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Has else anyone noticed business is picking up?
One large regular of mine used to do 4 or 5 jobs a month until the recession bit hard, last year they booked 1 shoot all year! Anyway the trend seems to be reversing as I start a 20 shot brief next week for them and have to hope that this is an early indicator of the end of starvation.
It was so bad last year I had to keep going on holiday to stop from getting bored!
Back to the grindstone now, praise be
Funny I was doing my Year on Year figures before I came on here.
I am down from 08-09 by 20%, not really bad considering.
Work is already coming in with 4 jobs booked this morning 
B
One swallow doesn't make a summer!
Ultimately it all depends on which market one is in. 2010 is still going to be a pretty rough year for many photographers. And you can rest assured that when assignments do start picking up again, for many they won't be at the same margins as they have been in the past. It's all very well quoting x number of bookings, but the bottom line is what are those bookings worth?
One swallow doesn't make a summer!
Ultimately it all depends on which market one is in. 2010 is still going to be a pretty rough year for many photographers. And you can rest assured that when assignments do start picking up again, for many they won't be at the same margins as they have been in the past. It's all very well quoting x number of bookings, but the bottom line is what are those bookings worth?
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Hi ThorstenM, I see you are only 9 so I guess this is your first recession. My advice is hang in there, keep your cool and you will ride it out. Also keep working hard at school, those exams are going to make a big difference when you want to get a job.
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Seriously though you make a good point; dont drop your prices because you are glad to see work after a thin spell - its like lying on your back with your legs in the air - it makes you look available but not necessarily attractive.
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My prices have stayed unchanged and my expression of joy is because the client I mentioned with almost zero budget last year has some budget this year, so thatҒs progress. Happily they are also not my only client I had some terrific commissions last year, which on top of a normal year would have made it stellar, instead they just kept me on an even keel in recession.
It's my first year in this business and I can't compare. Good luck everybody !
I can't comment on the photography market, but year on year our business was down over 60% last year on the previous year. But in saying that 2008 was up almost 50% on 2007, so the recession wasn't disastrous for us.
We saw a notable increase in business in Q4 2009 which has continued through Q1 of this year and have bookings through to Q3. So things are looking up, but we remain cautious and are still very closely monitoring and controlling our costs. I don't think its time to celebrate quite yet.
I can not really comment on recession for models, photographers and that industry. Personally I am completely skint, it is hitting me hard. lol! I have seen a few more shops going into administration, Adams Kids Ltd is one of them. One of the stores is in menarys, part of the same conecession mall i work in.
I was made redundant from adams in 2009 January located in newtownards. It has gone back into admin, the poor girls working in the menary's adams are not even getting their wages owed to them from december-january as JLS childrens wear (company that bought adams last year) are completely bankrupt. The area manager that has done the north and south since the beginning was paid off last week. Not looking good for them.
Also my workplace is empty, i actually stand at the till writing out what i would like to buy for my next shoot, makeup i would like with it and so on...lol.
x
