justify hiring a photog and not stock
Out of context: Reply #3
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- Morning_star0
This is a difficult one.
From a purely budget perspective and in the current climate, small businesses can't justify the expense of a quality professional photographer. Whilst I agree that bespoke imagery impacts the bottom line and is a valuable resource for any business identity, it is a long way down the list of 'must haves' in lean times. If truth be known, Marketing as a whole is a long way down that list.
So, as a small business what do you do:
- You could spend £120 and have access to Shutterstock or similar for a month and create yourself a largely generic suite of imagery, but extensive and 'your choice' none the less - it does make some sense.
- You could spend £100 and get a friend, or relative, or son of the local shopkeeper to do it, because they've 'got a nice camera'. Which is unlikely to be as extensive as you'd like or not as high quality or blurred or the wrong people or scenery. Alternatively, you could have struck photographer gold and you may end up with something awesome - it's risky.
- You could spend £2,500 or £25,000 or £250,000 to hire a quality professional photographer (and the lights, studios, models, locations etc) to take the exact pics you need for your brand and have the most complete and best looking identity in your small business centre. My guess is that as a small business you won't be around for long as its a poor business decision, give the current climate.As i said, it's difficult. Photography and image making has, over the last decade, evolved into a very different animal. Access to technology, software and hardware, processing and production is easier and cheaper and this, I feel, has had a negative impact on those who make their living from photography - which is where I suspect this question is coming from.
Often photographers are small businesses too and I suspect most are finding times tough because of the economic downturn and the change in technology. Maybe instead of dwelling on 'the way it was', photographers as creative people ought to think about 'the way it could be'.
'Justifying' the spending of a relatively big piles of cash to small businesses for uncertain rewards is, at the moment, only good for the photographer. That said, I'd love to think differently but reality bites.