When I entered the business last year, and studied the way things were done, I knew that this could not be something I could go into without doing some sort of…revolutionizing. This is a competitive business made even more challenging with technology pushing us along in a current that some of us may be unwilling to be swept up in.
Everyday, I hear my friends, who have been consumers of professional photography for many years, complain about the high prices they’re made to pay for prints. Everyday, there’s one person I know who’s buying the latest DSLR and learning to take pictures the way I did a year ago. Just two months ago, I attended a workshop by a master photographer who herself admits that time is running out on the traditional commissioned photography business, but is yet unwilling to do things differently.
I came away from that conference feeling anxious and worried – worried about this business I’m getting myself into. Or am already knee-deep in, wading deeper by the minute. Do I really want to get myself mired this early in a business model that is unwilling to accept that it’s slowly becoming irrelevant in the face of progress? Or am I going to be the one to open my eyes, look around and start figuring out how I can build a new business model for myself. It may not be as lucrative as the print business was ($150 for a 8×10 was what this master photographer was charging – no kidding!) but it can be sustainable, that’s all. And it has to BE RELEVANT.
I can take what’s still workable in the old model, but build on top of it the needs and wants of the new client; the customer who wants to share her images online on Facebook and her blog and on her iPhone WITHOUT having to upload like scores and scores of 10MB files . The customer who wants prints but would rather have a DVD so she can print them off at Costco herself. The customer who just wants to make slideshows and digital scrap-pages and Animoto videos of my photos and hers because this is what she enjoys doing. The customer who does not want to pay $150 for an 8×10 because she can get the same paper from an online printer at $40 a pop because this same printer needs to hit critical mass to stay afloat as HIS customers becomes more digital.
About five months ago, JTPA started using Zenfolio to do my proofing. On top of my DVD and print packages, I offered a one-year hosting of all the proofs so my customers could come back all year round to enjoy even the photos they’ve not purchased print rights to. They started asking me if they could share their password-protected galleries with their families, and I said yes. Pretty soon, these customers were creating what Zenfolio calls their “Collections”, all the way allowing me to keep what is legally mine but emotionally theirs – their photos, their memories. We were sharing, and miraculously, I was making money not only because they kept coming back to visit their galleries, but because they would spot a picture they’d somehow missed, and buy a download here, a print there.
So here’s the spiel: All JTPA packages include annual hosting of every single proof you see in your gallery, which means you get to come visit within 365 days of your images “going live” to enjoy them – even the photos you’ve not purchased print releases to.
My offers respond to a growing demand for digital over print, not only for economical reasons but for convenience as well with increasing accessibility to different image-viewing platforms like mobile phones, digital frames and social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. These platforms typically do not require high-res images which means you should NOT have to pay for them as you would traditional prints. Zenfolio does not provide social media integration for now but I foresee it happening in the near future. If this happens, I promise that you will be able to share, through your hosting with me for a small yearly price (or free if you commit one session per year with me), your digital proofs as profile pictures, wall photos, twitpics and what have you.
Zenfolio, are you listening?
In short, here’s what all JTPA customers get: Prints, a DVD, music videos and ALL your proofs hosted on one site for a year to enjoy and share anytime.
I still have not figured this whole New Media Photography (or NMPM, to add onto our acronym-infested world) thing out yet, but I think I’m on to a good start. Make no mistake, I want to be profitable, but I think the more important thing here is we photographers need to first figure out HOW TO REMAIN RELEVANT in a world of cheaper digital cameras, printers going mass and not just the consumption but sharing of data among our customers.
