Selina's recent post on the "6 Key Steps That All Emerging Photograhers MUST Take", she includes this"
* Identify the market that can support the vision
That single thing can be one of the most important things an emerging photographer can do. And choices can be terribly difficult to make.
Several emerging photographers I work with were struggling with identifying the people who would want to buy pictures from them, and it showed in books that were all over the place with subject matter, style and vision.
If there is no particular market to shoot for, then it becomes more like shooting for every market.
And shooting for every market isn't gonna cut it. You cannot make images for everyone. The work becomes scattered and unfocused... and confusing.
This past weekend I was asked to review a photographer's portfolio. He had seen a precipitous fall in booking, and even queries.
The work was good, quite good actually, but the presentation was so wide, so all inclusive, that it made it difficult to figure out what he did exceptionally well. And while the work was pretty good, only the people and places stuff stood out. His addition of food, architecture, flowers, cars, motorcycles and still life, while competent, were not nearly as good as the people work.
And people is where he was making most of his contacts.
The reason was he felt he could get more work if he 'expanded' his markets. Problem is that the additional work watered down his presentation, and it must be confusing to the buyers. Showing work that is less than wow, means that you may not recognize wow in the work you do.
He took Selina's key step, and started to identify the clients who;
a: he wanted to work with
b. who he was working with
c. who would be interested in working with the images he created.
Last night he sent a message... totally energized. After spending a few days... long days... working on this, he had worked out a targeted market list of 8 who would use his work. He hadn't even thought of some of those markets, but now he has a 'direction' to go with his work. He is planning shoots for the entire month of July.
Next, he will be changing his web site and focusing on the work that he loves to do, focusing on the markets he has identified for his presentation. Will he see more work from this effort?
I'll keep you posted, but I am pretty positive on the outcome.
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