10 Tips To Tell You How To Start A Photography Business By Finding Your Photography Niche

December 18th, 2010 by Novi | No Comments | Filed in Article

Sooner or later, most photography enthusiast give some thought to “how to start a photography business.” Unfortunately, there are a ‘few‘ challenges that “doom” us to failure. One of the biggest challenges that we bring is our failure to make the distinctions between our love of photography (re: our enjoyment and passion for photography) and the business of photography (understanding buying and spending habits of people that are photography customers).

For example, many of us think that because our photography work is “so good,” that we shouldn’t have that much trouble selling it. We, sometimes, mistakenly, think that great art and photography “sells itself.” Big mistake! Great photography does not sell itself. In the business world, nothing sells itself – nothing! Knowing this is critical to start a photography business.

Our failure to make the distinction between our passion for photography and our desire to be in the photo business is also evident in how we try to tell people about what we do. For example, photography customers don’t care what type of equipment we use. They don’t care how many mega-pixels we have, nor how much our equipment cost us, nor what brand of camera we use. Photography customers (current and potential) want to know that we can, and will, produce the highest quality photography work for them. (more…;)

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Learn Digital Photography – Is Digital Photography Dead?

August 2nd, 2010 by | 2 Comments | Filed in Article

Yes, digital photography is dead in the water IF ‘photography’ is taken out of digital photography. As Kodak’s brownie box camera and their Instamatic brought photography to the masses in the 20th century, so the digital camera has done the same in the 21st. But, once the ‘ability to take photos novelty’ wears off, the lack of skills will relegate the digital camera to the hobby drawer.

There is a principle in management science that says in business a person is promoted to the level of their own incompetence and no further. It’s called the ‘Peter Principle’ formulated by Dr. Laurence J. Peter in his book of the same name. After that they stagnate and can only move sideways. This is true for photography also. Once you reach your level of incompetence or maximum ability, there you sit. It’s at this point the interest wanes and your camera outings become more and more infrequent. In other words, another death of digital photography.

There will always be the hardliners in any field who will continue to practise to the level of their incompetence, but, the average Joe who was once excited by digital photography is no more. The enthusiast has lost his enthusiasm. (more…;)

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Photography – A Memory Preserver

July 28th, 2010 by | No Comments | Filed in Article

Photography is used by amateurs to preserve memories of favorite times, to capture special moments, to tell stories, to send messages, and as a source of entertainment. Many mobile phones now contain cameras to facilitate such use. Photography is all about light, and as photographers, we’re constantly thinking about the light as we photograph a scene. Light dominates our thoughts during the photographic process, and light continues to be a defining element when converting your RAW captures to “real” digitalimages. Photography is an art and those of us who choose to practice the great art of street photographyought not be targeted by bullies like Blint. Many of the great artists, artists being shown in the SF MOMA itself were practitioners of street photography.

Photography is a language; it has syntax and structure like English. As with a language, there are many ways to understand how to use the language. Photography is also increasingly asserting itself on the auctionblock as an important investment. And its prices in the galleries and at the major fairs reflect its serious status.Photography is one of the most basic, quintessential prototypes for how a “small business” works. It’s the single-celled creature of the business world, making it the easiest to analyze, experimentwith, test, and retest.

Photography is a type of art. With the skillful use of the artist’s hands, photography can bring out the subject’s “personality” and create almost magical moments which might not ordinarily be achieved through other means of self-expression. Photography is a creative endeavor, if you removethe pressure to capture every angle and view of a location, you free yourself up to be more creative and your results will be much better. Photography is not art any more than oil paint is art. Some photographers used it to create art. (more…;)

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