Why Does a Photographer Need Motion?
trying to figure out how you transition from stills to motion, and it's a big transition. I think it's intimidating for, ah, lot of people to start thinking about doing something else. That really in itself could be an entirely separate career. You could be a still photographer and never do motion, and that's fine. You can do motion and be the next Steven Spielberg, and that might be fine. But how and why are so many people in this stills world moving into motion? You know, I'm a great case and study on that one. So you know, I never really thought of Motion as as a career once I began as a photographer, but ironically enough, my first career before actually pursuing photography was at a motion picture studio. I was actually in marketing, and I did that for almost 10 years before saying, You know what? I can't do the marketing thing. I can't do the best job thing, a little more freedom than that. And so that's when I started to marry my two passions, photography and the outdoors togeth...
er. But what I didn't realize was that had laid a great foundation there in the motion picture industry to really understand all of different pieces of storytelling, getting to sit in on scoring sessions with composers and editing bays with these great editors. And it was really amazing because at the exact same time, I decided make that decision to go in pursuit photography. The DSLR with video came out, and so here I am with this DSLR and all the sudden it shoots this great video quality. At the time, it was really incredible to remember my first impression of it thinking, Wow, this is really beautiful stuff and today it is no less beautiful. It's even more beautiful. The quality and the controls are more powerful than ever before. But there is an incredible set of tools that really come with this transition. There's a lot to understand with this transition, So the fundamentals of moving from stills to motion, um, has a lot of potential upside, and I think that there's a lot of reasons why photographers need this. One thing I will say above all else is really an additional source of revenue. What more is there to say if there was no other reason other than the creative, of course, and feeling good. It is really going to become an additional and probably necessary source of revenue for the outdoor or any photographer. In my mind, outdoor photography is already challenging If you're climbing photographer Ah, rock climbing if you're running trail running, ice climbing all those things If you love the outdoors backpacking, camping, it's challenging. There's a very limited market. You could do it, but you have to be reasonable about your expectations. But you can now potentially even double your revenue. Maybe even pass your photography revenue with motion clips. And more than ever before, with digital streaming in technologies and websites and more more of a greater need for ads online that are constantly changing, they're appealing to so many different demographics. There's a greater need than ever before. Four motion clips for licensing for finished products for still images, of course. So I think for me a photographer needs motion because it is an additional source of revenue. It is unnecessary source of revenue, and I'll talk a little bit about what kind of revenue you can see from that. I hinted at it a little bit in my drone class, so you can you can see what that is really the same, whether it's aerial footage or whether it's underwater footage or landscape footage. It's really the same sort of criteria for pricing across the board. So it's really there's no real big difference on that additional source of revenue. That's why you need it. Photography rates are going down. Motion clip rates are really good special in the commercial space. You can still get thousands of dollars for a clip that will run in an ad, you know. So there's a real There's a real good potential upside for it on. And there's also some other really cool ways to bring these things together, too. So talk about that in a minute. Untapped marketing opportunities. I mean, think about what you could do with motion for yourself. I mean, you're opening an entire industry for what you do. I mean, my company is called tandem stills and motion. I mean, those two things side by side are powerful. Imagine you're a brand, and you need somebody to do a photography campaign and you love their vision. But you need that photography campaign to match the motion campaign. The ad. What you gonna do this is what gives it to you, right? You have new untapped marketing opportunities. You have all new clients, clients who maybe don't need stills and Onley want motion for their campaigns. They're out there. I promise you, there's lots of them. Think about reality television shows. That's a great example. They buy stock footage all the time. You know when you're watching some, you know, I don't want to name names what kind of shows and give it with that kind of stuff away, because I don't think I like the best television always. But, um, you know, reality television shows, you know you have a clip of rodeo drive, right? Let's say you're on a travel trip, you know, and you want. And you know, you film a clip or something like that of that sign or that street sign. Theoretically, when they do a cutaway, they're not always filming that. Originally, a lot of that stock in our case wouldn't be Rodeo drive right. You need a permit and everything else, but let's say you're out in the landscape. Maybe it's one of these ah shows on, like a discovery or National Geographic or something like that, and They need to show what Alaska is like in the winter, and they want a shot that looks really cold and the wind is blowing. They're not going to sit out there, wait to get that. They might license that clip. It might get it, too, but they've might license that clip. That's a new opportunity for you. The production companies. That's who you be marketing, too. You're probably not marketing stills to production companies, maybe for ads, but not as a still photographer. Not very often. So you have a lot of untapped markets that you can get into. Um, it's really a great new creative outlet. Of course, I think that's a great reason for a photographer. Go to motion. It will push you. There's a lot of new ways to start expressing yourself through it. I think it's a really great way to go staying competitive. I think this is probably also these air. These are all really good reasons. To be honest. Every time I see one of my God, yeah, that is a really good point. You have to stay competitive. I could tell you now if you're thinking about being a professional photographer, where you already are one. And you want people to take you seriously. Motion is going to really throw you over the top. I mean, if you're able to add that to your repertoire, you will truly be competitive because most people want it. I can tell you prior to even doing all these big projects, I'm doing all over the place. 90% of my projects at emotion element. They booked me as a still photographer. My editors would frequently tell me the reason we want you is not just because you're great. It still is, but because we have to have a motion component and you could do both. And so instead of them having higher to people, they'd rather pay me an extra 25 or 50% of my day rate to have me going to the field, have one person do it. The look and style is consistent. The story is consistent and they say 50 50% of their revenue or whatever the differences. Because you don't necessarily double your price for two different products. You may may actually triple it, depending on how much they need for motion. But if you're just shooting, you're probably gonna add anywhere from 25 to 50% to your day rate, and you're making more money in the end. So it's a win win for everybody and so keeps you competitive. It'll open up. Motion will open up stills, opportunities without a doubt. And that's a great example, because you see editors frequently who say that they need motion, maybe have a digital version of the magazine social media, all the other same reasons that everyone needs video these days. That's the thing that makes you competitive ability to tell a story important to you in a new way. Personal reasons. I mean, this is all about creativity. At the end of the day, storytelling in three dimensions It really opens up so many new opportunities to tell a story that's important to you. You know, I care very much about conservation in the environment and outdoor stories, and to be able to highlight those and to bring people in to make them feel like they really understand a place and bring music and audio and sound effects into it. It really allows me to express that part of it. What is it that you love? What is it that you enjoy? Doesn't even have to be the outdoors Could be anything, but it allows you to express that in a new way. And of course, new audiences are the people who are reading your books. Checking out your blawg, visiting your website, looking at your social media. Are they the same people you're going to reach for the film? Think of all the different places your film can go and where Oh, live when you think about the long tail of it I mean a really successful film. I have a friend. I mentioned Ben Herndon. He's a great one of our great long photographers is an amazing, amazing adventure. Sports photographer had never really considered motion seriously. And I'm gonna be talking about him actually quite a bit, because I have a big part of my analysis for capturing stock. We did a stills, emotion shoot together, side by side. I did motion. He did stills so that we could try and build the two different looks in areas of expertise together. And that's all part of that, um, that analysis that I'll dio in one of the classes, but his story is really interesting because he never did video at all, but he started do video as well. So he's dabbling in video and I'm doing video he's doing still. So we paired up to do this thing, but he ended up producing a film that had nothing to do with adventure sports. Don't call Dos Fischer Wright. It's kind of funny. Very stylized. A short film got in. The Telluride Mountain Film Festival ended up going on tour. His getting Social Media Poll is promoting it to his audience. He's building a new fan base. It's opening up all these new doors for him. It was his first film. He put a lot of time into the planning. He was already an experience pro. He knew how to build compositions and imagery you how to produce a shoot. He had a style eyes, a get people who could get great canvas tents and clearly knows people with great mustache is You'll see the film and you know, he knew he had put all those lnc that we hadn't shot before. But he spent time and he learned the skills. He learned the steps. The shooting motion put together a very simple film, short and away, it goes, opens up about entire new audience for him. All these new opportunities, and it becomes a marketing piece, you know, it doesn't necessarily have to be a revenue generator. Motion doesn't HAVE to be revenue Generate could be a way for you to simply highlight your your photography business. And maybe it's all about you and your business in your company. So new audiences. I mean, I think these really are six steps or six reasons why photographer needs motion Now you may say, I don't want to deal with it. I don't need to get more gear, don't spend more money, and that's fine. But then you have to be reasonable about the expectation of your revenue as a still photographer and the expectations of your marketing potential, because they will be limited to that.