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Professional photographers know they need to backup their photos. It looks like your product targeted consumers, but professionals seem like they'd be a better

Professional photographers know they need to backup their photos. It looks like your product targeted consumers, but professionals seem like they'd be a better market. And it should have been priced way, way higher; the more it cost, the more secure it looks. I'd have a hard time trusting my money-making business assets to a $9/month service. Of course, I'm not a professional photographer nor do I have your experience in trying to build this business, so who knows what my opinion is worth. :-)

digitalsushi 13y ago
The problem with the term 'professional' is that the word is ambiguous - do we mean 'people that live off this' or 'people that know what they're doing'? I have two professional photographer friends, and neither have the slightest clue how to protect their data. They live off it, but never grow out because word of mouth is karma and you can't lose someone's wedding photos. These are people that have a duty to protect other people's memories, and are leaving it to chance. They are everywhere.
tghw 13y ago
Actually, once we started getting into the market, we found that most do not know they need to do regular, offsite backups. Consider the some examples: * An older photographer who grew up in the days of film who has just transitioned over to digital. * A homemaker who is trying to add some much needed income for her family, with a passion but no formal training. * A well-off software developer who moonlights as a photographer for fun and a little extra money. Of those, only the third has been exposed, formally, to correct data backup procedures. The others are likely to keep their photos in folders on the desktop of their laptop. Furthermore, photography is not a very lucrative profession for most photographers. That limits the amount you can charge. Our original pricing was much higher, but we realized that would be problematic, considering the average photographer brings in around $30k per year.
- mgkimsal 13y ago
  None of your examples contradict "Professional photographers know they need to backup their photos." A homemaker or techie moonlighting for extra income aren't really 'professional photographers'. They may take photographs that look professional, but it's not the same thing. One might say that professional developers use version control, then have counter examples of "well, this web design student doesn't ever uer version control, but she's the only person working on the code, so it doesn't matter". This is not a professional developer, even if she is capable of producing results that look like they were done by a professional. A professional, imo, is defined as much by their habits and practices as by the output.
  - tghw 13y ago
    Your definition is not what defines the market.
    - mgkimsal 13y ago
      Does a homemaker moonlighting as a photographer really pass herself off as a 'professional'?
      - tghw 13y ago
        Absolutely. The advances in digital photography has opened it up to almost everyone. They're not doing Disney's next add campaign, but they are doing several family sessions per week, and they are bringing in money. A friend of mine had her wedding photographer lose 6 months of data in a hard drive crash. She should have known better, and may have, but she didn't do proper backups.
      - joelhooks 13y ago
        Yes, my wife's done this for almost a decade. She gets paid well, provides professional service, and works under an LLC What else would you call it, if not professional? That said, I have to harass her about backups.
  - agravier 13y ago
    I smell a no true Scotsman fallacy.
- xtracto 13y ago
  Or maybe your company's problem was this (from one of your blog posts): > It did this by compressing the photos to full resolution, high quality JPEGs, which saved anywhere from 50%-90% of the size. The downside of this, of course, is that photographers who shoot in RAW would only have a JPEG copy backed up. We figured this was a reasonable compromise. In a catastrophic event, wouldn't a photographer rather have a JPEG copy than nothing at all? It turns out the answer was no. But we didn't ask that question, because we thought the answer was so obvious. I am no photographer... but from what I can see in this thread, what people are looking for is a solution to store RAW image files. I am sure photographers can find already good solutions to store good-quality JPG copies of their files.

digitalsushi 13y ago

The problem with the term 'professional' is that the word is ambiguous - do we mean 'people that live off this' or 'people that know what they're doing'? I have two professional photographer friends, and neither have the slightest clue how to protect their data. They live off it, but never grow out because word of mouth is karma and you can't lose someone's wedding photos. These are people that have a duty to protect other people's memories, and are leaving it to chance. They are everywhere.

tghw 13y ago

Actually, once we started getting into the market, we found that most do not know they need to do regular, offsite backups. Consider the some examples: * An older photographer who grew up in the days of film who has just transitioned over to digital. * A homemaker who is trying to add some much needed income for her family, with a passion but no formal training. * A well-off software developer who moonlights as a photographer for fun and a little extra money. Of those, only the third has been exposed, formally, to correct data backup procedures. The others are likely to keep their photos in folders on the desktop of their laptop. Furthermore, photography is not a very lucrative profession for most photographers. That limits the amount you can charge. Our original pricing was much higher, but we realized that would be problematic, considering the average photographer brings in around $30k per year.

mgkimsal 13y ago
None of your examples contradict "Professional photographers know they need to backup their photos." A homemaker or techie moonlighting for extra income aren't really 'professional photographers'. They may take photographs that look professional, but it's not the same thing. One might say that professional developers use version control, then have counter examples of "well, this web design student doesn't ever uer version control, but she's the only person working on the code, so it doesn't matter". This is not a professional developer, even if she is capable of producing results that look like they were done by a professional. A professional, imo, is defined as much by their habits and practices as by the output.
- tghw 13y ago
  Your definition is not what defines the market.
  - mgkimsal 13y ago
    Does a homemaker moonlighting as a photographer really pass herself off as a 'professional'?
    - tghw 13y ago
      Absolutely. The advances in digital photography has opened it up to almost everyone. They're not doing Disney's next add campaign, but they are doing several family sessions per week, and they are bringing in money. A friend of mine had her wedding photographer lose 6 months of data in a hard drive crash. She should have known better, and may have, but she didn't do proper backups.
    - joelhooks 13y ago
      Yes, my wife's done this for almost a decade. She gets paid well, provides professional service, and works under an LLC What else would you call it, if not professional? That said, I have to harass her about backups.
- agravier 13y ago
  I smell a no true Scotsman fallacy.
xtracto 13y ago
Or maybe your company's problem was this (from one of your blog posts): > It did this by compressing the photos to full resolution, high quality JPEGs, which saved anywhere from 50%-90% of the size. The downside of this, of course, is that photographers who shoot in RAW would only have a JPEG copy backed up. We figured this was a reasonable compromise. In a catastrophic event, wouldn't a photographer rather have a JPEG copy than nothing at all? It turns out the answer was no. But we didn't ask that question, because we thought the answer was so obvious. I am no photographer... but from what I can see in this thread, what people are looking for is a solution to store RAW image files. I am sure photographers can find already good solutions to store good-quality JPG copies of their files.