I've been thinking over this a lot in the past few months, then I saw a forum post from my friend Neal Jacob - he brought up some ideas that got me thinking.
I wonder if we even consider all the other areas of the professional photography market that are virtually untapped.
The weddings business is getting pretty hard - there is just so much competition now. A couple years ago, the competition was there, but they weren't very good. Now with all the training and workshops and great inspiration, a lot of the new business is getting darn good at what they do. That makes it hard to stand out.
Real success in this new market is all about who you know, networking, and referrals. Easy when you've got nothing better to do - nearly impossible when you're trying to get off the ground while holding down another full time "real" job.
With all the new digital photographers out there, the first direction many seem to go is to weddings - because there's money there, right?
But at the same time, we're passing over so many other niches that are dying for edgy modern imagery. While people are tripping over eachother fighting for a piece of the wedding pie (er, "cake", lol!) it's easy to miss.
Senior Sessions
This is HUGE! It largly depends on your area, but most areas have squat for good senior photographers. These kids have access to huge amounts of cash, and they want to get crazy and express themselves. If it's new and cool, they'll buy heaps of it. The fact is, they look at most existing senior work as old and lame. Even some of the more new and sexy studio work is now viewed as being "old". (You know how these kids are with their styles chaning every week, right?).
What if you totally apply the "lifestyle" PJ approach to the life of a highschool senior? Why not get a group of 'girlfreinds' together, follow them for a day of fun, shoot the whole thing PJ style, then the following day to a 'setup' shoot with them - high fashion style, lots of clothes changes, and make them all super stars for the day. Shoot it with an assistant, bring in some lights, go crazy. Do that with 6 or 8 girls in a group, charge each of them $1000 or so, and do the math. Include an album for each of them "me and my best friends from highschool" like (with most album companies offering killer deals on 'clone' albums, you could actually get the cost on 8 identical books pretty low), maybe even shoot some video on the side "the making of the shoot", whip it together quick with some music, live action, photo pop-ups, etc - and use the video as your marketing piece. Put the vid and pics out on a custom website made just for them (from a template, would require almost no time to put up) and they'll circulate it all on their own, and that video plus the pics would slam home your message. Your phone would be ringing off the hook.
A totally untapped market. Something totally new, and if you went after it full time, marketed it full time, and made it "cool" to the right kids full time - you could probably pull down $5000 a weekend (profit after costs!) in a shoot that is more fun and less hum-and-drum stress than your typical wedding.
Maybe that idea is ahead of it's time, but it'll happen. Be like Apple. Go sell the girls what they don't even know they want yet.
Child Sessions & Family
Another one. Everyone I know asks me to shoot their family picture. They've got the standard "tot shots" type deal in mind. They want something fun, new and hip - but they don't even know it. Remember, today's new mommies and daddies are part of the new trendy hip crowd. They like "new and cool" as much as anyone else.
Think of ways to depart from the standard studio shots and really create a product geared toward capturing the real life if children and their families, then get it in front of the right people. Find some mommies with money, and get it done. Every one of her friends will be calling you for the same treatment.
Think big, think beyond the standard stuff. Think "real life", think "commissioned fine art", think "sell them what they don't even know they want yet".
We're about to dive into just this. I'm going to begin shooting fine art prints which will be printed on gallery canvas with that real crazy artistic surreal feel. They've seen "painting renditions of photos", but I'm going to try and give them something totally new, more heavily editied, more impact and feeling. I don't know if it'll work, but I've got a hunch people will go crazy for it.
Animals
I've told a few people I'm getting into "pet photography", and they kind of chuckle. Like they thought I was kidding.
You know how much money people will spend on fluffy? Empty nesters have replaced their children with pets. If you live in an area with a large population of affluent people age 50+, this is a gold mine, and even the younger folks sure do love their pets.
Dog conventions, agillity shows, breed shows, "flyball" and the like have become hugely popular in just about every area of the country. How hard would it be to circulate some very well done fine art style images of animals at these events? You'd probably be the only 'real' photographer there, and if you've done any internet searches for "pet photography", you know that good photographers focused on animals are way few and very far between.
Take the bride out of the shot and replace her with a great dane and shoot it in the same way. Or look up your local flyball and agillity clubs, go and just hang out. Watch what's happening. See the action of these animals - eventually you'd be welcomed with a big lens on the sidelines - some great comissioned action shots of these animals and the books that go with them would sell huge. These people pack up their lives, kids, and fluffy and trek all over the country to these events. They have money, they love to spend it on their animals, and most have never even seen "good" animal photography.
Bands / Muscians / Theater
People are starting to notice the band scene. Unfortunately, most bands are broke. They're playing for beer money. But what about your local symphony? Most of those folks come from a more affluent circle, and their audience also tends to be more affluent.
These people likely already know "photographers", but have a look at your local symphony's website. Go take in a performance and see the signage, the programs, anything with pictures. Is it any good? What if you offered something beyond the standard 'program handout' snapshots? What if you got really crazy fine art like with them and their instruments. Think of ways to create dramatic compositions with people, hands, and strings. You don't even need a studio - you've already got one -the very stage they play on has all the lighting and backdrop setups you could ever ask for.
And speaking of the stage - what about your local theater group? What about fine art style setup images of the actors in costume? Think "movie premiere poster", and go create it. Not during the show, but once you're hooked up with them, it would be easy to shoot this stuff before or after a nightly performance - just you and the actors. Position them however you'd like, use the sets, have them act parts as you shoot it.
The Point
It's not weddings, but it's the same thing. The same skills, the same feelings, the same income potentials. The only difference is you're not up against 2000 highly qualified competitors.
I would like to go much further in weddings, and honestly after much thought, it's my very involvement in weddings that is holding me up. See, I have to pay my bills. That means when someone calls to book a wedding a year out that I'm not totally thrilled about, but she's able to afford the rate, I really need to take it. I'm in no position to turn away paying clients simply because they won't further my career.
I'm beginning to look into these other ares to find wedding clients - a very specific kind of wedding clients. I absolutely love small weddings in beautiful places. Of all my weddings, the ones I put tops are these smaller more out of the way deals. These also tend to involve clients flying into my area from other areas. I make them very happy, make it clear I want to travel, they go back home and spread the word, and eventually my phone begins to ring for destination weddings - with the same idea. Small family events, beautiful places that don't cost $15,000 to open their doors, which means the couple has more budget to spend flying in the photographer of their choice.
The fact that I have to fill my calendar by competing for weddings to make a living, rather than to make connections with the 'right' people is actually holding me back. As it stands, I need to shoot 25 weddings a year to make the living I want to be comfortable. I'd like to cut that to 12. Not because I'm bored of weddings, not at all. But rather, to keep those spots open for the 'right' twelve couples. In the last year, I've turned away at least 4 "dream" weddings just because I was already booked for the date. While at the other wedding, I'd be kicking myself the whole day. "Why am I here dealing with a stressful high maintenance client, when I could be liad back with a really cool couple at a beautiful elegant garden event accross town?"
So to keep your calendar open for the right people, to find the right people, or even to just make the choice that weddings aren't for you - there are SO many other areas that are less stressful and probably more profitable. These other areas don't cost huge ad dollars to get into. Just get good at what you do, and find new ways to apply the 'wedding skills' to other untapped areas.
I really think this will be the next big revolution of photography. Most people get into this game at weddings, watching the paid photographer limp through the event and they think "hey, I can do that", which is probably the major reason people start so heavy toward weddings. But it's getting hard to make a fulltime living at weddings, and it's even harder to 'start up' in weddings.
As people fall out, or as people even come to re-define the postion of the modern creative photographer, I think we'll begin to see a huge influx into these other markets. The time to get establsihed in weddings was 5 years ago befor all the competition arrived. The time to get established in these other markets is now.
The digital revolution has actually helped in these other areas I believe. Everyone now owns a digital camera, and everyone has taken pictures of their kids, fluffy the mutt, and everything else and they've realized that their wizbang 8 megapixel camera doesn't create pictures any more compelling than their old-skool disposable Kodak film camera. People are starting to re-discover the idea that paid professional photography is worth something, that those expensive 'pro' guys didn't become obsolete after all.
And wedding shooters are the best of the bunch. I firmly believe that practiced wedding photographers are some of the best photographers anywhere in the world. Shooting weddings will make or brake your skills really fast. If you can hang and constanly improvise compelling images at stressful fast moving weddings, then you can create compelling images anywhere.
Check out more of Neal's work at his website www.nealjacob.com - thanks for kicking off the thought process Neal!
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