Alpha
Troll Extraordinaire
- Joined
- Mar 15, 2005
- Messages
- 5,451
- Reaction score
- 41
- Location
- San Francisco
- Can others edit my Photos
- Photos NOT OK to edit
I'll take a good bit of that to heart.
And you're right, I was being too critical of the SB setup.
On the other hand, the advice I gave in my first post is perfectly sound. I'm not trying to discourage anyone from following their dreams. But there are realities to setting up and running a business that most people here are reluctant to talk about. If you think I should be disallowed from giving advice because I don't run a photo business full time, then fine. I won't give any advice. But I see hardly anyone here who does run a business giving any real advice. You guys never talk about your hardships. You just say follow your dreams and beat the pavement...as if that will make everything fall into place. It doesn't work like that and you know it. Maybe it does if you just wanna pick up a speedlite and spend the rest of your days shooting family portraits. But that side of the business is only part of it. Not only are the gear requirements generally higher for commercial and architectural work, but client relationships are substantially different as well. There are plenty of crappy portrait photographers because there are plenty of people willing to pay for crappy portraits. But try going to a commercial client with a mediocre portfolio and you won't have such an easy time. I may not own a photography business, but I've consulted on marketing for Fortune 500 companies and run an internet marketing consulting company that's placed people in top 5 search engine results in the world. I come from a line of business that's not so different from the world of commercial photography. At the very least, I know more about selling yourself than anyone here, bar none. So if you think I don't know what I'm talking about when I say that when push comes to shove, the proof is in the pudding, I think that you're wrong-- at least outside the portrait world. But you don't have to take my word for it.
It's easy for people to be misled into thinking that when you and the other pros on this site tell them what you know about the professional photography world, you're talking about the whole photography world. You at least ought to make that caveat, because if you want to jump into any other part of the pro photo world with just a speedlite and a dream, chances are you won't make it that far.
And you're right, I was being too critical of the SB setup.
On the other hand, the advice I gave in my first post is perfectly sound. I'm not trying to discourage anyone from following their dreams. But there are realities to setting up and running a business that most people here are reluctant to talk about. If you think I should be disallowed from giving advice because I don't run a photo business full time, then fine. I won't give any advice. But I see hardly anyone here who does run a business giving any real advice. You guys never talk about your hardships. You just say follow your dreams and beat the pavement...as if that will make everything fall into place. It doesn't work like that and you know it. Maybe it does if you just wanna pick up a speedlite and spend the rest of your days shooting family portraits. But that side of the business is only part of it. Not only are the gear requirements generally higher for commercial and architectural work, but client relationships are substantially different as well. There are plenty of crappy portrait photographers because there are plenty of people willing to pay for crappy portraits. But try going to a commercial client with a mediocre portfolio and you won't have such an easy time. I may not own a photography business, but I've consulted on marketing for Fortune 500 companies and run an internet marketing consulting company that's placed people in top 5 search engine results in the world. I come from a line of business that's not so different from the world of commercial photography. At the very least, I know more about selling yourself than anyone here, bar none. So if you think I don't know what I'm talking about when I say that when push comes to shove, the proof is in the pudding, I think that you're wrong-- at least outside the portrait world. But you don't have to take my word for it.
It's easy for people to be misled into thinking that when you and the other pros on this site tell them what you know about the professional photography world, you're talking about the whole photography world. You at least ought to make that caveat, because if you want to jump into any other part of the pro photo world with just a speedlite and a dream, chances are you won't make it that far.