Photography and the Recession

Original: 11/26/2008

My recent front page post (It's the Economy, Stupid II) provoked a lot of emails and comments. The original post was a generic pep talk, and appears to have hit a nerve; this time I'm going to get specific about photography.

Bottom line: don't let the economy make photography less fun or interesting.

Most people reading the articles on my site aspire to photography at something more than the snapshot level, but let's deal with those snapshot shooters first and let them quickly get back to what they were doing: the worsening economy is going to make better cameras less expensive, will probably get you discounts on prints, and isn't going to make what you've got operate any worse. That's all good news for you. Use what you've got. Or use the opportunity to get something better. You might not have as many parties to take pictures at, or go on as elaborate or extended a vacation, but that just means you'll take fewer photos this coming year. Use that extra time to get the photos you have taken organized in iPhoto or some other low level cataloging program. It'll be fun. There. Off you go now. That's all the elaboration you snapshooters need.

You more serious shooters are probably laughing at how simple life can be after reading that last paragraph. For us, we look forward to new equipment because it opens up new opportunities or relieves some barrier we've been fighting. We actively travel just to take photos. We enjoy learning more and thus consume books, videos, seminars, and more. As we get better we need a larger, more capable printer, more computer horsepower, new software, and a host of other things. We never seem to have enough lenses or bags. In short, we're consumate consumers.

The bad news is that many of us now have budgetary constraints that we didn't have a few months ago. Whether that's because of job cutbacks, fewer photo sales, credit cutbacks, or simply pragmatic cautionism, it's likely that we're going to spend less in 2009 in support of our hobby (or profession for the pro shooters reading this) than we did in 2008. Those that have been upgrading with every new camera release might choose to skip a generation. Those that have been buying every new lens that's released might stick with what they have. Do we really need Photoshop CS4? The list goes on.

Well, first, let's make sure we know where we're at. Do you know how much you spent on photography in 2008? If you don't, it's kind of hard to make cutbacks in any meaningful way other than to go cold turkey. I'd encourage everyone thinking that they need to tighten their belts puchase-wise to first measure their existing belt. Get a real handle on what you've spent and invest a bit of time thinking about whether that spending really resulted in better photography on your part. I've been harping on this subject for awhile now, but it intersects here: most people would be better served by spending their next US$1000 on better instruction, not new equipment. So take a long, hard look at what you spent and what you got for that. In some cases you'll see real advances--the D3/D700 really are better for indoor shooting than the D2x/D200 were--while in others you might be hard pressed to nail down a difference. This is a perfect time to do that assessment, because you might just discover that you can do without certain things and be done with your budget tightening.

Next, let's separate the wants from the needs. There's a big difference between "I want more megapixels because someday I might want to print bigger" and "I need more megapixels because I can see that I'm at the edge of what I can do and my customers (or myself) are demanding more." It should be clear that we can wait on the wants, but we might not be able to wait on the needs. Thus, every photographer should have a want/need list and be prioritizing the needs higher than the wants. If our first task gave us a budget of X, this second task tells us that we're going to spend our X on needs first, and only buy something we want if there's money still left out of X.

Related to the physical wants/needs (equipment) is the skills wants/needs. There are things you know how to do, and things you don't. There are things you do well, and things you don't. So after you've inventoried your equipment needs and wants, it's time to inventory your current skill set, as well as your skill set needs and wants.

The interesting thing about skills is that they are often less expensive to upgrade than equipment. Or at least they can be if we're talking about dollars. If we're talking about time, well, you can buy a piece of equipment faster than you can upgrade a skill, which may be why so many of us are so fast on the trigger with equipment. We think that the fast solution is the better one. And we're wrong. The slower option is the better one.

Another interesting thing about skills is that, unlike equipment, they come in a wide variety of costs, yet can all provide similar benefits. For instance, you're reading this on the Internet for free. Plenty of good skill advice exists on the Internet. The penalty for it being free is that you have to find it. So perhaps the first skill set you ought to improve is your Internet search ability ;~). Still, if you have the time, the Internet is a good place to start when looking to improve skills. Of course, it may turn out that the skills discussion you find makes you realize that you really need to upgrade from Photoshop Elements 2.0 to Photoshop CS4, but assuming that you've got a reasonable set of equipment and software to start with, you should be able to expand your actual skill set for free and the modest investment of time.

Books and instructional DVDs probably represent the next step up. For some modest fee you get an organized, detailed, and subject limited skill boost. Next up the ladder probably comes short seminars, like that one-day CS4 for Photographers seminar that Ben Willmore is going around the country teaching. At the high end we get to longer sessions, like workshops and full-on conventions like PhotoshopWorld. Don't need to know Photoshop better? Well, pretty much any subject (lighting, printing, landscape photography, and so on) has its equivalent books, seminars, and workshops (there's no SpeedlightWorld yet, though).

Fortunately, you don't have to get too worried about the difference between want and need when it comes to skills. Certainly take care of your needs first, but don't be afraid to explore the wants, as that's where extension of your art and craft will come from.

Meanwhile, the economy may be helping you as a photographer. If you're a landscape photographer, like me, then the fact that air travel is down means the airlines are back to discounting fares again. And hotels are offering discounts, too. Gas for the rental vehicle to get you to Gee Golly Gosh National Park is back to pocket change levels (though I'd still encourage you to drive a bit less and hike a bit more). If you're into wildlife, did you realize that the South African rand has dropped 30% against the dollar? True, a trip to Kruger or Sabi Sands is not exactly inexpensive, but the current conversion rates make it more palatable than it was last year. Those with the dough can bake up some real fun.

But let's say that you've got plenty of equipment and plenty of skills. Now what? If the recession is giving you more time (thank you, no more forced overtime!), then here's the next wants and needs to explore: your images! I don't know about you, but I've now got images going back to the late-1960's. The film ones are taking up a lot of physical space in the next office, the digital ones are sprawled across drives that clutter this office. I really should do some scans of some of my best film images, and I really should spend some time working on my best digital images. We'll call that image needs. What I'd really want to do is get everything organized and peek at everything at least once. We'll call that image wants. As with skills, start with the needs and move to the wants if you've got time. It's all free, even in a down economy. And if you upped your skills before tackling your images, woohoo, you're going to create better final output.

You should have the drift by now. So what if the economy is scaring you? You've got plenty to do, and most of it is stuff you've been putting off and will enjoy doing. As photographers, we're not the sum of the sales tax we've paid on equipment this year, we're the sum of the decisions we make, both before going out to take a photo and after. We got into photography because we enjoyed it. Why would we let a recession keep us from continuing to enjoy it? If anything, having a hobby, craft, or even business that we enjoy should help us get through the prolific patter of pundits pontificating pessimistically.

Don't get me wrong: take care of your family finances and don't put off the job hunting if you were one of the ones that got sideswiped by the foolish practices at the financial institutions that helped get us into the economic mess that surrounds us. But don't let that turn your attitude towards photography sour, too. I'm quite content and in my own happy little world when I've got a camera in my hands in search of the Great One. It doesn't matter if that's a Canon G10 or a Nikon D5xs with automatic sun reduction. Just chasing down the decision tree of making a good image stimulates my mind and gives me pleasure. Just don't get in my shot, or I'll pummel you with my Gitzo ;~).

I already gave you the bottom line, but let me repeat it here: don't let the economy make photography less fun or interesting. And don't think that because you have less to spend on photography this year that this means you'll have to do less. Nonsense. You've got a perfectly good camera already, so make it sing. You are the difference, not money. You are the answer, not economic recovery. You are in control, not Washington. If you don't believe me, think about it a moment: were there any great photos taken in the Great Depression? Where there any photographers who emerged or got better during the Great Depression? You bet there were. And not just a couple.