The Economy, Professional Photography and a Flashback

by Skip Cohen

Although I've been knocking around the industry my entire adult life, it was almost five years ago that I wrote my first post.  Skip's Photo Network was the start. Later, GoingPro came along, written together with good buddy Scott Bourne. GoingPro later merged with that first blog and morphed into The Photo Resource Hub and last January, everything went into this site, SCU.

All along the way there have been some amazing people who have helped, lessons learned and changes in social media very few of us could ever have imagined.

I had some fun last night finding my first post and was surprised at the continued relevance.  It still applies, but the good news is, many photographers are seeing a little light at the end of the tunnel.  We are seeing more diversity with some and with others, who don't agree with the concept of diversity, a stronger push to make themselves different from "Uncle Harry"!  There's more good news than bad.
 
So, here's what I wrote almost 2000 posts ago...

I might have been dragged into technology kicking and screaming, but welcome to my first blog…and what better first topic than the challenges in the economy?  I promise to keep it light.

Last year, as we prepared for WPPI '09 the media was driving me nuts with their doom and gloom approach to the news every night.  Obviously, it’s human nature, good news doesn’t sell.  Literally every broadcast was another story about a company going out of business, the housing market dropping some more, massive layoffs around the country…you name it – if the story was bad enough they couldn’t put it on the news quick enough.

I’m not saying the economy isn’t bad or that we shouldn’t be concerned, but there is a certain self-fulfilling prophecy going on.  That’s when I decided to make the comment, “Just because the media says it’s going to be a bad year doesn’t mean it has to be!”

I spend an incredible amount of time talking to photographers all over the country – on the phone, in person, via Facebook and email and there are two common themes with those photographers who are holding their own and having an “okay” year or even growing:  diversity and hard work.  In fact, virtually every photographer who’s told me they’re having a good year always follows with, “But I’ve never worked so hard in my life!"

So, to all of you who continue to work harder than you've ever worked in your life, it's the start of a new week and we're almost into the fourth quarter of the year.  The challenge for all of us is finding new ways to help educate the consumer and get them to understand, nobody does it better than a professional photographer.

Now if we can just find more ways for everyone to follow the words of Ralph Lauren:

"The key to longevity is to keep doing what you do better than anyone else...It's about getting your message out to the consumer. It's about getting their trust, but also getting them excited, again and again...."

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