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And now the business of wedding / portrait photographer has become hyper-competitive. Now everyone's cousin is an amateur photographer and every phone has an al

And now the business of wedding / portrait photographer has become hyper-competitive. Now everyone's cousin is an amateur photographer and every phone has an almost acceptable camera built in. It is much more difficult to have a profitable photography business compared to 20 years ago.

bachmeier 1y ago
That's good to hear. Back when I got married there were some real jerks in the wedding photography business, and they weren't worried about running out of customers. Here's an actual conversation I had with one of them: Me: "I'm getting married on [date] and I'm looking for a photographer." Them, in the voice of Nick Burns: "We're already filling up for next year. Good luck finding a photographer this year." Me: "I just got engaged. You never have anything open up?" Them: "No" and hang up the phone. The faster guys like that struggle to make a living, the better.
- NewsaHackO 1y ago
  Definitely. What matters more is that the ability to take photos is available to more people, which is a net positive.
- LargeWu 1y ago
  In the same breath, those photographers will complain about all the "amateurs" devaluing their services.
- tonyedgecombe 1y ago
  I know a couple of professional photographers and neither of them will do weddings. It seems many of the clients are as bad as the photographers.
ath92 1y ago
The game has definitely changed. It used to be profitable to be a photographer for hire, and that’s no longer the case. But the revenue generated through pictures (by influencers) has increased a lot. If today all you do as a programmer is open jira tickets without any kind of other human interaction, AI coding agents are bad news. If you’re just using code as a means to build products for people, it might be the best thing that has happened in a long time.
- jimbokun 1y ago
  > But the revenue generated through pictures (by influencers) has increased a lot. So the job qualifications went from "understand lighting, composition, camera technology" to "be hot".

bachmeier 1y ago

That's good to hear. Back when I got married there were some real jerks in the wedding photography business, and they weren't worried about running out of customers. Here's an actual conversation I had with one of them: Me: "I'm getting married on [date] and I'm looking for a photographer." Them, in the voice of Nick Burns: "We're already filling up for next year. Good luck finding a photographer this year." Me: "I just got engaged. You never have anything open up?" Them: "No" and hang up the phone. The faster guys like that struggle to make a living, the better.

NewsaHackO 1y ago
Definitely. What matters more is that the ability to take photos is available to more people, which is a net positive.
LargeWu 1y ago
In the same breath, those photographers will complain about all the "amateurs" devaluing their services.
tonyedgecombe 1y ago
I know a couple of professional photographers and neither of them will do weddings. It seems many of the clients are as bad as the photographers.

ath92 1y ago

The game has definitely changed. It used to be profitable to be a photographer for hire, and that’s no longer the case. But the revenue generated through pictures (by influencers) has increased a lot. If today all you do as a programmer is open jira tickets without any kind of other human interaction, AI coding agents are bad news. If you’re just using code as a means to build products for people, it might be the best thing that has happened in a long time.

jimbokun 1y ago
> But the revenue generated through pictures (by influencers) has increased a lot. So the job qualifications went from "understand lighting, composition, camera technology" to "be hot".