The Weekend Warrior – Why Are Pro’s Afraid
Thursday, Jun 3rd, 2010 in Photography News by Alan Murphy | Comment
I came across this blog post by Cormac O’Kelly of Striking Images. I post it here because it makes some interesting and maybe uncomfortable points:-
If there is one constant gripe I hear over and over again from professional photographers especially wedding photographers its all about the ‘weekend warrior’ or the ‘shoot’n'burn’ merchant. If I am honest about it, I am sick of the whining and I’ll tell you why.
1) They have always been there,
Perhaps not as prevalent in the film days, as photography was a darker art then but they were there. Admittedly there are more of them now with the advent of digital photography and the new dark art of ‘chimping’.
So with a “few” Euro a guy can now pop into a camera shop, purchase his camera equipment on a Saturday and on Monday declare himself to be a professional photographer. This is true, but he has not honed his skill in post production, people management, crowd control or any number of other facets involved in the shooting of a wedding. This is before you (the real professional) sees the funky angles, the good light, rule of thirds or anything else. So what we have is a pseudo professional.
The guy or girl who will shoot a wedding, burn it to DVD and give it to the bridal couple for a mere (let’s say) €500. And this annoys you as a professional photographer!
Get over yourself, will you!
Do you consider yourself to be competing with this individual. If so, then there is something wrong with your business and the model you are operating. by your own admission and actions, the the only thing differentiating you from him is PRICE. Is that right?
You, the professional photographer with the studio, the experience, the years of photography, the photoshop experience, the business head, the satisfied clients, the top notch cameras, the top notch computers, the client database, the marketing experience, that certain quality that has landed you all this great business!
You say you are competing with the weekend warrior! If price is the only difference between you and ‘the taxi driver who does weddings’ then you have been kidding yourself for a long time and, in fact, you are that “taxi driver” without the taxi, masquerading as a photographer.
If PRICE is the only noticeable difference between you and the other guy, get out of the business now and be true to yourself and your clients, because the service you are offering for thousands of euro is not noticeably different from a guy with a Canon D50 shooting a wedding for €500 !!!
2) You were one, weren’t you?
Back in the day when you were starting out, did you assist other photographers on weddings, go to college and whilst there do a little shooting for cash on the side? Send the odd picture to the press for money? When you started out, going to do your first professional job, where you fully legit? Oh, I’m sure some were and I am sure all will tell me they had studios and staff and overheads and taxes and other stuff. NONSENSE!
All the pro photographers I know have come into the business from another profession, have initially worked from home and some still do including myself, trousered cash from the first and large number of weddings that they did for friends when starting out. Some of these same people are the very ones giving out about the industry’s demise and the onslaught of experienced amateurs. NONSENSE!
Pull yourself up by your boot straps, examine your business and see how you can do it better, offer different products, improve your service. BE A PROFESSIONAL!
Remember the old adage;
“If you are not moving forward, you are going backwards”
There is always going to be that young gun, the next best thing, the new kid on the block coming after your slice of the pie.
Be under no illusion, you are not entitled to a slice of that pie because you have “worked so hard”, “invested so much” or “been doing it for so long”. THIS IS BUSINESS, SO STOP CRYING FOUL AND WAKE UP!!!!
3) Levels of professionalism.
There are three types of photographers as I see it:
A bad photographer who is a bad business man – never makes a penny.
A good photographer who is is a bad business man – unfortunately will make very little money, but should make more really!
A bad photographer who is a good business man – will manage to make a living, controversial one, I know!
A good photographer who is a good business man – will make a comfortable living and may even make a fortune.
That’s how I see it and not only for photographers, that word can be replaced with any profession or trade you care to mention.
Elevate yourself! Be bigger than the other guy! Once again, try and differentiate yourself. Offer different services and products. Streamline your workflow so that your hourly rate improves.
If you are losing work to others, weekend warriors or other professionals, you are to blame – not them! The sooner you come around to that realisation the better you and your business will be.
Forget about ‘thinking outside the box’, damn it! Get outside the box – see you new markets/offerings/areas/expertise.
Niche yourself! There are over 20,000 weddings in Ireland every year.
ANNUAL NUMBER OF WEDDINGS IN IRELAND
2006 – 21,841
2007 – 22,544
2008 – 21,417
2009 – 20,347 (Est)
2010 – 19,556 (Est)
AVERAGE WEDDING SPENDS
2006 – €25,700
2007 – €27,000
2008 – €29,500
2009 – €27,000 (Est)
2010 – €26,000 (Est)
So armed with this little bit of data, ask yourself: “How many weddings do you need or want in a year?” – Is the answer 15, 25, 30, 50, or 75?
This is a question only you can answer for your business – but be safe in the knowledge that there is plenty of work to be had and if you are losing out to the weekend warrior its your fault not his.
If you are doing 75 weddings a year, well done but I would suggest a couple of things:
1/ You are too cheap for what you are offering
2/ You are not giving the same service to the last 10 brides of the year as you are to the first 10 brides of the year, purely through creative exhaustion, so in essence there is a law of diminishing returns on your ability in any give year.
3/ Your work becomes repetitive and only the faces of clients and perhaps the hotels change but the images are all the same.
Just my opinion.
So in finishing, let me say that you need to seek out new revenue streams. Seek out alternative products. Be different from the other guy. Don’t worry about the other guy, worry about yourself. Stay fresh and creative. Be true to yourself.
Your photos are boring! Sorry, someone had to say it.
Your photos are predictable. Your insights are recycled. You don’t bring surprise with you when you come back from working on location.
That’s why people are ignoring you.
Which used to be fine, because people used to not be able to find other photographers. You could just sit back on your past work, or your agent, or your portfolio. But that half-price sale on attention is now over.
The only path left is to lean out of the edge and become interesting, noteworthy and yes, remarkable.
These the words of marketing guru Seth Godin remixed with a couple of choice photography terms of my own here and there. But they got your attention I bet. They certainly got mine. I took them to heart. This sort of brutal honest point keeps me on my toes. There are a million photo gigs out there and, more often than not, getting that phone call requires that we first suck it up and do some remarkable work.
You’ve gotta be in the game–not just AT the game, but IN the game….Get it!
