Tom Flora, SWPPA President M. Photo. Cr. PPA Certified

WHAT NOW??????????

At every corner our professional photography industry is facing tremendous challenges.

A: Quality is an unknown factor for the average public.

B: Operating systems change and don’t work with older programs and computers.

C: New digital cameras come out “too often” to keep abreast of new technologies.

You’re still paying for the older camera (less than a year old) when the newest and many times cheaper model is introduced.

D: It seems anyone that owns a pro-consumer or pro-camera can claim to be an “image star” even though they bought the camera and auto flash less than two weeks before.

E: Costs of doing business are getting more and more difficult to manage. An idea is for all of us is to band together, declare bankruptcy, and demand stimulus money from a government that could be broke in the future.

F: You probably could add a lot more to this list.

I don’t want to sound like a pessimist but as Doug Box once said, “the business used to come to us, but now we have to go to the business and get it.”

I will add that we have to compete with those who use photography as a second income.

WHAT NEXT?????????

Let’s think first that the solutions to challenges should be a positive approach.

Being negative doesn’t find answers; it only makes one blind to the sunshine after the storm.

I have a saying on my cork wall behind me in my office.

It says “Doing Better With What You’ve Got” Add “Doing Better at What You Do Best.” Also, “Changing What You Do Poorly to What You Do Greatly.”

In tough times we often find better ways to do things that move us on to new and better times.

Lots of us have a way of “doing things.”

We have a style, look, or routine.

I find new photographers using places I have gone to for years. I now go to other places, pose differently, and use new angles. 

Lots of pro-amateurs copy our work.

Most of them don’t know, see, or understand quality, posing, and lighting.

With Photoshop plug-ins, actions, and zoom lenses many are perceived as experts in imaging making.

True professionals (those who did or now rely on photography for a major part of their living) will move on to much higher levels of quality.

At the same time we somehow need to educate and inform the public today what makes the value of our photography worth what we ask.

Education and research in marketing need to be daily assignments on our part along with outstanding images, customer service and “out of site” displays.

And public awareness of our quality is most important.

BELIEVE the BEST is YET to COME!!!! BE READY!!!!!! STAY IN THERE