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Photography has become one of those ironic industries where we tell one another “raise your prices! charge your worth! educate your clients” instead of “maybe a photography business just isn’t for you.”
I read. A lot. It’s been mentioned a time or two. There is a lot of good material in the world. There’s a lot of dubious material as well. I enjoy sharing information and concepts that I feel would benefit people. And, of course, I don’t hesitate to point out things that I feel need a different viewpoint.
A recent (at the time of this writing) article appeared on a website that matches photographers and clients. The author is also a photographer. When I chatted with her later, she explained that her hope was to convince photographers to charge their worth, a common theme in our industry.
I didn’t feel that the article came across that way at all.
The tone was not written for photographers, but for consumers. At least that was what a photographer might think. Sort of a “Everything You’d Want to Say to Your Client But Don’t Have the Nerve” message. There was a definite “you should be ashamed of yourself for not paying your photographer more” vibe. There was a bullet list of points that came across as both the judge and the devil’s advocate.
On the one hand, yes, there are an awful lot of photographers out there and consumers certainly have their choice… but gosh darn, we should be paid more because competition is so fierce and we need to eat, too!
Huh?
The opening bullet admitted the fact that the market is oversaturated with photographers. The client certainly has their choice of camera slingers at any budget, no matter how paltry. How could anyone blame the consumer for shopping on price? Never mind the fact – also pointed out by the author – that consumers should have a you-get-what-you-pay-for attitude and be willing to part with more money than they technically had to in order to sleep better at night.. or… something like that.
This segued to the next bullet, a plaintive explanation of barebones Business 101. This was to point out that there are costs involved in being a business, even a photographer. Again, the message spoke with two different intents. To the photographer: Price yourself correctly, not just to beat your endless competition. To the consumer: Photography is a legit business, and you should treat it like one!
Yet another bullet in the list mentioned that clients need to be educated. This thinly veiled “I’m talking about you without talking about you while talking to you so that you won’t be offended” would be enough to turn off any potential consumer who made it this far into the article. This is the same rationale behind a sales pitch for sand to people living in the desert. Or hustling your basket of fish in a huge fish market. No amount of education on the benefits of your particular fish will convince them to pay the price you believe you need.
The market is full of identical looking fish!
The photographer’s problem is not the client’s problem
And on it went. Switching between apologetic to indignant, sometimes in the same sentence. It’s one thing to understand that a photographer, usually a young woman, needs to make enough to feed her children and pay for childcare. It is quite another to ask for – or expect – understanding from a client when the photographer has an issue and has to reschedule the appointment for the very same reason. Yes, life issues are … well… life, but they are not the client’s problems, nor should they ever be.
By the time I finished the article, I had decided that the author was an unhappy photographer, plagued by cut-throat competitors, bargain basement leads, and life issues. Her helpful article came across as a cry for help.
But nothing changes.
Welcome to the fish market
The problem with articles like this is that no one wants to see themselves as Bullet 1.5: That they are one of the low-barrier-low-offer-low-value photographers mentioned in Bullet 1.
If they would look at themselves honestly, they’d realize that they can’t raise their prices because no customer will pay what the photographer needs to earn because their product, service, or experience just isn’t worth it. Remember those fish? Yeah, that.
Photography has become one of those ironic industries where we tell one another “raise your prices! charge your worth! educate your clients” instead of “maybe a photography business just isn’t for you.”
Clients do not want to be educated. They want to pay a fair price for a product and experience that isn’t exactly like everyone else’s. Articles like this are written by photographers for photographers, to make everyone feel better about their shared misery.
When I mentor hobby-to-business photographers, the first thing we do is a self-assessment. It never ceases to amaze me how many people blaze ahead anyway, even after they admit they can’t or won’t do what it takes to be a success in a fiercely competitive industry.
A nice camera, a pretty portfolio in the current trend, a profile photo of themselves holding a camera, and a “passion for photography” is just the first step into peer groups where they can give one another all the same advice, except the thing they really need to hear – you’re better off getting a job.
I’m sure that the author got lots of positive feedback from the colleagues that saw themselves in the mirror, rather than seeing themselves in the article. That shared rationalization eventually turns back into that shared misery, however.
Because nothing changes.
In a few months, maybe even sooner, another article will post somewhere else. Yet another photographer will be educating consumers and photographers about the necessity of sustainable pricing. Yet another unhappy photographer sending up a cry for help, but getting back-slaps instead. By that time, however, at least one thing will have changed. Countless more photographers will have started, or ended, their businesses.
Other than that, nothing will have changed.