Comments on: Speak Up! – “The Cloud is Falling”

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By: Creighton Holub

Creighton Holub — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 19:36:44 +0000

I am telling my two proteges that the journalism world has been changing and will continue changing. Thank you for spelling it out in a form everyone can understand.
It’s nice to be a decade-old small town news veteran and be able to show the big picture to the newbies.
Very respectfully,
Creighton Holub

By: Burns Auto Parts blog » Blog Archive » More on falling clouds

Burns Auto Parts blog » Blog Archive » More on falling clouds — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 15:50:59 +0000

[...] about Vincent Laforet’s fascinating article about the changing industry. He’s done a follow-up on his new blog. It’s mostly an encouragement to discuss the issues, but it’s definitely worth thinking [...]

By: Michael Hurcomb

Michael Hurcomb — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 03:50:26 +0000

Great article! It’d be easy to look at the near future as dire times for photographers, but looking at it as time of change, development and promise is far more exciting. I’m in my mid-30’s and only recently realized that I wanted to be a photographer (mostly because of inspiration from your work and the work of Chase Jarvis). Getting into it now when it’s changing rather being used to an old model seems better than ever. Bring it on.

And thanks for finally staring a blog!
Michael

By: Leslie Burns-Dell'Acqua

Leslie Burns-Dell'Acqua — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 22:34:40 +0000

I’m so excited to see this dialogue starting and so much of the fear being shed/re-purposed as things go through this massive change. Thank you for starting it.

I posted a brief piece on my blog linking to your original Cloud piece on SportsShooter and I hope more people will join into this discussion (I’ll be posting about it again tomorrow).

In the meantime, if there is anything I can do to help foster the discussion or, maybe, with the workshop or whatever, please don’t hesitate to ask. I’d be happy to help, but I think photographers should be the ones who participate the most in this. It’s great to see a photographer leading in this way!
-Leslie Burns-Dell’Acqua
Creative/Marketing Consultant

By: Will Seberger

Will Seberger — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 16:44:10 +0000

It is getting ugly out there, and “The Cloud is Falling” hits on a lot of the issues and opportunities facing us.

I’ve always believed that if you’re good enough at something, and pursue it as best you can, you’ll make a living. Nothing has yet caused me to deviate from that line of thinking.

But I really think we’re getting to the point where being the shutter man or the video guy isn’t going to cut much.

With so much of the business of photojournalism wrapped up in just ‘being there,’ anyone with a camera can be on the front-lines and grab the front page.

In order to compensate, we need to do much more than just make pictures, even if we take really, really good pictures. As finances tighten, having ‘a photo’ at the right price is going to go further than ‘a great photo’ at a high price for a lot of buyers.

We need to offer more than just pictures. Maybe it’s Web packages, stories, editing, or whatever ‘extra’ skills we have or can develop.

We also need to find new ways to monetize our pictures. Rates are in the basement these days, and I don’t see them improving any time soon.

Now, more than ever, it’s important that we preserve all rights to our work, so we can put them to work for us.

We need the creative and licensing fees to be the foundation of our revenue, of course; but we need to look to non-traditional transactions after-the-fact to help us get ahead financially.

Finally, we have acted as a group with no brotherhood amongst thieves. Our Congressional lobby groups are practically non-existent compared to other professions. So many of our professional workshops are nothing more than expensive shopping trips, and pitch opportunities for hardware and software vendors.

The notion of a ‘creative professional as a staffer’ will likely go away in large scale. Everyone needs to be able to make it on his own
(as a freelancer).

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 14:58:13 +0000

Check out this post about job cuts on strobist.

http://strobist.blogspot.com/2008/08/will-shoot-for-food.html

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 14:55:48 +0000

More examples of the job cutting trend in this Strobist post.

http://strobist.blogspot.com/2008/08/will-shoot-for-food.html

By: Benjamin Spell

Benjamin Spell — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 05:05:19 +0000

I found your article very interesting. I am about to start school at Hallmark Institute of Photography. It should be interesting starting out in commercial and editorial work with the state of things. I deffently will have to take your perspective into consideration and I hope that I will be able to have a fresh take on the industry as i start off. I just found your blog and am looking forward to following it.
cheers,
Ben Spell

By: Mike Fox

Mike Fox — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 21:27:45 +0000

Hearty support for Vince’s comments. This is a subject that I have been generating interest about over the last 12 – 18 months. Take a look at http://www.mikefoxphotojournalist.blogspot.com and http://rising.blackstar.com/print-media-layoffs-are-an-admission-of-defeat-not-a-strategy-for-the-f-2.html for shared opinions.