Customer Reviews

Profitable Photography in Digital Age: Strategies for Success

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Anyone who wants to run a successful photographic enterprise should read this book from cover to cover, as it provides a wealth of tips and techniques that will help you keep costs under control, market your services, and grow your business. Whether you're selling posters, postcards, or portraits, you'll find sage advice in these pages. I wish I'd had this book five years ago.

The best book on the Photography business to date. It may be hard for some to swallow, but sometimes when you are forced to look in the mirror and evaluate the decisions you have made in your life and career, it's easy to criticize the one forcing you to do so. Dan has written a book that should be a classic for anyone even thinking about making money from photography at any level, be it just an amateur wanting to make a few bucks to support his equipment habit, or the serious photography looking to make a true career in the business. A must read for the new and the seasoned.

I wanted to rate this book more highly. I really did. It does have a great deal of hard-headed insight and advice and things that all aspiring photographers really need to think about.

However, I cannot lightly set aside Mr. Heller's antipathy towards 'photographer solidarity'. Specifically, he spends a fair amount of time criticizing the notion that photographers should uphold certain policies and pricing. I do not know for sure, but I would guess that Mr. Heller has a rather dim view of union organizing as well.

What Mr. Heller advocates, then, is a 'race to the bottom' where each photographer undercuts his competitors. Well, we all know where the 'race to the bottom' ends up. This may temporarily benefit you personally, but in the long run it does tremendous damage to all photographers (definitely including one's self) in a business where already anybody who can afford a digital camera can call themselves a photographer, and where many clients tend to think we should be happy getting paid ANYTHING AT ALL since we are being paid to 'play with cameras' for a living.

What's more, in the long run one does one's self more harm than good by taking on 'grinder' clients - clients who are never satisfied unless they grind your profit margins to nothing. In addition... clients who grind your price down will also try to grind as much work out of you as possible, so that you end up working for less than minimum wage... sometimes far, far less.

If one is to succeed in this business - as in any business - one must spend time learning how to talk beyond price and how to counter typical 'grinder' negotiating strategies such as, "I can get my cousin to do this for $20! He has a Canon Rebel with 10 megapixels!" or, "do this job for $X - I'll have a lot more work after that!" These are clients to WALK AWAY FROM, not ones to appease by working for whatever breadcrumbs they deign to throw your way.

It's what you need to know. The good, the bad, and the ugly truths about the photography business. If you only want to buy one book on this topic, this is it.

While this book was intended to be directed to photographers, I feel it is firstly just another sales book. The jargon and hairsplitting discussion on career direction and the importance of branding your product had a few nuggets of helpful information, nonetheless finding a way to apply it to my needs was a stretch.

I thoughly enjoyed reading this book. It has very up to date info about the internet. I also thought he covered many topics like business types, stock agencies, and webpages better than other books I have read. Highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to go into stock photography business. This book mainly deals with stock photography business, not other types of businesses.

I wanted to love this book. I was impressed by Mr Heller's web site and his straight forward talk there, I thought the book would be a continuation from his web sit. Well, he talks a lot, almost chatter, and yes it makes sense but it's mostly plain old common sense (which there is a shortage of I'll agree). If you're just starting or thinking of starting in photography this book might seem great, again, it's mostly common sense, but if you're looking to expand your current photo business you might find it less than helpful.

I feel a better photography business book is Cliff Hollenbeck's "big bucks selling your photography". A rather tacky title but the author really lays out the truth about the photography business.