The Making of a Photograph, continued
Time
Seven days were spent for this field trip including two half-days en route via the ferry from Whittier to Cordova and back. Certainly not all this time was used to create the panoramic, but it is an expenditure of time away from the office. As much as photographers would prefer to be in the field shooting photographs and seeing new places, the reality is that the business side of photography consumes more time. Indeed, some may argue office time is where the money is made, and therefore, is more important. This makes it critical that time spent in the field is productive, i.e., coming back with marketable photos, which requires planning.
Time spent researching the scenic potential of a location, the behavior of its flora and fauna, typical climate and weather conditions, sunrise/sunset and moonrise/moonset greatly increase the odds of achieving your objective for the trip. Since I had familiarity with Cordova from previous excursions, the amount of time spent on planning was significantly reduced. Aside from making reservations for the ferry and lodge accommodations and packing gear/clothes, I spent two hours familiarizing myself with The Photographer’s Ephemeris to plan for the Heney Ridge shoot. Once on location in Cordova, when I saw that the skies were partly sunny with the potential for some alpenglow, I spent one hour in transit to and from Hartney Bay and another hour setting up and shooting the eight images required for the panoramic. Back at the lodge, photos were uploaded and key worded on my laptop, and then backed up to two external drives. When I returned home, a backup catalog of the images was made which was then imported into my main catalog of images in Lightroom. Because my laptop is five years old, and not amenable to color profiling, I do the raw workup in Lightroom and final image manipulations in Photoshop at home on my desktop computer with a color calibrated monitor. This workflow is itemized in the table.
Expenses
In corporate accounting, items such as the camera, lens, tripod, computer/laptop, and printer would be considered capital investments for general use over a large number of projects. Hence, their value is spread over several years via depreciation. Rather than include depreciation, investments specifically needed to create the image - what are considered operating expenses - are tallied.
Major expenses for this trip to Cordova, other than those already discussed under Tools, are the ferry ($246), mileage allowance ($239, accounts for gas, wear and tear, etc.), lodging ($672), and meals ($196.41).
Summary
Total time and costs associated with making this panoramic print comes to 25 hours and over $2400 (see table). This is a considerable investment, which one would hope to recoup over time. At a selling price of $175 for the dry-mounted/shrink-wrapped 22”x52” print, I would have to sell fourteen prints to recover my expenses for the field trip. Of course, there were other images from the photo shoot marketed as prints, greeting cards, and stock that can generate revenue. It is evident from the time invested that the panoramic was not a result of a spur-of-the-moment snapshot. So for prospective customers to expect that they can easily reproduce this shot with their P&S on a random trip to Cordova, and therefore, it should be priced at what amounts to a give-away is unreasonable and without foundation. Even if our hiker friends from Panasonic’s commercial were lucky enough to duplicate this image, the quality would not be there for a large print; resolution, bit-depth, color fidelity, and access to imaging tools like capture sharpening, color temperature, dust removal, and dodging and burning, just to name a few, do not come out of a JPEG P&S file.
What this comes down to is a quality vs. value decision. I have detailed the value to me as the creator of the image. The value to the customer is the price they are willing to pay, and as I have indicated, ignorant of the costs/effort behind the creative process, customers will want Walmart pricing. Perhaps what is even more disturbing to professional photographers trying to make a living is when you look at the quality side. As a freelance photographer friend and I discussed recently, have we gotten to the point with the explosion of mass media that we can no longer discern quality in a visual image? In other words, if the image looks good enough for viewing on a smartphone then perhaps that is good enough for the majority of consumers. Does the current generation even care for publication-quality images, or are they satisfied with their own iPhone photography? Diversification and constantly adapting to emerging outlets for your photography skills and imagery seem to be paramount. I should have stated at the outset that this essay is more rhetorical than one providing any answers, because I am still struggling with finding the right price point for my photography. Oh, how I wish I had the marketing acumen and insight of a Steve Jobs!
Seven days were spent for this field trip including two half-days en route via the ferry from Whittier to Cordova and back. Certainly not all this time was used to create the panoramic, but it is an expenditure of time away from the office. As much as photographers would prefer to be in the field shooting photographs and seeing new places, the reality is that the business side of photography consumes more time. Indeed, some may argue office time is where the money is made, and therefore, is more important. This makes it critical that time spent in the field is productive, i.e., coming back with marketable photos, which requires planning.
Time spent researching the scenic potential of a location, the behavior of its flora and fauna, typical climate and weather conditions, sunrise/sunset and moonrise/moonset greatly increase the odds of achieving your objective for the trip. Since I had familiarity with Cordova from previous excursions, the amount of time spent on planning was significantly reduced. Aside from making reservations for the ferry and lodge accommodations and packing gear/clothes, I spent two hours familiarizing myself with The Photographer’s Ephemeris to plan for the Heney Ridge shoot. Once on location in Cordova, when I saw that the skies were partly sunny with the potential for some alpenglow, I spent one hour in transit to and from Hartney Bay and another hour setting up and shooting the eight images required for the panoramic. Back at the lodge, photos were uploaded and key worded on my laptop, and then backed up to two external drives. When I returned home, a backup catalog of the images was made which was then imported into my main catalog of images in Lightroom. Because my laptop is five years old, and not amenable to color profiling, I do the raw workup in Lightroom and final image manipulations in Photoshop at home on my desktop computer with a color calibrated monitor. This workflow is itemized in the table.
Expenses
In corporate accounting, items such as the camera, lens, tripod, computer/laptop, and printer would be considered capital investments for general use over a large number of projects. Hence, their value is spread over several years via depreciation. Rather than include depreciation, investments specifically needed to create the image - what are considered operating expenses - are tallied.
Major expenses for this trip to Cordova, other than those already discussed under Tools, are the ferry ($246), mileage allowance ($239, accounts for gas, wear and tear, etc.), lodging ($672), and meals ($196.41).
Summary
Total time and costs associated with making this panoramic print comes to 25 hours and over $2400 (see table). This is a considerable investment, which one would hope to recoup over time. At a selling price of $175 for the dry-mounted/shrink-wrapped 22”x52” print, I would have to sell fourteen prints to recover my expenses for the field trip. Of course, there were other images from the photo shoot marketed as prints, greeting cards, and stock that can generate revenue. It is evident from the time invested that the panoramic was not a result of a spur-of-the-moment snapshot. So for prospective customers to expect that they can easily reproduce this shot with their P&S on a random trip to Cordova, and therefore, it should be priced at what amounts to a give-away is unreasonable and without foundation. Even if our hiker friends from Panasonic’s commercial were lucky enough to duplicate this image, the quality would not be there for a large print; resolution, bit-depth, color fidelity, and access to imaging tools like capture sharpening, color temperature, dust removal, and dodging and burning, just to name a few, do not come out of a JPEG P&S file.
What this comes down to is a quality vs. value decision. I have detailed the value to me as the creator of the image. The value to the customer is the price they are willing to pay, and as I have indicated, ignorant of the costs/effort behind the creative process, customers will want Walmart pricing. Perhaps what is even more disturbing to professional photographers trying to make a living is when you look at the quality side. As a freelance photographer friend and I discussed recently, have we gotten to the point with the explosion of mass media that we can no longer discern quality in a visual image? In other words, if the image looks good enough for viewing on a smartphone then perhaps that is good enough for the majority of consumers. Does the current generation even care for publication-quality images, or are they satisfied with their own iPhone photography? Diversification and constantly adapting to emerging outlets for your photography skills and imagery seem to be paramount. I should have stated at the outset that this essay is more rhetorical than one providing any answers, because I am still struggling with finding the right price point for my photography. Oh, how I wish I had the marketing acumen and insight of a Steve Jobs!