Research shows....

For those of you who read the NY Times online, there was a front and center article today talking about how amateur photographers are affecting professional photographer's abilities to make an income. It's a rather simplistic view of the profession as a whole, and concerns itself primarily with an analysis of photographers who make a living by shooting editorial photography, and amateurs whose images are being found online through Google's arrangements with Flickr.

I've been saying for quite some time now that there is going to be a shake-out in the photo business, as there is elsewhere in the current US economy. Photographers who continue to shoot, edit and market based on a branded model and who continue to put new work out there will yield results. You simply can't sit in the corner and wait for the sky to fall. Interesting research studies that I've read have shown that companies that continued to spend money on marketing and advertising during the Great Depression came through positioned well to reap the benefits of the improved economy, and that their businesses prospered as soon as the economy turned. I do feel that there is something to be learned from the past, don't you?