Free NPPA Workshop For “Navigating The Downturn”

Email to the NPPA sent on 4/28/2009:

Hi,

I noticed the “Free NPPA Workshop For “Navigating The Downturn“

I imagine this workshop will be recorded for future posting online or offered as a live webinar, RIGHT?! This is not new technology so I don’t see any reason why it would not be recorded and posted on the NPPA website, Youtube and/or as a podcast. Or will this workshop be limited to the few people who show up? This is a national or even global issue, is it not? Might a virtual attendance be even larger, less expensive for everyone and more welcoming event to the entire membership in comparison to a 1950’s style townhall meeting with just some west coast residents. Embracing (and using) the technology of the 21st century (instead of resisting it) is one way to ‘navigate the downturn’, broaden our horizons as well as open up other income possibilities. This isn’t about shooting this versus that, but rather understanding how to run a business today which sadly most photographers don’t know how.

Please advise what this workshop will do for the rest of the membership outside of Seattle as well as other photographers in the world.

Thank you.

Henrik de Gyor

I will post the reply, once I get one.

Are you networking with other professionals?

It is very important to network and be social with other professionals because this is how you find out the about the latest and greatest…opportunities (not just new toys) and makes other people aware that you are interested in seeking more work. Now this doesn’t mean stealing the other person’s idea or client (that will happen anyhow regardless of what you do because it is that sort of business). You will also learn about ‘new’ techniques, skills and ways to be more efficient in your photography business. 

So where do you network as a photography professional? If you are around the Washington DC area this week, you don’t have much of an excuse not to come to the Northern Short Course, network with many professionals, learn about the business and get your portfolios reviewed on 3/19/09 through 3/21/09. I will be there as a portfolio reviewer, among other professionals.

Sharing of ideas, contact information and bringing unity to this business are all good things. Hiding in your cocoon or cave will not help you nor your business regardless of the economic situation.

So what about after the Northern Short Course, what is around me that I could attend? Most photography associations hold meetings for networking and idea sharing and they often don’t require you to be a member either.

Here are a few I have attended and participated in:

APA

ASMP

ASPP

Each of these groups have local chapters which meet every month around the US. 

What if I live far away from all these? Look for local photography groups and even camera clubs.

Start networking online with their blogs, facebook, linkedin groups and twitter.

Make sure people know you exist, work in photography and are able to help them with their photography needs.

Full disclosure: I am not compensated by anyone nor any organization to attend the NSC nor write this blog. That will probably remain this way too. At the time of this posting, I am a NPPA member, but you don’t have to be a member to attend the Northern Short Course. Get out there and start networking.

What should happen to those in print publishing

I recently read an article on a former editor who now works as an unpaid intern trying to learn how to use the internet today. If you work for an publishing company of any sort in any position regardless of age and you don’t know how to use the the internet today… shame on you. It is never to late to start learning about it. Yes, you need to learn about it if you don’t already know what Web 2.0 can do for the business and what social networking is too. Evolve  If your organization is performing poorly and they have a small foot print on the internet just to market the print product, it might be high time to either:

• A) Leave
• B) Wait to get laid off
• C) Get fired for not doing anything about the current situation
• D) Start doing something about it now

If you are curious about option D:

What are your printing costs today?

Why are you still printing so often?

Why are you still printing rather than publishing to a broader audience worldwide online? Or do not like a broader audience?? 

Why are you still printing rather than seriously exploring e-book technology as the platform instead of print? (Downloading is cheaper than printing. Updates are easier to apply too.)

When will you learn to adapt to the trends which are rapidly changing the marketplace now?

If you picked Options A, B or C, you can always remain idle and  hope for that unpaid intern position opens up for you. You can really hope they will hand hold you through the learning process like a 2 year old. If you retire soon, hopefully we won’t see you working as a greeter at Walmart to put food on your table. If you are the rest of the ‘I will wait for the light at the end of tunnel to come to me’ crowd, maybe you should consider another career where you can continue doing the same old thing over and over again which requires no change. Common sense and an open mind is optional, but rarely used. I hear McDonalds is hiring too.  

I believe the remaining 7,600 newspapers (keep counting down each week) in the US have less than 5 years to live. Those who do survive by then might still print once a week or once a month. Why would they still print? Just to be read by those who don’t know how to use a computer nor own one. Even dinosaurs want to read some outdated information in print form while they await for the next asteroid to hit near by. So what should newspapers publish the rest of the time? How will newspapers disseminate their information? Remember that little thing called ‘internet’ with websites, blogs, RSS feeds, etc. Why? You can publish current, up-to-date information using the internet. You can do this even on most cell phones today. Newspapers print outdated (and rarely updated) information which is at least one day or one week old. And you pay money for that? You expect other people to pay money for that too? Have they had their wallets and heads examined for gaping holes?

Ditto for magazines. Why? Do you like to pay more money for even more outdated information which is at least one week or one month old?

Maybe these organizations will learn. Maybe not. But there will be a significant reduction in those who do not learn to adapt and evolve with the times (not their competitor who is also swirling around the toilet bowl) in the next 5 years. Call it a ‘weeding process’. Pull the weeds out or letting them die off. New or old, neither are immune. Either way, most will go bye-bye soon. Fresh thinking outside the bleek, blank page (and blank mind) is desperately needed in print publishing so they stop tripping over themselves and yield real progress, not regress back to the stone ages. I have heard so much mindless dribble over wanting to charge for online content and thinking that is their saving grace. Charging for content someone can get elsewhere for free will only alienate the organization even more and significantly reduce eyes hitting their content as well as ad revenue to follow. Hopefully, some of this will sink in soon or we’ll watch more of them just sink. We will watch more of these Titantics downsize to the Minnow-size and then hit their own ‘desert isle’.   

So does this mean the material and content will get better?  No. Volume may become king. Quality will go down as quantity goes up. Quick content will appear organized by what you want to read. Factual with little or no analysis. Maybe people might even learn to think for themselves after reading this information by then, but I am probably hoping for too much already.

Okay, back to reality. 

What about creativity? How do you spell that again? We’ll need to look that word up again in a few years. The scarcity of true creativity in most of publishing will make it a commodity again. Because it will become new to us…again. Slowly, it is possible again (when done right) not just for the sake of sprinkling it in. Simplicity will become king.

It is your choice if you want to hold your breath until this just goes away. Those intern positions are filling up quickly these days.

Are you weak in the business?

When it comes to business, many professional photographers today accept whatever is handed out to them. They are:

• The worst communicators: verbally and sometimes even visually (yes, I speaking about photographers here)
• Not documenting their work beyond the use of a camera
• Focused on having the latest toys rather than the needed tools of the trade
• Bad business people
• Undercutting themselves to point that their market is worsening every year because them, not the economy
• Working often at a loss compared to their life style
• Working terrible hours for little pay
• Terrible negotiators
• Often supported by family members, rather than supporting them financially
• Suffering one of the highest undocumented divorce rates known (about 90%)
• Saying “yes” when it is NOT to their advantage
• Not considering their actual expenses
• Not estimating what a shoot will cost them
• Just focused on taking pictures they want to take, rather than ones the client needs
• Unable to say “NO” in any manner that matters
• Unable to support a family, let alone themselves
• Unable to use forethought beyond photography itself 
• Known to be ‘weak’ by most of their clients and referred as ‘cheap’
• Not charging the latest IRS rate for every mile driven for work
• Not charging for digital captures, but still wanting the latest camera
• Not using written contracts, believing verbal is good enough
• Not learning new skills
• Signing anything they see for work without thoroughly reading it
• Not blacking out lines of a contract that are not suitable terms of agreement before signing it
• Not rewriting the terms of a contract when needed
• Not thinking about usage rights
• Not thinking how the client will use their images at all
• Happy when they can afford to eat and accepting this as reality
• Not thinking what happens to their photography after they put their camera down
• Not monetizing their legacy photography
• Not exploring other outlets for their work
• Not keeping up with the daily news even if they are photojournalists
• Accepting pennies for their photographs, believing that is good enough
• Living in present with ideals of the past
• Too afraid/shy to speak up and be heard
• Mad, but unable to verbalize their thoughts in a professional manner
• Not planning ahead
• Not budgeting
• Not mentoring others, believing they are “competition” 
• Not adapting to change
• Not evolving with, rather than against
• Not promoting themselves nor their work
• Not backing up their own work
• Believing “if I shoot it, someone will buy it”
• Believing since they have a website, the world knows they exist and they’ll contact them soon
• Believing there is plenty of work out there for them
• Believing they can supplement their photography addiction with bartending or waiting tables
• Believing it is us vs. them
• Not sharing knowledge
• Undercutting the wedding photographers by charging a few hundred dollars per wedding and delivering very little for it
• Still printing their work as if someone will pay for it and hang it on their wall
• Too lazy to enter photo contests
• Too lazy to apply metadata with tools they already have
• Falling behind
• Accepting all this as the way it is and the way it should be

This is meant to be a wake-up call if this hits a nerve. They know who they are, but what are they doing about their own situation on any of these points today?

Sign up for the Northern Short Course

The Northern Short Course is being held from March 19-21, 2009 at the Hilton Tysons Corner in McLean, Virginia.

They have a good line up of lectures, informative workshops, contest and portfolio reviews.

You don’t have to be a professional photographer to register for this conference, but there will be a lot of photojournalists present since this is a conference geared towards photojournalism.

There will be an expo with major manufacturers and vendors with the latest photography tools of the trade to look at, use and buy.

I will be reviewing portfolios in the evening.  It is worth attending for the nominal fee and is a great networking event for photographers.

Self-development for those working in the photography market today

Newspapers, magazines and many other businesses are slowly fading away. They are also laying off in record numbers and it is far from over. Lots of people panic and are being irrational. Some just sadly wait their turn for the layoff or hope for a buyout.

Want a running list of who has layoffs and who is closing their doors? Magazine Death Pool and Papercuts are two sites which list the losses in the magazine and newspaper industries respectively. You don’t even want to know how many freelance photographers can’t find work right now. The wedding photography business is full of both professional wedding photographers and photojournalists that brides could have them bid against each other for a lower rate. Sad, but true for working photographers today.

It is truly a buyer’s market and it will only get better for buyers in 2009. If you are a photo editor, you are probably getting great deals from outside photo vendors eating each other up. Just look at what happened to Jupiterimages which was the #3  photography vendor (soon to be owned by Getty Images still running in the #1 position). This is a business and it is not personal. Treat it that way and reap the rewards.

If you are a photographer working for newspapers or magazines, what are you doing about this situation right now? Well, you can’t do much to save the paper printing dinosaurs which publish outdated information each day, week or even a month after the fact. They will either become an online publication with very little printing in the future OR they will probably just die off with the rest of them. Amazingly, these publications will not be missed by the current online generation for very long. This is a matter of adapting to change, not resisting change. After all, advertisers are realizing this fact and giving print publications much less money.  Readers as well as advertisers want to be able to access more for less money and quicker. When is the last time you saw a print publication do that? Remind me, why do we need to print something today? Do we really need to hold a printed product in our hands in order to read it? Well, the same applies to printed photographs. This is the 21st century and we need to not only start living in it, but thriving in it. If you don’t keep up the times and technology, you risk being left with the outdated information…in the recycling bin.

If you get laid off, you could do nothing. Feel sorry for yourself. Fall into depression. Wonder “why me?” or “Why now?”. Drink your worries away each day. None of these are recommended.

What I do recommend is the following either before a layoff or after a layoff

• Realize that layoffs have nothing to do with you personally.  Focus on job searching and work on the following:

• Website. Do you have one? Does it have your current work and contact information displayed? Does anyone know about your website aside from your family and friends?
• Learn about new technologies, not just about the latest digital camera. The newest digital camera is just more outgoing money. No one will be hiring you based on the camera you have, but rather on the quality of your work.  There will be new professional camera every 18 months and new consumer camera every 6 months.  Learn about what is used after you photograph something instead. There will be another new of version Adobe Creative Suite every 18 months too. Do you really need the new features or is it just a new toy?
• Improve your workflow. It should take you less time to process your work after a photo shoot now that you are digital unless you don’t have the tools or don’t know how to use the tools you already have.
• Treat your photography like a business. If you sell your work or services as a photographer, this is a must if you plan to stay in business. Read the book by John Harrington
• Learn more about your trade such as lighting, posing for portraits and dealing with people as subjects and/or clients.
• Join an association or society which hold regular events you can attend. Go to the events and meet people you don’t know yet. Be social. If you aren’t social (beyond the bar), start now.
• Network. Have you networked with others photographers recently? How about people who need photographers aside from your employer, if you shoot for them?
• Promote yourself. What are your photographs doing right now? Are your photographs working for you or just sitting there collecting dust. What are you doing right now? When was the last time you entered a photo contest? Does anyone know about you as a photographer who could give you work? Are they in touch with you? Are you in touch with them?
• Show off your work. Get feedback. Meet people with similar interests or that need your help. It may mean getting work. You could be the ‘greatest photographer who ever lived’, but you will starve as photographer if you don’t show your work to anyone and promote yourself.
• Social Networking. Do know what this is? It’s another opportunity to promote yourself. Use social networking like Facebook, Linkedin groups, Twitter, Flickr and many others. These are all free!
• Share the knowledge. Be known as a resource to others.
• Refer others. Instead of trying to be a master of all trades, refer others who are much better at it than you are. They may return the favor. You could even ask for a referral fee, if the gig monetizes itself. They may buy you dinner too.
• Start a blog. Write about what you are passionate about and contribute to the blog regularly. If it is of interest to others, you may get sponsors.
• Don’t let grass grow under your feet. There is no job security in the 21st century. Believe it. Where will you be going to work if you lose your job tomorrow? Keep all your options open.