A Litany of Woes for Career Photographers

[caption id="attachment_11307" align="alignright"]© Nmedia - Fotolia.com[/caption]If you have a career in photography, or are looking to get started in one, there are a few things about the photography busniess that you should be aware of.

Anyone interested in a career as a photographer – as well as photographers in mid-career – should carefully examine how the business is changing.

If we look at image use on the Internet, it is undeniable that more images are being made available for viewing. Here are some numbers:

• It has been calculated that from the invention of the camera to the year 2000 a total of 85 billion photos had been produced. Thirteen years later that figure is now 3.5 trillion.
• There are 140 billion photos on Facebook with 250 million daily uploads. Half the Facebook posts today are images.
• There are 40 million daily uploads to Instagram, or 14.4 billion a year. During Hurricane Sandy, 1.3 million photos were posted to Instagram at a rate of 10 photos per second.
• Photobucket has 10 billion photos from 100 million registered members.
• Flickr had 2.98 billion photos available for public viewing at the end of 2012. That figure grows by 518 million a year, or 1.42 million per day.

For professionals, this is not good news. More image use does not mean more demand for professionally produced images. It does not mean that there will be more opportunities for photographers to earn their living taking pictures. In fact, the opportunities to earn a living as a photographer are declining.

Here’s why:

Growth In Digital Delivery of Images

1. Advances in camera technology have made it possible for many former commercial customers to produce the images they need themselves. They no longer need to hire a professional photographer. A significant percentage of the images used for commercial organizations are produced by staffers whose primary job is something other than photography, or by part-time freelancers who support themselves in other careers.

Read entire article A Litany of Woes for Career Photographers on Black Star Rising

Biz Tip Provided by Tony Bynum, Owner: Tony Bynum Photography