dennis2146 Loc: Eastern Idaho

I certainly cannot agree with your thinking. In every business field there are already people who are successful. The way to win even in the photography business is to be creative and show that your photographs are better than the competition. Every single day here on the UHH we see photos of birds at feeders or bird baths. To me they pretty much all look the same. But occasionally a photographer submits a photograph of a bird at a feeder that is stunning, surpasses all other contenders because of something he has added to the photograph, a new look, different composition, whatever he or she sees to make their photo successful and different than the others. That is what you need to concentrate on. Being different and submitting photographs that others have not done.

Look at how many photos there are of Yosemite, Niagara Falls, Monument Valley, any of the national monuments; there are most likely millions of them. But every once in a while a photo excels. That is where you need to be. If not then you are among millions of photographers who take photographs for their own personal enjoyment.

Dennis

dennis2146 Loc: Eastern Idaho

It appears to me that you are putting forth a negative opinion when members offer a suggestion. I am sure school photography is a competitive area but are you afraid of the competition. Are you really looking toward being a professional photographer or just writing a thesis on the business of photography?

Dennis

Coyote9269 Loc: USA

Years ago someone told my father that his trade was a dying trade. He was an automobile mechanic. He was told that with the addition of the computer systems in cars he was going to be put out of work.

I'm sure when the first Polaroid instamatic camera came out someone thought this is the end of photography. As technology changes one must adapt and change, roll with the times if you will. In today's world what was once a dark room is now a program called Photoshop and Lightroom. Business is business if you opened a mechanic shop it make take minutes or weeks for the first customer to walk in the door. Granted some people are successful in spite of themselves , but with some hard work , determination and skill the odds are on your side. I personally know a young up and coming photographer. He started working for an agency shooting horse races. This made him enough money to better his equipment. With better equipment and learned talent he was given a corporate team contract . His career has been furthered along with time , determination,skill and patience. There tons of people out there that get mentioned on this sight on a daily basis . Every one has to start some place. Perhaps a new photographer going into business for his or herself should not quit their paying job for a while that may be true. But if I went out tomorrow and had to take a loan out to buy an existing business perhaps I may need another source of income coming to make ends meet also.

Can't means won't. So if you approach any situation with a I can't attitude you won't get any where.

bpulv Loc: Buena Park, CA

Captaindon, did it ever occur to you that once you start the course, that the information you receive and your interaction in class may give you the answer?

russelray Loc: La Mesa CA

I beg to differ. My photography business is currently averaging a little under $11,000 a month in sales, and it continues to grow. As with any business, though, one either has to understand marketing or hire someone who understands marketing. You can be the best in the world, but if no one knows, you're not going to sell anything. I know my target audience because I have been working in their field for 42 years, and since I've been self-employed since the age of 11, I understand marketing.

My friends also call me a "serial entrepreneur" because I enjoy starting businesses, so much so that I have started 38 during my business career. Kept 7 for myself, sold 4, turned 27 over to the people/companies that hired me to start them. In real estate it's "location location location." In business, it's "marketing marketing marketing."

JCam Loc: MD Eastern Shore

I disagree completely! A college course in developing business plans and any assignment to draw up a plan should obviously include the potential of the business, but probably even more important is an honest evaluation of the problems--commercial, technical, managerial and funding--that almost all new (mostly small) businesses will encounter -- funding being probably the most difficult. With the %-age of new businesses that fail in the first few years, the negatives should never be given short shrift despite the desire, which I fully understand, to start or have one's own small business. I would suggest that any college professor that downgraded a plan because the author determined that in the final analysis the business as planned would not be viable is not being honest to the course title or his/her students.

I congratulate the OP's college for offering such a course, the OP for having the foresight to take it, and the 'guts' to produce a negative evaluation. I wish such courses had been available when I graduated from a well known business University.

If, after graduation, the OP still wants to open his own business, I would suggest that he first work for another similar business (small or medium sized) to gain experience at a management level of the difficulties of new and/or small businesses. It is one thing to read a case study about a business in trouble and the solution (or failure) in a college course, but very different to be directly involved when something goes wrong; the 'rose tinted glasses' get lost quickly.

mrpentaxk5ii

The problem with people that think a cellphone can match a DSLR forget the thing that makes a DSLR a million times better than a cellphone can ever be. #1 The lens on a cell phone is a joke.
#2 The lense on a cellphone can't be changed, a DSLR can mount a lens from super wide to super telephoto. #3, the flash on a cellphone is a joke, and an extra flash can't be added as on a DSLR.
The sensor in a cellphone is smaller than most point & shoot cameras, a cellphone has no SD card slot, no wired remote, no true camera controls, I can go on but this is why I do not consider a cellphone camera a camera
but something that has a camera function.

lmTrying Loc: WV Northern Panhandle

Don:
There will always be beer drinkers who will say that their cellphone snap shot is just as good as that expensive professional photo. But they will never frame one and hang it on a wall.

There will always be those who prefer the fine wines. They drive better cars, live in nicer houses and decorate with beautiful photos and paintings.

Advancement in camera technology will always be the target cell phones and tablets will chase.

There will always be a place for professional photographers, because it is their skills at composition, framing, imagination, seeing the light, timing, setting the mood, etc, that puts them way beyond average, and into the "I will pay for that skill" desirability.

Hopefully, some of us on the HOG have helped, and given you some positive direction that you seem to be looking for. Look inside yourself. What are you knowledgable about, and what do you like to photograph. Let that be your guide. Good luck. And drive forward.

dsmeltz Loc: Philadelphia

If that was what he were proposing, I would agree. But it is not. He proposes: "I am thinking of making my thesis on the basis that there is no business of photography in the future."

Dutzie Loc: I'd like to know

why would you go fishing when you can go down to the fish market....

photoman022 Loc: Manchester CT USA

I am not a professional photographer, but I've been around for a while. In the past professional photographers SOLD photographs (not files). I've sold a number of 11x14 prints that people have seen on my social media sites, but they bought a PRINT, a PHOTOGRAPH. They didn't buy a JPEG. I think we have to get back into the mindset of printing our work and displaying it. I don't know if there are cell phones out there (due to the sensor size) that can enlarge to 11x14 and greater. I say that because my cell phone does only one thing: it makes phone calls. It doesn't have a built in camera. So if a cell phone can enlarge to 11x14 and larger, I will gladly stand corrected. But, back to my main point, an aspiring professional photographer has to develop the mindset that they are selling prints (that is where the money will be); they will assemble a portfolio of PRINTS to show potential clients.

As to the OP, I believe he is pessimistic and is wasting his time taking this course. I recently read an article from a person who is making a living taking sports photos of middle and senior high school kids. His journey started when he couldn't get credentials to photograph the high school football team; he knew the parents of a basketball player; they asked him to photograph the basketball team (no one was willing to do it); he did and the kids went wild after he posted some of the photos to his FB page; he sold the PRINTS to the parents; other school teams approached him and asked if he'd photograph them with similar results. He started photographing individual players, with the school colors in the background, and "grunged" them up in Photo Shop so they looked like college and pro "Game Day" photos. He did it to promote the game and, wonder of wonders, parent bought the photos! He noted that his business expanded to other types of photography because of the connections he made when stumbled into a niche that wasn't being served.

dsmeltz Loc: Philadelphia

Because fishing is more fun, even if you catch nothing.

Fishing check list:

Beer
Pole
Line
Beer cooler
A bobbin
More beer
A buddy

Please note the absence of hook and bait as that could interfere with drinking beer.

JCam Loc: MD Eastern Shore

You are correct; I did interpret the post incorrectly, BUT he still has to produce a business plan for some photographic business; if he doesn't cover the negatives as the photography business, especially a startup, is today and verified almost weekly by pros on the UHH, he should get a low grade for disregarding the obvious, and growing, competition.

cambriaman Loc: Central CA Coast

Don't be so uncreative, it might reflect in your photography! There are many niche opportunities out there if you get creative. How about photographing homes for proud owners? How about specializing in collectible car photography? How about documenting important collectible books, page by page? How about offering your services to document a museum collection? How about candid school photography for yearbooks? How about documenting family gatherings? How about walking around your city with your camera and portable printer? How about taking your camera and printer to the beach and offering candid photos? How about leaving your business card with wedding dress retailers? What about leaving your card with pastors offering documentation of baptisms, communions and confirmations.

dsmeltz Loc: Philadelphia

He seems to want to get some certification (mentioned in a later post) whatever the certification is can (and perhaps should) form the basis of the business for which he must present a plan.