I dont understand why ambitious landscape photographers fly around the world to shoot the same iconic landscape locations, which a million other photographers have shot before them. And then do nothing new, different or at the very least, significantly better. (Which I might add is almost impossible to do even if you live in the area and can revisit a location many times to get the best conditions.) I do understand why beginners or hobbyist might do this to test, learn or have fun. But, when a photographer who is clearly trying to build a reputation and a business does so, and beats his chest about it, it only makes them look silly and creatively weak. Its not a good look!! And, it will set you up for failure. The most basic fundamentals of marketing are; you need to seek out a space in the market which clearly differentiates you from your competition, you need to demonstrate a unique reason for your existence and you need to offer a product or service which people need and cant get anywhere else. The cost of entry into photography is amongst the lowest of any business. A monkey can take a nice pretty picture of a rock. That means you need to work smarter than a 100 million other photographers. And, if you do pull together a really great portfolio, that is truly different, then this only gets you to the starting line, nothing more. If youre a happy amateur, thats great, then disregard all the above. But if youre an ambitious photographer, then go and read the Purple Cow.
Posted on: Thu, 09 Oct 2014 23:07:29 +0000