About 16 years ago I was working for my dad during the summer between my Junior and Senior years in high school. He’s a commercial photographer in Los Angeles and has been shooting for 30+ years now. During that summer, he was just starting to use digital cameras in his work. If I remember correctly, he didn’t even own one at the time, he just rented them on a few occasions. I remember distinctly asking him one day:

“Dad, do you think it’ll ever get to the point where you only shoot digital?”

His response is funny now, but at the time, there were many people who felt the same way.  He replied:

“You know, I just don’t think digital will ever be able to produce the quality of film.”

Now, film can’t even come close to the resolution and quality that can be obtained with digital.  Its truly amazing.  But, I share this story to illustrate a point – stuff is always changing, especially if it has anything to do with technology.

A few years before this incident, I remember dad actually taking some night courses at Art Center College of Design, where he got his degree years before, to learn Photoshop.  I remember the painstaking process of shooting on 4 X 5 film, scanning at high res, and then tweaking the photos.  With the limited RAM and processing power years ago, those things took forever.

But the technologies have evolved and if, as a photographyer, you haven’t evolved with them, you’re probably left way in the dust.  In this business, just like many others in today’s fast-paced world, you have to learn to be comfortable with never ending change.  Change pushes most of us beyond our comfort zone.  We like things to stay the way they are because we think we have more control that way.  But, if you’re counting on things staying the way they are today, chances are you’ll be out of business next year.

Now, more than ever, is the time when you should be focusing on evolving as a marketer.  I’m currently seeing so many great photographers leave their businesses just to go apply for some job at a desk.  Lame.   This is happening because they haven’t evolved as marketers.  They haven’t learned to market and sell their work or their photo services.

If you’re serious about having a long term career as a photographer, you should invest in your marketing skills just as much as you invest in learning new photography skills.  Its imperative that you learn to beat out your competition and convince your customers to pay you top dollar for your work.

Over[Exposure] is a course that have been developed after working with hundreds of businesses trying to grow in today’s world.  It will teach you what you need to know to make easy money as a photographer.  Its gives you the step-by-step process to grow your photography business like you never thought possible.  Get on the early bird list – Over[Exposure] launches in just a few weeks.