Monday, October 18, 2010

Are enthusiasts to blame?


Autumn, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Green leaves, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Blue water, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Blurry, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

First, continuing on the topic of (not) earning a living with photography, here are some interesting views on this. First, we got stock photography taking away the earnings, and now we are nearing the end of stock photography: "Larry Ulrich places the blame elsewhere, on new photographers who are more interested in seeing their names in print than in receiving payment for their talent. Major stock companies, he argues, offer small percentages because of the increased supply of low-priced images from photographers who don’t consider the cost of production or the need to make ends meet."

Well, I'm happy to report that none of my photographs would probably make it in stock photography - and I have no intention to try. So there.

All photographs shown above were taken today evening. It was dark and rained a little bit, which helped to bring out the colors. There are plenty of colorful leaves on the ground and floating on water, but soon no more.

4 comments:

John said...

Like you, I have no stock photo ambitions. Not that I wouldn't like to make a little income from my photography - and perhaps one day I will - but it won't be in that area. I'll continue with my blog, and soon have a website to complement it. If anyone wants to buy something, I'll sell it at a realistic price, but I certainly won't give it away just to see my name out there.

Thanks for the post!

John

Juha Haataja said...

@John: I do think there are ways of finding an audience in this global world of ours - although it seems that money is made by the organizers of information (Google, Facebook etc.), not the creators and producers.

Geoff said...

I think there are still enough photographers who are managing to make a decent income, despite the falling revenues in stock photography. Clients are still willing to pay decent money for bespoke work, whether that be in portraits, wedding photography or other work. Photographers need to re-invent themselves to cater for this - this is not the first business niche that is being impacted by the changes in technology that we see today.

Juha Haataja said...

@Geoff: Indeed, it seems that all of us have to invent new ways of earning a living - in this globalized world where everything is reforming in new constellations again and again.