites and how anyone with a digital camera can submit an image and maybe make a buck or two; there are frequent hues and cries about how these microstock photographers are undermining the rest of the stock photography market. But, in all of the discussions in the book and that I've read on this and other forums, what the professional photographer still offers is quality, along with quantity. Yes, my cousin can photograph your wedding just as well as your cousin - but they can't hold a candle to me (at least, that's what I'd like to think). And, yes, my cousin can submit a photo to a microstock site and maybe make a buck or two; but, does my cousin have 500 or 1,000 or 10,000 images available on a website or with a more well-known stock agency? Yes, while there are microstock sites out there, t
ng stock photography sites, like Digital Railroad and Photoshelter, who are trying to be helpful aggregators for photographers, not drive down the price, and keep quality high. For those of you who are interested, I'd encourage you to read Anderson's book. And, you also can find information at: http://thelongtail.com Now, Andy, if you read this and are game, is this an issue that faculty at RIT (and, I'd also extend this suggestion to all photoeducators on this list) might have discussed, say, in a business of photography class, and might be willing to chime in on??? I'm still searching for more answers on this issue and how to better take advantage of the long tail and my photography, and it will take some time for me further digest, cogitate and, hopefully, employ some of these ideas... Enjoy, Tim! <
ited="true"> Tim Mulholland Illuminata Photo
Fitchburg, WI 608.628.2925 TimMulholland.com Featuring fine art and stock landscape & nature images, and available to create and refresh your wedding and family memories... The most fatal illusion is the settled point of view. Since life is growth and motion, a fixed point of view kills anybody who has one. ~~ Brooks Atkinson, American drama critic, (1894-1984) |
