Topic: Hey Tim?

[PhasoDyne]

Dude, what is a Fan Photographer and does it pay?

[Tim Boothby]

LOL behold, the lurker decloaks!  And with an avatar that could cause seizures no less.

A fan photographer is a fan and a photographer, that photographs fans at events to help publicize events so that people that go to these events can relive the fun, and to show people that didn't go to the event what they missed.  Its also going to casual photo shoots and taking pictures of cosplayers to let them show off their skills and to let people know that things like cosplay exist and some really cool people have fun showing off their creativity.

Ok, definition accomplished, but bear in mind I'm far from the only fan photographer and they all have their own reasons for doing it.

Does it pay, you ask?

The simple answer is no, I'm sure professional photographers i major markets make some coin in this gig but I'm not a professional, I don't live in a "major market" and I don't charge to take pictures.

A smarty-pants answer would go something like this: "Well, they say crime doesn't pay," but that isn't necessarily true.  Someone making license plates in prison makes more that your average fan photographer.

Kindly bear in mind that my smarty-pants answer IS AN OBSERVATION, NOT A COMPLAINT!

I take pictures because I enjoy it, a lot.  I also like things like science fiction and fantasy and anime and I like people that like all of these things and I like supporting, in my own limited way, the events and activities that let fans come together to share their enjoyment of these genres (and many more.)

Money isn't something you make by being a fan, cosplayers and those that host conventions in areas like this are fandom on a shoestring budget, or as the great Borneo Armstrong said once, "We've already cut the budget to the bone, and now we're cutting it to the marrow." And that is the heart of fandom, using what you have and making the most of it.  Fans in these parts invest a lot more sweat and innovation into their fandom than they do cash, especially in this economy; and, its a lot of fun visually documenting the results.

When you're trying to find enough room in your budget for cosplay materials, caffeine, DVDs, comic books, and video games on top of other mundane things like food, rent, gas, and in many cases, school, that doesn't leave room for things like paying for photo sessions.  The people that I take pictures of do what they do for the same reason I do: its a hobby, a way of life, an expression of creativity.  The reasons are as varied as the number of people doing what they do.

[PhasoDyne]

Welllookidat!  You really did use my question!

Follow on question

Why are you not a professional photographer?

[Tim Boothby]

Of course I used your question, I just had to wait for you to decloak again to say it was okay to do so.

Why not a professional? Simple enough I suppose, I don't charge to take pictures.  Good answer for an Olympic year, I guess.  At least in theory the competitors at the Olympics are supposed to be unpaid.

[PhasoDyne]

Dude, you take some good fucking pics and that should be what decides pro vs. amateur. Money is used too much to decide whose better than who.  Its bullshit. I see what you mean about people not having the money to have pictures taken though, some of those photo types charge some evil fees.

[Tim Boothby]

I take some good shots and some bad, about the same as any other shutterbug.

I don't know that I can categorize fees as evil, if being a photog is your living then it would be silly not get every cent you can for shooting pix.  There's a lot of studios these days, but in this economy there is going to be some pretty stiff competition for every consumer dollar.  The supply of photographers is exploding with digital cameras, shooting even a hundred pictures on film was expensive you can now take a thousand pix and have lunch for less than the film and processing costs of the old days.

Stock photography used to be a lucrative trade and could net a prodigious photographer a hefty sum for a single pic, now its possible to get a license for a stock image for as low as a buck. I read a piece that said as little as 5-6 years ago Getty Images licensed roughly 1.5 million pics, and last year is was around 22 million, and they use a user-generated content model, which is the direction things are going these days, there are even user-generated wire services that are growing quickly these days for smaller outlets that can't afford AP and UPI photo feeds anymore.

Those that can adapt, survive. Those that adopt sooner really survive.  The advantage for the photographer looking to cash on stock photos and feeds is that they don't need the overhead of rent or buying brick and mortar, they just ramble and shoot everything they can, upload to their Getty or whatever account, and get really savvy on tagging pics.  Another way to make money as a photographer is give classes and seminars teaching photo and processing techniques. I've seen a lot of pros using this to help make ends meet, they never seem to lack students and this releases even more hopefuls on the market.

I've heard the complaints that amateur photogs turning pro are choking out the pros because they are willing to work for less; but, they forgot the law of supply and demand. When there a lot of people taking advantage of the less expensive digital format to jump into the pro arena, the supply is more than the demand and the value of the service decreases; and, the market is glutted.  Like I said, the internet is leaving journalists, photojournalists and photographers that don't change with the times, struggling, or out of business. According to Studentscholarships.org, 4.2% of "working" photographers are currently unemployed, of course that only counts the ones atill able to draw benefits, the longterm unemployed may raise that rate higher, as it does with the rest of the job market. One of the funniest quotes I've seen about the current photography market is from improvephotography.com: "Photography is certainly growing, but not in demand.  It’s the supply of photographers that is growing.  Everyone with a camera (like you) thinks about making money with photography."

LOL conversely, someone that takes free pictures for people that really can't afford to pay, doesn't see a change in their bottom line. They make the same nada than they would if the demand for professional photographers was greater than the supply.  If there were fewer paid photographers to meet the demand for their services, prices would raise and even more couldn't afford a pro.

That still leaves a lot of people that don't have the cash to document their hard work in cosplay. There's not a lot of competition to work for free, if you give a cosplayer more money they are going to invest it back into their cosplays and have a friend take pictures of them, so there's no back-end for a pro to provide pro bono services, especially in this economy.

[Tim Boothby]

Oh, I suppose I did overlook one market. Adult websites. Never going to do it so I guess its sort of natural that I didn't think of it at the time.

[PhasoDyne]

That's pretty grim picture! (get it!?!)

So how bad is the market where you live? And if you decided to go to what you call a professional, what would you do? So you think you could, or do you even want to?

[Tim Boothby]

He who would pun would pick a pocket...well, the quote is something like that anyway.

No desire to, I'm really only interested in one area of photography, that's fans and fan events (which is largely cosplay,) I have no desire to shoot buildings, landscapes, glamour, weddings, nudes, senior pictures or any of the other "lucrative" areas. I like fans and cons and cosplay, the rest bores me. My interests are very niche, very limited. I speak geek and I like to speak to geeks.

So, for the sake of argument, if I were to consider it, here's what I'd be looking at:  I live near Boise, there's 140 employed photographers there (according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics) This figure doesn't include self-employed photographers (no idea why, too hard to get stats I guess) and that's half of the photographers in the state in once concentrated area. There's only so many brides and graduates to go around, if those even interested me the business side doesn't.

Again, my interest is the fans and fan events like cosplay shoots and cons. I don't work with many people that have the cash to plonk down on a photographer's hourly rates and then pick a few shots to get the prints on their various plans, or pay the cash for the CD of the whole shoot. I did a photoshoot at the state capitol with a group of cosplayers and put 1,200 shots in the gallery, that's cropped as needed, resized, and even some color correction and processing if they needed it. I did this for my standard fee of Nada. Care to guess what that would have cost the group if it was a paid shoot? 8 hours of taking the shots, plus all of the processing time. Good luck finding out, cost is something you really don't see on most photog's business sites, most prefer to break news of that magnitude in person

[PhasoDyne]

Sorry, my free webs died last night. You get what you pay for yanno.

Thanks for some pretty grounded advice, I talked to one of those pros you mentioned and he didn't mention a lot of this stuff you did when he was blowing sunwshine up my ass. You managed to answer my open and private questions all at once.  Your a very scary man!

[Tim Boothby]

I'm not scary at all! Big teddy bear.

Basically, look before you leap into anything, id the grass looks greener in the neighbor's yard, it may just be a leaky septic tank.