the most important photography lesson there is:
 

Interesting read.

Thanks for sharing.

Good read, thanks :thumbsup

now that was a great find. For much of it substitute "photographer" for "webmaster"

WOW -- what a great read!

Thank you, interesting read. And I do own commercial real estate, lol

nice. thanx for sharing :thumbsup

I'm going to send that link to everyone that doesn't understand me :)

Everything is pretty much spot on. I especially liked the part about branding.
It drives me crazy when I go to a site like MM and see photographers with logos
that take up a third of the image. It's never about who has the biggest and fanciest logo. It should be about your work.

Thanks for posting :thumbsup

Thanks for the lead... ill read this fully later... :thumbsup

Sounds like he attended the WPPI Convention in Vegas back in February.

Very interesting stuff.

Good read :)

The 2nd Most Important Photography Lesson:

http://www.funnypictures.net.au/imag...-lens-cap1.jpg

ADG

This is precisely why I quit mainstream photography to run my own site. Can't say it's turning out to be much different, but there ya go.

There's also another aspect to photography that's not mentioned - People want to be photographers for no other reason than they just want to. So at the lowest level you aren't even competing with other businesses, you're competing with trustafarians with inherited wealth, mid life crisis career changers and plain idiots who think they'll never pay any tax or need a pension or a health plan - all of them prepared to work at far below cost, because they ultimately don't care if the books balance.

I've heard this applied to both photography and motor racing:- How do you make a small fortune doing it? Start with a large one.

Porn worked for a while because ultimately it's a shitty job where you spend a lot of time with your arm right around the S bend, doing stuff most regular folk simply won't do.

bingo :thumbsup

this is cool :)

Actually I disagree with this, who wouldn't want to do what I did? The answer's. "No one who should be in porn." :1orglaugh

Difference is I did it well in a time when there was a lot to be earned, most online shooters do it at a time when there's little to be earned, relatively speaking.

The difference is they sell their work outright, we sold it over and over and over again. Who says theres no money in non exclusive content? :1orglaugh

This made me chuckle and think of so many people here.

What online custom shooter makes $2,000 a day?

A decent wedding shooter should be able to build up a better business that 10 jobs a year. Referrals alone would be that number. Weddings are packed full of people of marrying age, great potential market. Get in with a decent wedding planner and the work flows in.

And shooting a wedding is easier than shooting porn models. Brides want good pictures, porn models often don't give a shit.

Charley.... you're still a moron, what next with you? gonna buy some land with a lake and start selling ice in the winter?

i read the article, just for the sake of discussion-----

i don't see how photography is any different than a myriad of careers. everything he was saying that sucks about being a photog is pretty much the same sucky things most every self-employed person has to deal with- low barriers to entry, scalability, the lack of benefits, equity building, spending money on equipment are all topics most every self-employed person or entrepreneur needs to sort out.

it also doesn't seem to apply to adult photography where a photog can sell the same pictures mutliple times.

The MBA he mentions is worth shit and only shows that he spent several years of his life doing pointless things instead of earning money. I speak from experience, as well.

As a photographer, you need to build a client base and yourself a reputation. He makes several points of how much better off he would be pursuing his career in business. So I don't get the point of the article. As long as you have not built the two things mentioned above, you are up for a struggle.

I don't see this as a problem yet. You still have to lay down a couple of grand for a good camera and lenses. And that does not factor in the equipment needed for shoots and the helping hand that you will need to hire. And you don't just set things up randomly and start shooting. Producing good photos is difficult and a complex process. You can only learn this with experience and practice.

I do not equate the two.

A photographer either has an eye for the art, or he does not. The general skills required to take a picture today is not much different than it was 50 years ago.

A webmaster on the other hand, needs to learn new shit every month. If they are good, I believe they can certainly exceed the value of a photographer... and that's coming from a photographer.... unfortunately...

Bookmarked, thanks for the link :thumbsup

Did i get in early enough for a good Signature spot?

I think he misses the mark a bit in that photography as a business isn't just for taking pictures for people who buy them from you. There's thousands of ways to incorporate photography into a business, packaged with some other skills. Porn is clearly a great example of that.

For example I would have never made anywhere near as much money as I've made by writing my porn reviews if I'd tried to be a freelance writer or some kind of journalist. Also I would have had higher competition, longer hours, less life flexibility, a boss, etc etc etc. I know of at least one instance where I've made over $50,000 on a single one page article, and only because I packaged writing with a good idea and a website.

Just recently I've started a couple new mainstream businesses that I'm already marketing locally where I'm a photographer of sorts. I learned how to make a website on my own rather than bring in partners, and it was relatively cheap to start, so I just paid for it myself too. I don't know a damned thing about photography, I just set my camera to "auto" and press the button a bunch of times. It's working great so far, and soon enough I'll be making more than many traditional photographers who spent thousands on school, thousands on equipment, and hundreds of hours of learning.

Now that's not to say there isn't other value in their learning on a personal and business level, just saying that it's not necessary in my photography business of sorts to be a pro photographer. Like everything else in life, I try to learn things as they become necessary, or if I'm personally curious enough. Also very important for someone like me to "build on the shoulders of giants" ie: just ask someone who knows the answer, rather than trying to truly understand all the building blocks to arrive at such a conclusion myself. There's a place for that, but only if it's crucial to whatever task you need accomplished.

i wonder where in the timeline he got his mba because the article (and the replies) seem more geared towards amateur photogs who were told "hey man, nice shot" once and consequently figured they can hang a shingle as a pro photog and the money comes rolling in. very few things every go that way.

went that easy for me onto porn... problem was it took 100 hours a week though...

100 hour/ week ain't easy. sure looking at tail most the time helps but even with just 1 day off, 100 hr work week is ~16 hour days.

also, i couldn't say what made your entry into porn go easy, but how would you apply your experience to what the author is saying?

mostly just arguing with pimps about money

Just as photography has become easier to enter so the demands for more images has grown.

Everything sold on the web has to be photographed, 30 years ago photography was more popular than gardening, but the number of professional photographers was about 30..

If you have the right pictures you can make money.

And every website needs the work of some photographer, the better the pictures the better the site.