Interesting times...
We've seen the first indicators that the average amount spent on photography at US weddings has slipped. (Down almost $100 or 5% - theweddingreport.com). Is this a trend you've noticed? How could you respond?
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6 comments:
Perhaps this statistic is across the board, but I wouldn't say my clients are paying me any less, and I doubt few good photographers are charging less. And an amount of $100 does not seem to be a breaking point for people. In the end, they are going to pay for what they like. Sometimes a thousand more.
In my zip code, WeddingReport shows a more dramatic decrease for Photography expenditure ... just under 10%
Almost every established wedding vendor I personally know (photography and otherwise) is talking of reduced billing this year.
In years past, parents were probably using some home equity to finance some of this wedding spending ... today, much of that equity has evaporated.
by shooting pics that the pleb digital amatuer/semi pros cant produce, our industry is now riddled with these weekend warriors & the average client just wants good believable pics that are vibrant & clean & candid. the challenge is to give them that + more by way of making sure that we include some masterpieces that are beyond the ability of the semi pro masses.uaawm
Cant comment on pricing, but Volumes down about 30% this year.
I think cheap competitors like Graphistudio drive the pricing down...
I recently saw this over at Wedding report and thought about how this could happen. I've only been in the industry a few years but have seen the mass amount of budget brides that turned to Craigslist or family members to shoot their weddings the past few years. I believe this market will always be there but I have hear a lot of complaining about bad photographers from recently married bridesmaids(who wish they booked us:)) They say it wasn't worth what they saved and tell their friends that.
The only problem now in the US will be the market a photographer is in. The middle class is shrinking and so is the middle market. My wife and I are trying everything we can to escape the middle/low market and make the jump. Not just because the money but in a few more years all that will be left is -$3k and $6k+ no more $4-6k market and I think it is already starting.
So far, so good, luck has been on our side. We haven't seen a decrease in expenditures from our clients for our coverage. (Though we do very little upselling after the wedding because we like to include a beautiful album as part of our Collections. Perhaps that will be the market first affected?)Of course we have a number of declines over price, but we can't say that we are experiening more as a result of the economy. (All this data is for 2009 bookings.)
We certainly expect that at some point
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