Commercial work, and the Blackerry

[BenE]

I just got back from the largest OilShow exposition in Texas. I photographed a couple of booths of commercial customers, where some of my work was used.

There are always hundreds of exhibitors from all over the USA, and some from outside the states. While I was there, I decided to look at some of the other booths, and was amazed at how many exhibitors had such non-professional photography of their products.

I am not talking about "matter of opinion" shots, but images that were way underexposed, or shot with a strobe on camera, or out of focus (not selective focus), and a lot of shots, I was told were made by employees of some of the companies. One guy even told me he shot some of them with his Blackberry! These are oil related companies that are spending thousands of dollars just to exhibit for 3 days.

I did see some great commercial shots, but I would say that about 60% looked like some guy in the warehouse got the job instead of the company hiring a professional to do it.

I was hoping to move more into commercial work, since it seems many other types of photography is being done by non-professionals, but it appears the old adages of, "Give them something they can't get anywhere else", and "educate them to what quality photography is", doesn't apply even in some areas of commercial photography anymore.

Has anyone else noticed this trend in commercial photography?

[Coelus]

You're also in one of the worst economic times in our history. I work for one of the largest oilfield service companies in the world. While we're not as budget tight as we were this time of year in 2008, we're not exactly spending a lot. Once a few companies let loose of the cash for good advertising and company image, the others will follow suit. Right now they're all just worried about keeping up core business needs.

[BenE]

My point was, the thinking of some is .....

any digital shot is as good as another. When they will show a poster size image made with a point & shoot, and say it looks as good as some of the professional work, that has nothing to do with bad economic times.

It is amusing that the economy is always blamed for the slowdown in photography. That might be partly true, but it has not hurt the restaurant business, nor a multitude of other businesses in the "depressed oil areas". It has not hurt the high priced liquor sales. One guy called me about shooting one of the parties where his company was cooking about 200 top sirloin steaks, but he decided to have a guy in one of his shops do it because of the expense.

Another called me about some product shots, but he decided to do it himself, because he said his work looked OK. It was totally crummy.

It is not the economy, it is the fact that cusomers have begun to think any image is good, no matter what it looks like.

The guy that showed me the Blackberry shot was very proud of it. One person had a shot of some sort of gauge that was so out of focus that you could not read the numbers on it. I asked him who shot it, and he said he had, and asked me if I didn't think it was "pretty good"?

Bad economic times are understandable, the fact that the public is willing to settle for Blackberry commercial shots is another story altogether.

An aside to this story is one about a lady I know who is having a wedding (I don't shoot them), and the photographer is not the best around, but she had to fly to Dallas for the $3,000 wedding dress.

Times are tougth, I agree, but it depends on what business you are in.