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Bleeding
Indicator
by Nash Baker
I think
most of us would agree that the photography market is fickle. It seems
always to be feast or famine, and there's no way of knowing when the
economic winds will blow with us or against us.
Those same
winds blow in new shooting trends with about the same regularity. For
the last few years the selective focus crowd seems to be in favor. Who
knows which trend will hold sway a year from now?
Are photographers
a leading economic indicator? Are we not the first to go when the corporate
belt needs to tighten, and the last to return when budgets swell? It
seems we are the canary in the coal mine, and if Dubya would put a photographer
on his staff of advisors, he might achieve true insight into the U.S.
economy.
So how
do you survive in this volatile, unpredictable marketplace? It's a good
question, and I certainly don't have the magic answer. But I do know
that talking through the issues can be a great help. Over the last year,
as ASMP Houston chapter president, I've had a chance to talk to a lot
of photographers I'd probably not have known otherwise.
Communication
with peers and competitors helps put things in perspective. Each of
us has much to offer the others, and each of us has much we can draw
on from them as well. This is, for me, the real value of ASMP. How do
we deal with client service, how do we run our studios, what are our
creative processes, how do we generate business? We can learn not only
how to survive, but to thrive, among the landmines.
And despite
the anxiety most of us feel, recognizing that ours is a profession in
transition, we should also remember the adage that adversity brings
opportunity. After all, the technology might change, the medium might
change, and the method of distribution of our work might change. We
need to stay on top of all that, of course. But what does not change
is what makes us billable to begin with: our ability to see.
Hope to
see you at our next meeting.
Nash
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