Going with the cheapest bidder - beware of cowboys?

Coyote1

As an event photographer I have come across a lot of Cowboy Photographers lately.

What I have found is that there seems to be no shortage of people who buy a bit of gear and offer themselves as "Professional Photographers"

I have seen the results up on facebook and websites and just wonder is the problem clients that wont pay for a proper photographer or crappy photographers fooling clients who don't know any better and are happy to post and use bad photos?

These so called "Professionals" are undermining the professionalism and art of photography it annoys me when I see bad results online and every tom dick and harry pro-porting to be an
expert.

While the term Professional is not copyrighted and can be used by anyone it just seems lately that the work of photographers is being devalued because
"anyone with a camera can do the job" as far as the client is concerned.

Obviously the results that they are getting do not compare to the results of a proper Professional but more and more clients seem to care less and less and just want to churn out
images on-line.

So my question is has anyone else found their business affected by "Cowboys" and how have you got around these problems. Is it more of an issue for events or have other areas been affected?

DaireQuinlan

You forgot to add how amateurs giving stuff away for free is ruining your business as well.
It's called competition. In the case you talk about above it's evidently very poor quality competition, so if it's eating into your bottom line then you're doing something wrong.
Engage with lost prospects and see why they chose these 'cowboys' over whatever services you were offering. Do the clients see no discernable differance between the work produced by the 'cowboy' and your work ? Are your services too expensive for a given job ? Too specialised ? Perhaps the client was well aware that the work was 'substandard' by your standards but it was good enough for the job ?
In short, you need information, and you'll probably need to use that information to change your business model somehow.

EyeBlinks

What he said;)

Gregor Samsa

A professional is someone who gets paid for the work they do. If these guys are getting paid, then they're professionals. That of course doesn't mean that they're good photographers. But it's up to the market to separate the chaff from the wheat. That's the nature of competition.

I'm a professional web designer. I happen to have multiple qualifications in the field, including a first class masters degree, and 13 years experience in various design agencies, corporations and working freelance. But that doesn't stop any old sham with a PC and a pirated copy of Dreamweaver (or worse, some on-line drag and drop template tool) from setting themselves up as professional web designers, and getting work. It's just the nature of business, in many fields.

If they're that bad, they won't get repeat business. If they're getting repeat business, then they're giving the customer what they want (of course, some customers have no notion of taste or quality, and only think about the bottom line - but that's a fact you have to deal with in business).

Make yourself stand out with your quality, attention to detail, dedication and professional attitude. When pitching for work, educate prospective clients on the difference between what you offer, and what these guys offer. They'll always be a market for the low end, so forget about it and target the people who are willing and able to pay for a proper job - and don't let them down.

jpb1974

So my question is has anyone else found their business affected by "Cowboys" and how have you got around these problems.

There's only one way to deal with these cowboys



Image linked from http://cowboylands.net

ScumLord

I don't think you can really expect the average person to know the difference between a good photo and a great photo.

The artist themselves can stress about every little aspect, have colour, tones and shapes that have meaning so that someone else with the same knowledge could say "wow, I see what you did there" but to the average person who doesn't have the knowledge of the artist it's just a photo and they will be happy with much less.

Maybe the other option is to give people what they want, develop a fast and easy, plus cheap way for you to do photos and charge less to people that want it. I don't know how you'd go about doing that but expecting people to really appreciate something they know very little about is only going to infuriate you in the log run.

ronan45

This thread caught my eye, I recently got in contact with a lot of people from school from years ago.
4 of them from my class now are "Professional Photographers"
And in my year which had 4 classes there are no less than 9 of them claiming to be proffesional photographers. Seems to me a lot of people are buying equipment with mimimal experience / training setting up websites for a few bob and putting themselves out there hoping to make some easy money. "sure tis only a photograph"

EyeBlinks

ronan45 wrote: »

Seems to me a lot of people are buying equipment with mimimal experience / training setting up websites for a few bob and putting themselves out there hoping to make some easy money.

Sounds like a pretty broad assumption if you don't know that to be the case.

Anyway, if they are as you say, and succeeding, fair play to them. If you get constant repeat business and can make a living out of it, fair play, you're doing something right.

PCPhoto

OP .... everyone who is a professional anything is suffering at the moment.

anyone who is unemployed or has received redundancy is using the money to try build a new career, many see photography as an easy method of this and hence the influx of new "photographers".

The problem you face is how to compete with them and how to build and keep your client base !!

OP... if I can ask ... how long have you been an event photographer ? Event photography has really only taken off in recent years and is still very young ? were you working as a full-time professional photographer before this ? if so, what area ?

I've been working as a photojournalist for 10-15years (full-time for about 8-9years I think) - I am a professional freelance photographer but due to the lack of opportunities and amount of time required doing my current job, I have been unable to pursue other projects which I think should expand my photography base and knowledge.

EDIT: I see your not actually an event photographer - well its not your main business according to your website, so can I ask are you simply trying to ask the people of boards how to improve your event photography business as you cant seem to compete with other people in your market ? or do you simply have a grudge against opposition/competition ?

tricky D

phutyle wrote: »

I'm a professional web designer. I happen to have multiple qualifications in the field, including a first class masters degree, and 13 years experience in various design agencies, corporations and working freelance. But that doesn't stop any old sham with a PC and a pirated copy of Dreamweaver (or worse, some on-line drag and drop template tool) from setting themselves up as professional web designers, and getting work. It's just the nature of business, in many fields.

This is where photographers are in some sense lucky. The price of even mediocre gear is a significant barrier to entry, but in web des/dev there's almost none. The result is imho that the abilities of the majority of web devs/designers are poor, very poor. In both professions however, there is the client's confusion between value and price. While I charge much more, the client gets much better value.

Sleepy

I think there's one thing that many of the old hands often forget: learning to deliver good (or even great) photographs is a lot easier in the digital era.

Even just 20 years ago, it could take years to become even a good amateur photographer, nowadays a determined person has the ability for instant feedback on their efforts with the on-camera screen preview, the EXIF data to examine what they might have gotten wrong with an exposure, white balance etc., multiple life-times worth of useful tutorials and information available on the internet and relatively easy-to-use tools such as Photshop to improve what they've captured in-camera.

In the film age, they'd have had to wait to develop film to check their results, examine any notes they took to figure out what they may have done wrong, attend college / camera clubs to access new information, composition techniques etc. Never mind learning dark-room skills to enhance the photographs they'd captured on film.

And that's without even considering advances in auto-focus, exposure meters, flash technology etc.

DaireQuinlan

Sleepy wrote: »

I think there's one thing that many of the old hands often forget: learning to deliver good (or even great) photographs is a lot easier in the digital era.

Even just 20 years ago, it could take years to become even a good amateur photographer, nowadays a determined person has the ability for instant feedback on their efforts with the on-camera screen preview, the EXIF data to examine what they might have gotten wrong with an exposure, white balance etc., multiple life-times worth of useful tutorials and information available on the internet and relatively easy-to-use tools such as Photshop to improve what they've captured in-camera.

In the film age, they'd have had to wait to develop film to check their results, examine any notes they took to figure out what they may have done wrong, attend college / camera clubs to access new information, composition techniques etc. Never mind learning dark-room skills to enhance the photographs they'd captured on film.

And that's without even considering advances in auto-focus, exposure meters, flash technology etc.

All of which allow you to take more technically proficient pictures, which has little to do with actually being a good photographer.

ScumLord

DaireQuinlan wrote: »

All of which allow you to take more technically proficient pictures, which has little to do with actually being a good photographer.

It's an important step, it doesn't really work the other way around, you can't be a good photographer without being technically proficient first.

DaireQuinlan

ScumLord wrote: »

It's an important step, it doesn't really work the other way around, you can't be a good photographer without being technically proficient first.

Of course you can. It's a completely orthogonal issue. Your technical proficiency has nothing to do with being a good photographer.

It's like arguing that in order to become a good writer you have to know MS word backwards, or some Mac word processor. And all the debate about writing on the internet would be MS and Mac users arguing about which processor had better font support or kerning or something. That's an awful narrow minded view of what photography is.

Borderfox

Its up to you to educate the client how you are different to the "cowboys".

Borderfox

If its events and the likes of black tie/debs sort of work you want to do then dont expect anything other than back breaking long days with an unknown outcome at the end of the day.

I used to shoot a lot of horse shows printing on site and called a halt to it last year as I preferred fix payment work for shorter hours.

Sleepy

DaireQuinlan wrote: »

All of which allow you to take more technically proficient pictures, which has little to do with actually being a good photographer.

I think you missed the point: how does anyone get good anything? They practice and learn.

With the resources available online, not only is learning the technical aspects of photography far simpler now, so too is learning about composition, different photographic styles and techniques and with a digital camera where one can shoot frames with minimal marginal cost the most important aspect of becoming a photographer is far cheaper and easier to do: get out and take photographs.

It's not exclusive to photography either: it's far easier to learn how to do anything nowadays. When barriers to entry drop, "desirable" careers become more competitive.

pjproby

I am not a professional photographer and not even a good amateur. i attended a wedding recently and took 20-30 photographs which I emailed off to a few people who were unable attend the wedding. They were all very appreciative and most remarked on the bride's dress. I thought some of my photo's were woeful but that's not what they saw. they saw the bride. It made me realise that not everyone is looking for an award winning photograph.

dirtyghettokid

pjproby wrote: »

I am not a professional photographer and not even a good amateur. i attended a wedding recently and took 20-30 photographs which I emailed off to a few people who were unable attend the wedding. They were all very appreciative and most remarked on the bride's dress. I thought some of my photo's were woeful but that's not what they saw. they saw the bride. It made me realise that not everyone is looking for an award winning photograph.

that's true - alot of the times you see people liking a photo based on content & not artistic quality etc.
example: i entered a silly photo comp that was of car pics. a ****ty mobile phone pic of a civic won because it was a civic. my pic and another one from a friend of mine was of a peugeot and they didn't get too many votes because of the car.. it didn't matter if the pictures were good.

i can't see an end to the increased competition now, because entry level cameras are so inexpensive these days. it can be irritating when you see some kid buy a 1000D or a D3100 and setup a "*insert name here* photography" facebook page and company website the minute they get home with the camera.. but what can ya do? there's always gonna be someone who will do it cheaper or better or whatever. that's just life... so you need to try to be different from the rest if possible and hope that you'll win clients over.

swingking

I'm an amateur photographer and I'm also a potential client as I'm getting married next year.

The problem is a lot of wedding photos out there all look the same. I don't see enough variety in the shots. In fact I'm trying to find a photographer who will give me shots that just stand out from the rest. Something unique and different.

I think that this is the reason why I will choose someone who did not just pick up a camera, learn a few lessons but rather for someone with experience and who knows the ropes. I want someone who is fast, doesn't spend a lifetime fiddling with settings or retaking the same shot again and again.

I think that 's the difference between a good wedding photographer and a great wedding photographer.

DaireQuinlan

Sleepy wrote: »

With the resources available online, not only is learning the technical aspects of photography far simpler now, so too is learning about composition, different photographic styles and techniques and with a digital camera where one can shoot frames with minimal marginal cost the most important aspect of becoming a photographer is far cheaper and easier to do: get out and take photographs.

I think the only thing that's increased is a vast mass of people who confuse 'technique' or having a bunch of postprocessed 'styles' with actually being able to take good photographs. Or who simply hope that quantity (with a touch of photoshop) will trump quality.

By your rationale the world should be overflowing with top notch photographers. We ought to be in the middle of a photographic rennaissance. One glance through flickrs 'explore' is enough to convince you that this manifestly isn't the case.

Sleepy

As someone who's in the same boat (getting married next year) I'd have a slightly different opinion. Of all the Irish photographers I know of, there's only one I'd hire if I could afford him (it's a boardsie so I won't mention names for fear of embarrassing him).

Thing is, I can't afford him. So instead, I'm getting the best amateur I know who'll do the photos as a gift. Luckily for me, she's a brilliant photographer. Yes, it might take her longer to get the shot set up and posed than a pro and whilst I'm absolutely confident she'll get 20-30 great shots on the day I know a good pro might get 50 in the same time or even quicker.

The photog I'd go for in a "money no object" wedding would have a *totally* different (and rather unique) style but as I said, I can't afford him and have to cut my cloth to my measure. If I cut back on other things I could probably afford a "pro" but I honestly believe I'll still have the two or three great photos to frame and put up in our home and enough to make a nice wedding album (which is all I really want) with my friend taking the shots and that they'll be of as good quality as the standard of pro I could afford by cutting on other areas. It helps that I like her photos too!

A genuinely good amateur may take longer to get the shots and might not give you as many really great shots to choose from for your album but as you said, since most "professionals" don't have a discernible style anyway, I think it's the best option for me.

Sleepy

DaireQuinlan wrote: »

I think the only thing that's increased is a vast mass of people who confuse 'technique' or having a bunch of postprocessed 'styles' with actually being able to take good photographs. Or who simply hope that quantity (with a touch of photoshop) will trump quality.

By your rationale the world should be overflowing with top notch photographers. We ought to be in the middle of a photographic rennaissance. One glance through flickrs 'explore' is enough to convince you that this manifestly isn't the case.

Is that a case of there being less good photographers or more chaf to churm through to get to the wheat? Personally, I find it hard to imagine that the world couldn't have more good photographers at this moment in time than at any other point in human history.

There's undoubtedly more bad photographers now than at any other point in history too but my guess is that the ratio of good:bad is improving.

BlastedGlute

Actually im a cowboy and therefore have nothing to offer.