Your biggest problem is You

[Majeed Badizadegan]

Sensationalist title! Oh yes. But I fancy your clicks so you'll have to forgive me just this once.

Anyway, Derrel pointed to me a recent write-up by Thom Hogan:
What?s Your Biggest Problem? | byThom | Thom Hogan

I like the territory he's exploring in this article. I sipped my coffee and read through the article. Smiling on the inside, because I knew the payoff was coming. The payoff was supposed to be big bold letters at the bottom Your biggest problem is You!

But nay, that payoff never came. Was Thom not brave enough to actually say it? Do we have a new superhero on our hands, "Captain Implyer"?

Here are some extracts and some thought points. I'm only going to write about what I know, so if nature photography isn't your thing, just substitute in your photography and the logic should still apply:

Problem 1: standing out amongst all the good imagery that exists, much of it near “free”. Problem 2: marketing yourself so that people know your work. Unfortunately, solving #2 means that you have to be highly visible, which makes more people attempt to copy you, which eventually increases problem #1. Pros have to keep moving, keep reinventing themselves, and above all be great marketers and salespeople.

Some good points here. Copycats are certainly rampant in the landscape photography community. You can go and type a search in 500px and yield 100 identical compositions.

How do you stand out from the crowd?

It starts with separating yourself from what everybody else is doing. It starts by not trying to put your tripod in the same tripod holes as a million photographers before you. Being brave enough to fail, and fail again; to pioneer, and go the extra distance. To see the world through your own eyes. To preserve your own vision.

I had dinner with renowned nature photographer Marc Adamus a number of months ago and this topic came up. He said, "if you go and take pictures of what everyone else is taking pictures of, you'll burn out very quickly". Not only will you burn out quickly, but what's the point? How are you making what you see your own?

Before the internet, the "copy-cat" paradigm was not nearly as prevalent. Beautiful images can be made time and again of the same thing. But the whole process loses it's innocence, when you walk into a landscape you've never seen with your own eyes and you are seeing it through another person's eyes.

I’d say that the biggest problem I find that most photographers have is a really fundamental one: what is it they’re taking a photo of? And why?

u·biq·ui·tous
yo͞oˈbikwətəs

adjective
adjective: ubiquitous
1.
present, appearing, or found everywhere.


Great digital cameras are ubiquitous. Everyone has one. So if you're taking the same picture as everyone else, what are you DOING? Adding to the catalog? Now instead of 100,000,000 pictures of Horseshoe Bend, we have 100,000,001! Thank you John Doe photographer.

Enjoy the article, and discuss!

 

[Majeed Badizadegan]

I'll add to this, one point that comes full circle here. Gear is so good these days that if there's a problem, it's probably YOU and not your gear. It might be your gear but as Thom points out many of the most famous images in history are technically deficient when held to the standard of today.

 

[runnah]

I know that all my problems are the result of my own incompetence and self destructive tendencies.

 

[bribrius]

why does everything have to be a problem?

 

[Derrel]

I thought the article was good enough to mention it to you, and send you the link. I accept that failures these days are entirely my own. If my photos suck, it's because of MY errors, or omissions, or failures to do the right things in the best way...I currently have a camera that doesn't put many limits on what I can achieve. It's a modern, high-end Nikon, with good lenses. When I started out taking pictures, I had a Kodak Pony 135-B...a really junky old 35mm camera with a shutter that had to be manually cocked after each shot, the film advanced by a winding knob, and the distance estimated, and set by hand by turning the lens's focusing ring. I moved on to other just slightly less-clunky film cameras.

With cameras like the above, getting a good picture was, in MANY situations, very much limited by the capabilities or lack of capabilities of the gear. Today, that is no longer the case. The biggest problem for many of us is no longer caused by our cameras or the lens [singular] on our camera..but originates somewhere else.

As far as the glut of landscape and travel images that have flooded the Internet era...yeah, well...that's what has happened. Horseshoe Bend is a great example of a place that has been shot to death, with many very similar photos available. I think ALL of the classic, cliche places are over-shot. But there is still some new ground out there, but it's much more challenging to find it.

Oh..and by the way..the kid in that photo above is little "me" some 49 years ago!!!

 

[baturn]

As an amateur photographer with no ambition to be any thing else, when and if I get to Horseshoe Bend I' m going to take a couple or three shots and the difference between them and the other 100,000,001 is it will be mine.

 

[bc_steve]

I stopped at Horseshoe Bend when I drove by. Never heard of it before that. I saw a picture in a tourism brochure while using some McWifi and thought it'd be a neat place to go. It was. But it did cheapen things a bit a while after I got home and found out it had already been photographed a billion times.

If I drove by again, I'd probably still stop and probably bring my camera.

 

[petrochemist]

My biggest problem is potential customers.
They don't seem to want to fork out huge sums of money to own my work!

My images may be junk but if I could solve this problem with my customers it wouldn't matter. Fortunately I'm only a hobbyist photographer, so the problem's not unbearable, but it would be nice for my images to offset my spending on photography toys.

 

[ecphoto]

Good read, thanks! Copycats and cheesy pinterest inspired photo shoots are a dime a dozen. Just be your self and stay true to your artistic vision IMO.

Sent from my MB886 using Tapatalk

 

[Rick58]

Good read Majeed, Thanks for posting

 

[bribrius]

My biggest problem is potential customers.
They don't seem to want to fork out huge sums of money to own my work!

My images may be junk but if I could solve this problem with my customers it wouldn't matter. Fortunately I'm only a hobbyist photographer, so the problem's not unbearable, but it would be nice for my images to offset my spending on photography toys.

i can sell work. im actually putting the brakes on right now as the wife already is planning on running with this ball. Problem is i don't want to sell photos for ten or twenty bucks a piece. But that is the market. i really am not to concerned with selling anything (this is my hobby and really mostly about personal enjoyment and family pics) but if i do i would rather it be for more than twenty bucks. Ten or twenty dollar photos almost seems like cheap whoring. might make my hobby dirty instead of fun. Geesh ya know, i have standards..
And then i have to learn about copywrite, numbering prints, probably get a water mark. seems like a lot of work to sell 20 dollar prints and maybe profit a grand or so if im lucky.
would totally mess me up shooting too. i would instinctively start shooting things i think others would like, instead of what i would like.

 

[pgriz]

The need to stand out from the competition is a recurring theme in business. I am currently going through the process of joining forces with another contractor, and part of the discussion is about how we will do our marketing. A key element is determining what we can do that is of value to a potential customer that none (or very few) of our competitors can do. It's not an easy thing to figure out. Then there is the challenge of presenting this unique attribute in a way that is attractive to potential customers, and at the same time not easily reproduced by the competition. One of the reasons I have not gone into professional photography is that my skills are just not good enough to stand out in relation to my potential competition, and I have not found a niche where people will be willing to pay good money for that "special" product. So those of you who are able to do so have my profound respect.