On 8/13/2013 12:25 PM, Ken Norton wrote:
> Well, it's an adaptation to the entire change in working methods as
> well as costing. Back in the '90s, the per day rate for a commercial
> photographer was $500-1000. Today, it's $500-1000. Back in the '90s,
> that did not include consumables, such as film and processing which
> had mark-up. Now, in the digital age, the photographer eats the cost
> of the digital camera and digital image processing system. Back in the
> '90s, the photographer didn't do any airbrushing, or if he did, he
> charged for it with mark-up. Now, the photographer is willing to sit
> for hours at a computer screen doing grunt work that he's not getting
> paid for.
Does this have anything to do with photography, per se? Might it not be one of
endless examples of people being willing
to work for less in many areas because it's worthwhile to them, or because they
do not see better alternatives?
The market adjusts supply and demand, using prices. If there are not enough
buyers to fully employ all the folks who
want to do this kind of work, the result is that some of those doing the work
will look for better alternatives. If they
either can't find better alternatives or are simply willing to work for less,
for whatever reason, prices will remain low.
If enough leave, or if demand increases, prices will rise.
From the perspective of the market, prices were neither too high before nor
are too low now. From the perspectives of
buyers and sellers, things look different.
Whether the lack of good alternatives to this kind of commercial photography is
a natural movement of the world, perhaps
exacerbated by social and technological changes, the result of a vast,
international conspiracy, the result of the wrong
people being in office, and/or incompetent, and so on, I cannot say.
> So, to be able to shoot in a way that the image goes direct from
> camera to client without any additional work is a good thing because
> the photographer really isn't getting paid for any of the value-add
> stuff. Why do it? Get the image right in-camera, and shuffle it off
> immediately to the client and wash your hands of everything else.
If the clients go for it, a good solution to increasing hourly income. Of no
consequence to me.
> As to the other applications, we live in an iPhone culture now. We
> want to be able to take a picture with our phone and with the press of
> a couple of virtual buttons output it directly to a website, Facebook,
> email, Flickr, Tritter, etc. I'm calling this "Shoot Put" (should I
> trademark this term?).
I raise my common objection here. Should read: "Many people want to be able to
..." You want to. I, and I suspect many
here, don't want to. :-)
> Shoot and immedately put it up on the web. The
> lowly $40 Eye-Fi card has turned my DSLR into the capture device for
> this application. Instead of the cheese-ball built-in cell-phone
> camera, I have all the glorious aspects of a real DSLR, but the
> conveniences of a smart-phone.
>
> Unless, of course, you are one of the 14 people left in the USA that
> doesn't use a smart-phone.
iPhone 5 user, here. It still takes crap pics, for viewing on anything larger,
of high DR subjects, etc. and is the
wrong focal length about 85% of the time. Paper Camera does some interesting
things, though. ;-)
Would I like to use it to see live view and operate my cameras remotely? You
bet. An attractive feature of the GX-7.
Not having the need or desire to post images instantly they are taken on social
media does not necessarily mean one is
otherwise technologically backward.
> If so, then there is no amount of hyperventilating that I can do to convince
> you that the 21st century has meaning.
Meaning? What do you mean?
Existence that won't go away? Sure. Compelling advantages and conveniences in
many areas? Sure. Changes to and
challenges to many long held values of many people? Yup. But - meaning?
Existential Moose
--
What if the Hokey Pokey *IS* what it's all about?
--
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