How to become a Photographer With slight or - No Competition

Before the turn of the century, photographers, like most other professionals, worked with a vertical market. That is, they put their ads in a trade magazine or the Yellow Pages, and based on their talent, marketing know-how, and luck, they conducted their business.

This made for extreme competition. Longtime pros were able to cling to their top position because they built a following based on their competence and expertise. Newcomers to photography found it difficult to surmount this unless they brought superb talent or an exceptional fresh coming to the marketplace.

Photographer

Eventually the field of photography fragmented into targeted areas. The photographer who could photograph most anything for a client, the "generalist," was no longer the top dog in the industry. Like in most other professions, photographers evolved to specializing; the trend was to found an expertise in specific subject areas, such as aerial, sports, fashion, documentary, etc., and to go after a "niche."
With the coming of the Internet, all of this has changed, especially in the field of stock photography. The changeover comes to light especially when you look at the market from the buyer's approach.

How to become a Photographer With slight or - No Competition

In our field of stock photography, a buyer turns to an image or images to get a point across, whether it's for an advertisement, brochure, or textbook. Since our thrust here at PhotoSource International is from an editorial standpoint, I'll address editorial stock photography.

Photographer

The coming of search engines has brought sophisticated software that has been able to break down the previous restrictions in the field and open it to any photographer with potential images.

At the same time, the publishing business has become more and more specialized. Type any topic plus the word 'publishing' in a Google search, and you'll find that a magazine, book publisher, website or other entity, exists for the sole purpose of supplying that interest area with information.

Here's where every stock photographer can emerge from the "Yellow Pages" race and become an leading reserved supply to specific segments of the vast market for stock photography that has now emerged -thanks to the Internet.

A publisher in Albuquerque no longer consults the Yellow Pages, the local library, or a bevy of good ol' boy favorites when producing an article on a inevitable way of harvesting desert cacti. She consults the Internet.

Why? Because that "just right" photograph exists. The "Law of Probability" says that a local photographer might not have the picture. Surprise, surprise. She finds it on the Internet, straight through a search machine search. The photographer is not even a New Mexico resident, but a visiting tourist from Japan who has cacti as his specialization. Thanks to hi-res delivery of pictures, the publisher is able to meet her immediate deadline.

I hope it's clear to you that as an independent stock photographer, you are part of the largest stock photo reserved supply in the world. No, it's not Getty, Corbis, or Jupiter - it's the Internet. You are no longer competitive against those major agencies - thanks to your silent partner -- the search engine.

How to become a Photographer With slight or - No Competition