Dan Heller - Profitable Photography in Digital Age: Strategies for Success

2005 Dan Heller

All rights reserved. Copyright under Berne Copyright Convention, Universal Copyright Convention, and Pan-American Copyright Convention. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior permission of the publisher.

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Published by Allworth Press

An imprint of Allworth Communications, Inc.

10 East 23rd Street, New York, NY 10010

Cover design by Derek Bacchus

Cover and interior photos by Dan Heller

Interior design by Mary Belibasakis

Page composition/typography by Integra Software Services, Pvt. Ltd., Pondicherry, India

ISBN: 1-58115-412-7 (pbk.)

L IBRARY OF C ONGRESS C ATALOGING - IN -P UBLICATION D ATA

Heller, Dan.

Profitable photography in the digital age: strategies for success/Dan Heller.

p. cm

Includes index.

1. Commercial photography. 2. PhotographyBusiness methods. 3. PhotographyMarketing. 4. Internet marketing. 5. Electronic commerceManagement. I. Title.

TR690.H43 2005

770.68dc22

2005008202

Printed in Canada

D EDICATION

If we cant do it, we cant teach it. And if we cant teach it, were out of business.

Strictly Ballroom

C ONTENTS

R EAD M E F IRST

I want to talk to you about a subject that many people find difficult to bring up, but which they think about all the time. I mean, all the time. You dont just think about it, you do it. And youre not alone. I do it, too. So do your friends. Your neighbors. Yes, even your parents . We all do it. In our homes, in private; some do it in parks and other public places. Others do it at school or at work. But when you want to talk about it, not many people know what to say. To some, its too private to discuss. Many will even lie about it, while others are just ill-informed. The good news is, Im not your parents, so I can talk about it freely, openly, and honestly. And because I dont know you, I can tell you the ugly truth about it that no one else will tell you.

Yes, thats right. Im talking about the photography business. While photography is something that everyone is familiar with, the business of photography is a mystery. You probably cant talk to your parents about it, and people on the Internet may just tell you rumors that arent true. Talking to other photographers often doesnt help; most will try to talk you out of it, warning that its a saturated market and theres no way to make a living at it anymore. You may have already learned that pros are reluctant to share their secrets, or provide much useful advice on what to do and how. Of the photographers I e-mailed when I was learning, few replied, and of those that did, none gave any useful advice (one even tried to sabotage my efforts, since my goal of pursuing travel photography encroached on his turf).

Paths to the Photo Business

There are many paths that lead to the photography business, but they tend to fall into three basic categories:

1. Hobby/enthusiast.

2. Student/traditional paths.

3. Migration from another career.

Because peoples objectives in life vary, there is no correct path into the photo business. One person may want to just have fun and pull in a few dollars to pay for his hobby, while someone else might want to put his kids through college. Many drift from one goal to another as conditions in their lives change. (For example, I started out as a hobbyist and ended up making a substantial career out of my photography.) Your goals will vary depending on the strength of your photography ambitions and the lifestyle you are (or arent) willing to endure. Also, your own past experiences in life and career will greatly affect your business potential and financial needs.

But take note: While there are often tradeoffs between goals, dont fall into the trap of believing there is only one path to success, or that there are strict rules for succession. No matter who you are, eventually you will learn the first rule in making money, which applies to any and all business models:

If it were easy, everyone would do it.

This is my number-one mantra, one which Ive typed until I was blue in the fingers, and I will continue to do so. You can make money, but its simplistic to think that its just a matter of doing tasks that someone else tells you to do, or that its a matter of having the right forms, or looking to a chart to tell you how to price your pictures, or getting the right portfolio in the hands of art directors. No business can be broken down into painting by numbers, especially in the world of photography. There are no secrets, whether its becoming the celebrity star photographer for the cover of Vanity Fair magazine or entering the less-ambitious greeting card market. Any task can be fraught with little gotchas that no book can prepare you for in simple terms. At the end of the day, if it were that easy , then well, you know.

Its natural to think that if someone else can do it, so can you, especially when you see the kinds of pictures that are used in magazines, postcards, and art galleries. This reminds me of a joke:

Q. How many photographers does it take to screw in a light bulb?

A. Fifty. One to screw it in, and 49 to say,I could have done that!

As a skill, photography is not hard to do technically. Creativity takes time to develop, but while truly unique artists are less common, making images good enough to sell is relatively easy. Thats why the joke above applies: most photographers with reasonable competency can look at commercially successful pictures and say, I could have done that. But this isnt what makes you successful. Its having business sense. Its knowing what to bother shooting, and how to sell it to someone. You could probably make a good living shooting shoes for catalog companies, but is that what you really want to do? Because of the nature of the business and your lifestyle goals, the first thing you need to do is envision what you want out of photography, then what you want out of a photography business. Here is my last quote on the subject:

Trying to make a career out of photography is a sure way to ruin a perfectly lovely hobby.

Photography is more a lifestyle than it is labor that one does to earn an income. (One rarely goes into photography because he cant find any other way of making money.)

MONEY AND PHOTOGRAPHY

A costly mistake that people make about the photography business is, unlike other capital-intensive businesses (that require cash to start), you cant buy your way to success. There is usually one reason for this: your value to photo buyers is not something you can purchase. They dont care that you bought your own ticket to that African safari and got pictures of cute little leopard cubs. Nor does it matter that you are willing to shoot an assignment for free if you dont have the credentials to show your knowledge about the subject or to demonstrate your skills. And it wouldnt even cross someones mind to consider you ahead of someone else because you have more expensive equipment.

The misperception that money buys access or success is one of the more senseless ideas to permeate the industryon both ends of the spectrum. Rich people who retire and go into photography believe that, because money isnt a barrier for them, they will rise above others without much effort. Likewise, professionals erroneously feel that rich people are hurting the photo business because they dont charge much (if anything), since all they want to do is get their images published. (The percentage of rich people who do this is tiny compared to that of the general public who do it as well.)