You and I have spoke many times on The DV Show podcast – we think alike in many ways and this is one instance of it happening again. However I can’t agree with the whole “quit this mess” tone in your post.

Quit the old business model, yes, but don’t quit thinking of creative ways where you can monetize on this shift and stay afloat to some extent

Take the newspaper and magazine industry for example. The internet made a huge hit to their profits and interest levels declined. Smaller “think inside the box” shops closed down for good while the pioneers continue to be pioneers in their space because they ADAPTED.

ADAPTED.

A-D-A-P-T-E-D

Read that aloud and really think about that word.

A business that adapts survives. Period.

Let’s have another podcast together discussing what can be done to battle this shift. I’m ready to argue with you. =)

Our national pro photography organisation has been publishing articles in its monthly newsletter predicting this doom & gloom for months. But you don’t have to go far, Zack Arias has also been blogging about this issue extensively too. We can see first hand what is going on in the photography world, there has already been enough navel gazing, what we need is answers…

But Ron, I want to pull you up on another point, I don’t think you can bundle photography & video production in the same boat because the hobby sector is still a long way from competing with professional video producers & their end products.

There are too many competancies that technology is yet to catch up with for video production, you can’t just be a button pusher and fix it in post. Until such time as when we get RAW, PS Actions and software that can fix up under-exposed footage, bad framing, crap audio and then cut the whole lot into a watchable body of work complete with custom edited soundtrack, video will remain to fight another day.

I really feel bad for the mid to low-end wedding & portrait photography businesses out there because they’re the ones worst hit by the tsunami of hobby shooters who work for peanuts. Not surprised to see videographers these days also offering photography, after all, they’re using the same (and sometimes better) equipment that the official photographer and hey let’s not forget the added bonus of not having to deal with rockstar photographer egos on the day 😉

The way I see it, only the top-end photography businesses will survive and until such time as when hardware & software comes out to make video production easy for the consumer, video businesses owners still have a chance to run a viable business.

Love,
The Masked Vidiotographer

I’m more encouraged by what is happening on the video side. Sure, more beginners are trying to enter the field and the cost of entry is getting really low. But with video, there are lots more ways to screw up. Just getting good audio can put you head and shoulders above much of the competition.