…you were wrong. Household appliance manufacturing giant, General Electric, recently announced their entry into the digital photography game. Does that give any indication of how gi-normous this market is becoming? The name of their project is exactly what we’d expect: General Imaging.
As an anecdote illustrating how big it’s getting:
I was recently on a dance floor in Manhattan at 2:30 in the morning with about 250 of my closest friends (ahem…). At one point, I pulled out my Treo 650 to shoot a little vid clip of my wife and her friend, only to pause for a moment and look around. My guess was that 50% of the people on the dance floor were operating cameras while they danced: camera phones, video phones, or similar. Seriously, fifty percent of the people, or if that’s exaggerating, at least 1 in 3!
One might say, “ya,but that’s the camera market, not the photography market.” I say, they’re connected. As various media proliferate in our society, so does the number and kind of application of those media. Now, what does this mean? If you’re an amateur, start getting paid. If you’re a pro, start getting smart.
More accurately, If you’re an amateur, it’s a reminder that recording media is all around you. Share what you’re doing with friends, news orgs, flickr, and perhaps even get paid. Have fun with it. Grow your art and perhaps you’ll soon be able to license some images to offset buying those big SD cards that newer cameras are demanding. Heck, with Getty accepting images from anyone with a good shot and a reasonable camera, you could be getting paid for your hobby tomorrow.
If you’re a pro, when I say get smart, I mean that digital photography is proliferating and the market is growing. How should you keep or grow your slice of the pie? You’ll need to get smarter and make better photos to keep your profession alive and those paychecks rolling in. Don’t be afraid – get critical of your work and your business and make it grow. Hone your craft and differentiate yourself from the new wave of General Electric-shooting mom and pops.
Thanks State of the Art for the GE tipoff.
