The digital demise of professional photographers

This post is born of my curiosity about something quite obviously apparent in the photography industry at present. As more and more cameras are produced, of course the prices get lower, and the entry level cost for aspiring photographers becomes easier and easier to attain. All in all, this shouldn’t be a bad thing, and I don’t think for the “art” of photography it is necessarily a bad thing either. The commercial side is another story altogether.

The people it does affect are the “professional” photographers out there. The guys who have invested a good portion of their lives to studying and practising the art of lighting, lenses, composition and all the other finer details involved in getting the perfect capture. Most of these guys have spent hundreds of thousands of rands on equipment and every time it leaves the studio it’s a risk that any of it could get broken or stolen. A lot of it only has a certain shelf life. The average camera body is only supposed to go for a certain amount of captures, and then you’re in your best interests of purchasing a new one. Easily R30k — R80k for a new camera body.

Now enters the amateur. (S)he can pick up an entry-level DSLR from most camera shops for under R10k with a kit lens, and start punting themselves as a professional. (S)he might not know a thing about lighting. They use the built-in pop-up flash and get some pictures that at a glance would be okay for a primary school quarterly newsletter, but if a client wanted something professional and wasn’t discerning enough about the industry to choose the right person, they’re going to end up with (drastically) inferior pictures. Does her camera look exceptionally “point and click”, no, it doesn’t.

Now, some of you might be reading this thinking that I’m just having a rant. Well, in some ways I am, but mostly this is just an observation and my conduit for putting my thoughts to an audience for comment. I have enough work coming in from my non-photography related services, and as such, I’m buffered from too much damage caused by this phenomenon.

Me personally, I have been working as a photographer in a semi-professional capacity for a few years now. Note, I say semi-professionally as I’m in middle ground here. I shoot with a Canon 30D and have a couple of lenses covering my requirements. I have a speedlight, which I used to bounce light off various devices I’ve made and bought. I (and my clients) think I take pretty good pictures.

I guess Porter’s five forces model is starting to work its magic in the industry. If you’re not familiar with this, I’ve copied/pasted it here.

The five forces model of Porter is an outside-in business unit strategy tool that is used to make an analysis of the attractiveness (value…) of an industry structure. The competitive forces analysis is made by the identification of 5 fundamental competitive forces:

1. The entry of competitors. (How easy or difficult is it for new entrants to start to compete? Which barriers exist?)
2. The threat of substitutes. (How easy can our product or service be substituted, especially cheaper?)
3. The bargaining power of buyers. (How strong is the position of buyers? Can they work together to order large volumes?)
4. The bargaining power of suppliers. (How strong is the position of sellers? Are there many or only few potential suppliers? Is there a monopoly?)
5. The rivalry among the existing players. (Is there strong competition between the existing players? Is one player very dominant or are all equal in strength, size?)

A sixth factor could be added: government.

What are your thoughts? I’m especially interested to know the opinion of photographers and photography enthusiasts.