I recently heard a quote from Dan Heller, a photographer and an author of several books including "How to make money with photography".
He said that to be a profitable freelance photographer with a stock agency doesn't require a business plan, but you just need to be good at getting a photo in front of a consumer.
"Your skill set doesn't need be particularly strong, it just needs to be good enough" he said when being interviewed on the "StartingaBiz.
com" podcast.
Cue my blood boiling.
This is the type of thought process that, when fed to a consumer simply lowers the bar of quality and erodes at the threshold of what makes a good quality photographer.
This is the type of thought process that when fed to your average amateur photographer makes them believe that just because they have an SLR and some free time on a Saturday, they should be the next great wedding photographer.
This is no good for the art of photography, the photographic community and especially no good for the consumer.
It's just that the consumer doesn't realise this.
When I took the decision to try to break into the photography business, I had high ideals and aspirations founded on great comment and feedback from family and friends.
I had an SLR camera, I had a modicum of skill and I figured I could cobble together a website to market myself.
How wrong was I! It didn't take long for the local photographer community to find me out and to point out the vast array of weaknesses I had.
I had no understanding of lighting, no clue on composition and it was very clear that my modicum of skill was even smaller than I had thought.
You see, when the consumer sees a price of a top quality photographer, what they are seeing is the price of investing in top quality skills and equipment.
Professional photographers invest hours and hours and a fair bit of cold cash in training.
Training is ongoing; you never reach a point of "knowing everything" and even the best photographers are constantly learning and as a result, constantly getting better.
Professional photographers invest time and money in their equipment.
No single lens is good for every situation, and photographers have multiple lenses that they can use on multiple camera bodies.
And yes - there is a need to own more than one camera body, as you never know when one might fail, and to tell a bride on her wedding day that your camera has stopped functioning is not going to do your credibility any favours.
You see, the list of unseen activities and investments that a top quality photographer is undertaking is a very long one, and a misunderstood and anonymous one.
It manifests itself in their price however, and when a consumer compares price purely on the monetary value without fully considering the quality and list of skills they are purchasing, then they set themselves up for disappointment, and yet another story in the local newspaper of a "rogue professional photographer" who gave a bride a (cheap) bad deal.
Having an SLR and a skill set that is "good enough" no more makes me a professional photographer than owning a wrench makes me a plumber.
The consumer needs to be educated and we need to be building the eroded quality of photography up, not degrading it by being just "good enough".