The State of Wedding Photography

In its September 2009 issue, Professional Photographer magazine published a survey of "The State of Wedding Photography". 

The thinking behind the survey came about because of the "Credit Crunch" and its anecdotal impact on people's pockets. Was a wedding an extravagance at the moment, so could it be postponed? Were people choosing to not get married, or spend less if they were going ahead anyway? Was a professional wedding photographer an absolute essential for them?

The results are not as illuminating as the thinking and this is because the survey shifted away from the short-term impact of a recession and more towards establishing an annual set of data that can be used to determine trends. Only a handful of the 22 questions asked relate to the current economic climate and with only slightly less than 25% of all photographers who answered saying that the current climate had affected their business.

While the survey is useful, its not addressing the real questions pro photographers ask, which have little to do with the Credit Crunch. Instead they are concerned with matters such as... Where is photography going and can I stay with it on its journey? How will my client base change and can I anticipate the changes and move to meet them? Will I still be in business in 1, 2, or 5 years time? These questions are being asked because of the impact of digital technology on the industry.  So, lets get a few things cleared up...

The digital train has left the station. You're either on it or your not. Digital won't go away, OK there will always be room for film, but does the customer care about film? Some photographers seem to think they do. 

Digital stills photography is morphing into digital video photography with a stills output capability. If I was a wedding videographer, I'd be more worried than I am as a stills photographer because its my camera that's gaining video capability, not the other way round. The customer wants and expects a digital experience from their wedding photographer. DVD's, slide-shows with music, mixing video with stills, pushing out content via a media server to TV, computer, digital picture frames, mobile phones, social networks and everything else coming down stream. Today's photographer must get on board with these things, embrace them and offer service that support them. Film is fine, provided it can enable these same outputs via the same workflows and in the same time-scale. Today's customer won't accept a 3 week wait for printed proofs from a film guy when the digital wizard next door has them on-line in a day.

There is no crisis here, its called business evolution. Pro Photographer's survey is welcome but let's not imagine a crisis just because many people say we should do.