Business

I gave going into business another thought today. Some of you will undoubtedly know that this is something I wish to do someday, but I also know I need more practice. Practice, because I want to actually be competitive in the only area that matters in professional portrait photography: quality. Price is the worst possible area to be competitive in, it actually reduces the average creative quality among all photographers, probably because a lot of businesses (not just photography related, but all) feel the pressure from the slumping economy right now.

Trust me when I say that being more skilled and having a better creative eye counts for more than having the lowest price! When all this recession stuff is just an afterthought, a story to your kids, only the strongest will survive to have a business. Ultimately it's about that canvas you sold to that client, who bought it to hang on a wall for many years. I feel that if you sell a canvas like that, your very best, and only your very best effort should be in the image that created that canvas. I wouldn't want a half-job on my wall, so why should anyone else? Someday, the image you created using a camera and some software is the only form of memory your client will have left of the moment. I'd like to think they would want to have that preserved perfectly.

Just a few thoughts.