[Leica] Selling photos, was; Selling gear

[henningw at archiphoto.com (Henning Wulff)]

When I started getting serious about making money at photography in 
the early 70's, as opposed to the rather amateurish approach I had to 
stuff I sold in the 60's (which was stage and portraiture), I set out 
to find out what competition I had in my field.

As I intended to do mainly editorial, corporate and architectural 
photography at that time, I quickly realized that while there was a 
fair bit of competition at all quality and price points for editorial 
and corporate photography, there was very little in some areas of 
architectural and construction photography, especially at the higher 
end. I never did do reportage. I also abandoned editorial photography 
and only did occasional corporate photography when it dovetailed well 
with the architectural/construction photography.

In any case, when I started there was only one really good 
architectural photographer living in Vancouver, and there were 
certain things he wasn't interested in. I started by doing some of 
the things he didn't care for, and also got some equipment he didn't 
have, and was able to set my prices as I saw fit right from the 
start. This worked very well, and within a couple of years I was able 
to compete with him on anything, but preferred those areas where 
there wasn't any competition as those paid better :-). In the next 
20-25 years I was able to continue in the field and earn good money 
mostly by being the first in the area to offer new services as they 
evolved, and do things that others didn't want to.

For instance, I have no particular fear of heights and love climbing 
around on large construction projects, and that is a great asset for 
construction photography. For over 20 years, until the safety 
standards largely prevented such photography, I was the only one in 
Vancouver who would haul medium and large format gear around slip 
forms 500 feet off the ground or work from the end of tower crane 
booms when they were working. I set my own prices.

When Photoshop came out, I was the only one who could do a good job 
of composites of architectural models and aerial photos, with correct 
perspective and lighting.

Whenever something became impossible, impractical or the technology 
made it superfluous, I tried to find another niche. When, after about 
5 years, some other people learned enough about perspective, 
Photoshop and could take decent aerial photos and charge 20% or less 
of what I did, I started doing other things.

In the mid to late 90's things started changing rapidly, and almost 
all my advantages went away, so now I only do certain special jobs, 
and concentrate on my architectural business. I just couldn't make 
the sort of income I made from photography in the 80's anymore. Not 
anywhere close. The respect I used to get is also no longer there. 
The product has become devalued.

I couldn't recommend that anyone now enter the areas of photography I've 
done.

-- 
    *            Henning J. Wulff
   /|\      Wulff Photography & Design
  /###\   mailto:henningw@archiphoto.com
  |[ ]|     http://www.archiphoto.com