Happy New Year!
The first resolution I have is to get back to blogging more than I did in 2011! I forgot how much I enjoy sharing my toughts on everything ( not just the Photo Industry) with my customers and people who have continually come back to my blog. For that I thank you!
Over the holiday, I read the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Issacson and thouroughly enjoyed it. Not only was it insightful but it also crafted how a genius like Steve Jobs grew his business, lost it and came back to grow it to what it is today. The recent passing away of Steve Jobs was not only a sad day for the Tech community but also for society as a whole. Because not only did his contributions over time change the landscape of how we live and communicate within our society but more importantly, it changed how we treat technology and how we have learned to live with it. The Iphone, the ultimate manisfestation of the genius of Steve Jobs, is just one part of a series of amazing products Apple allowed the world to be part of. While not being an engineer himself, what he did engineer at Apple was a brilliant marketing campaign that not only captured the hearts and souls of Apple's loyal followers but also that of the everyday consumer around the world. Apple's products, from what I've gathered from the book, have always been carefully crafted and poured over by Steve Jobs to the tenth degree. At times, it drove his team mad and out the door but in the end he knew what the consumers wanted and was not about to settle for less. Just like Michael Jordan, in my opinion, mastered the art of Basketball, Steve Jobs will forever be the master of high quality, desired consumer technolgical products backed up by brilliant showmanship and marketing!
It was very interesting to read recently that Steve Jobs had big plans for photography so on that note it will be interesting to see what photo products Apple will come out with over the next few years. Now that Kodak declared bankruptcy the other day ( no surprise there) will Apple lead the charge to the everyday consumer on images, photos and photo sharing? I wouldn't bet against it that's for sure.
2011 for the photo industry wasn't much of a bang. Other than Corbis buying Splash ( really? ) and a few other mergers and acquisitions while other small agencies closing their doors, 2011 proved nothing too exciting.
The Photo business in 2012 will be interesting to watch. I believe that the industry will go two ways; more consolidation among the big agencies, more breakout boutique agencies specializing in particular work while partnering with other bouitques to offer more for their clients. New pricing points that will be innovative and linked back to social media, online platoforms that I believe will benefit the content creators.
I also believe that more traditional print magazines will increase their digital photo spend in order to have more to offer their readers and subsrciber base. Whether that's in custom assignment shoots ( i.e more photo galleries) or video /photo montages that more and more assignment photographers are engaging with. In the end, while there is more and more content, clients who want to seperate themselves with the rest of the pack will spend more to be unique and therefore high end quality assignment work will increase by leaps and bounds.
The industry, now more than ever, is at a critical junction. The drastic price drop these last few years for traditional licensing and to some extent editorial assignment work has dropped a bomb on a lot of photographers in the industry. Times have been difficult for editorial shooters and hopefully there is light at the end of the tunnel. True, editorial photographers will be shooting more for less, spending more time for less money while equipment and costs continue to rise. So, I always recommend to photographers to not spread themselves thin, continue to grow your portfolio, create a professional website and take jobs that are out of ones comfort zone. It will only help ones professional growth and diversity!
As for Elevation Photos, I'm looking to make radical changes to the website by the 1st of February that will highlight more of my assignment work. I think this is the path that has always led the way for my agency and 2012 is looking stronger than ever in terms of working with Fortune 1000 media companies to deliver the images they want to represent their company and products! So, look for that change and I'll be sure to update everyone on the status of that. I am excited and re-invigoratted for 2012.
So, be healthy, safe and prosperours this year! Let's make this happen....
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