How to Become a Photographer with Little – or No – Competition

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By Rohn Engh

Before the turn of the century, photographers, like most other professionals, worked with a vertical market. That is, they put their ads in a trade magazine or the Yellow Pages, and based on their talent, marketing know-how, and luck, they conducted their business.

This made for extreme competition. Longtime pros were able to cling to their top position because they built a following based on their competence and expertise. Newcomers to photography found it difficult to surmount this unless they brought superb talent or an exceptional fresh approach to the marketplace.

Eventually the field of photography fragmented into targeted areas. The photographer who could photograph most anything for a client, the “generalist,” was no longer the top dog in the industry. Like in most other professions, photographers evolved to specializing; the trend was to develop an expertise in specific subject areas, such as aerial, sports, fashion, documentary, etc., and to go after a “niche.” With the arrival of the Internet, all of this has changed, especially in the field of stock photography. The changeover comes to light especially when you look at the market from the buyer’s approach.

In our field of stock photography, a buyer turns to an image or images to get a point across, whether it’s for an advertisement, brochure, or textbook. Since our thrust here at PhotoSource International is from an editorial standpoint, I’ll address editorial stock photography.

The arrival of search engines has brought sophisticated software that has been able to break down the former restrictions in the field and open it to any photographer with quality images.

At the same time, the publishing industry has become more and more specialized. Type any topic plus the word ‘publishing’ in a Google search, and you’ll find that a magazine, book publisher, website or other entity, exists for the sole purpose of supplying that interest area with information.

Here’s where every stock photographer can emerge from the “Yellow Pages” race and become an important resource to specific segments of the vast market for stock photography that has now emerged –thanks to the Internet.

A publisher in Albuquerque no longer consults the Yellow Pages, the local library, or a bevy of good ol’ boy favorites when producing an article on a certain way of harvesting desert cacti. She consults the Internet.

Why? Because that “just right” picture exists. The “Law of Probability” says that a local photographer might not have the picture. Surprise, surprise. She finds it on the Internet, through a search engine search. The photographer is not even a New Mexico resident, but a visiting tourist from Japan who has cacti as his specialization. Thanks to hi-res delivery of pictures, the publisher is able to meet her immediate deadline.

I hope it’s evident to you that as an independent stock photographer, you are part of the largest stock photo resource in the world. No, it’s not Getty, Corbis, or Jupiter – it’s the Internet. You are no longer competing against those major agencies – thanks to your silent partner -- the search engine.

Rohn Engh is director of PhotoSource International, the stock photography online meeting place, and publisher of PhotoStockNotes. He is also the author of Sell & Resell Your Photos: Learn How to Sell Your Pictures Worldwide.

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