Occasionally, I cruise through photography related news looking for a few nuggets here and there. In the past two weeks I’ve seen information related to portrait photography.
I remember, as a child, all of our school pictures used to be done by Olan Mills photo studios. Well, now they are defunct, bankrupt, kaput! Other photography studios are having a hard time enticing customers into the studio, as well. Loddy, doddy, and every darn body has a digital camera, access to color printers, and cheap processing, so they are doing there own thing.
No longer is a customer willing to pay a $100 sitting fee and pay a markup for an 8×10, etc. when they can take the picture, go to Eckerd, have it processed, and place it on the mantle, all about 1 or 2 days, for little of nothing. Sure, it’s not a ‘professional quality’ shot done with studio lighting, etc., but who cares? They just want the memory.
So, like the pony express, the portrait studio is swiftly becoming a thing of the past. I foresee slim times for portrait studios as digital cameras become more ubiquitous, a fate similar to the pay phone after the advent of the cell phone. The pay phones are few and far between, but they still exist.
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2 Responses to “Portrait photography having a difficult time.”
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When my kids were little we went to Olan Mills a few times. What eventually drove me off was the high pressure sales people AND the way you had to buy packages of photos that ALWAYS had more than you wanted in order to get the few exact photos you did want. I always felt that they were taking advantage of me.
That’s a great point, Ptelea. Of course, as a kid, I wasn’t aware of the high pressure tactics. They came to our school, took the pictures, offered certain packages, and that was that. I’m sure that high pressure salesmanship, which I hate, has a lot to do with a business’s demise.