Today, let’s take a look at the specs that really matter to a photographer’s life.
So if you’ve ever found yourself flipping through one of my lengthy product reviews on this platform before, you’ll probably realize that I don’t like talking about camera specs. All in all, the majority of the reviews that I write may refer to the aforementioned specifications, but the content of the review will definitely be devoted to the device’s use case rather than the metrics. random math that you can read in any product category. This isn’t just because I’ve been nearly two decades exhausted by the whole “specs issue” conversation. Rather, it’s because after three decades of being an artist, it’s a simple quantifiable fact that technology isn’t creative, artists are creative, and the magnitude of the outcome will always be. is governed by the quality of the artist rather than the wrench/camera they choose to use to create that artwork.
But that doesn’t mean paying attention to metrics is completely worthless. So, today, I thought I would point out some really remarkable indicators.
A few months ago, I joined a great webinar on Zoom. The topic of the discussion is financial planning for photographers, and it covers everything from investing to how to use debt to grow your business to sound retirement planning. Hardly the kind of content that would get a million hits on YouTube, but certainly the kind of practical information all photographers would eventually look for if their goal was to use art. to earn a living.
There’s a lot of good information in the webinar, but one section in particular caught my eye and inspired me to talk about the topic today. She mentioned that when trying to forecast revenue and expenses for the coming years, one should first look at the metrics. The specific metrics one will look at will vary by business type. But these numbers provide clues as to how badly the business may be going down as well as what expenditures may soon be causing its ugly head.
For example, I am an advertising photographer and commercial director/DP. So my income mainly comes from advertising campaigns which can come from advertising agencies, production companies or directly through brands. I do not work in weddings, events, photojournalism, family portraits, etc. Therefore, the specific metrics that apply to those businesses may differ slightly from mine. But the basic principles are the same. How many customers have contacted me in the last month asking for a bid? How many times have I won versus how many times have I lost? How many customers have I called/cold emailed this month? Has my contact list grown? How many existing customers have I contacted to sign up? Have I attended any networking events? How many awards have I won? And, of course, how much revenue did I make this month compared to the same time last year or last month? The goal of gathering this kind of information was not so that I could comfort myself or wallow in self-pity. The goal is to give myself hard numbers from which I can better strategize in the future.
For example, as entrepreneurs, we are all familiar with unexpected expenses. Your computer crashed at the most inopportune moment. Your camera is dead. Or, your camera is fine, but your business is growing in such a way that you need to upgrade your system. Whatever it is, it’s hard to know when we’ll suddenly be faced with a huge debit to the balance sheet that we didn’t plan on. However, if we pay attention to the numbers, we will discover that some of those “unexpected costs” are not always as unexpected as we think.
Here’s what I want to say. No, I didn’t realize that my laptop would finally be ghost-free this year. Like I didn’t realize that I would end up investing in the perfect camera system last year. But, if I look at my financial statements for the past 5 years, I can see that every year, no matter the specifics, there are going to be some unexpected big expenses. Something I didn’t plan to buy that year. Or maybe I have a spending plan some money but it ended up being more expensive than i thought. These expenses may surprise you when they happen, but in reality, they are quite predictable. In fact, if I look at those totals for the past few years, I can add up those “unexpected” expenses, average them out, and then have a better plan for next year. I may not know what breakdown or change will entail unexpected costs. But I can be sure that there will be an unexpected expense at some point. And those past numbers will give me an exact figure of how much I need to set aside for that expense when it inevitably happens. At that point, it’s no longer a surprise and just a predictable business expense.
Likewise, knowing things like how many customers are learning about your services and whether it’s an increase or a decrease from previous periods can be an indicator of where you should expect revenue. potential. Sometimes it’s a combination of indicators that help paint a better picture. For example, let’s say you haven’t applied for a job in May. However, at the same time, you won X prizes, received Y number of random calls from potential new customers and sent out Z number of cold emails, a 10% increase from the previous period. Sure, May may not be great. But you have reason to believe that June and July may have an increase based on other supporting evidence.
Or maybe you see a decrease in the number of incoming requests. But you also noticed that you reached fewer potential customers in the previous months or spent less time posting on social media. That can help you identify the source of the drop in time to fix it.
Of course, money isn’t everything. Some of you reading this are not interested in making a living from photography. So you might think that camera specs are the most important metric because profit is not one of your concerns. Well, not so fast. There are still more important metrics than the number of megapixels your camera contains.
How many shoots have you done in the past month? How many hours did you spend practicing your craft? Don’t talk about your profession. Don’t watch other people’s YouTube videos practicing their craft. However, I mean really going out and creating your own work can improve your skills. You don’t have to win prizes or make a lot of money to show progress. Look at the amount of work you’re trying to get better as an artist and the results you’re getting. You shouldn’t be surprised that the more effort you put into something, the better your results will be. So, have you spent 15 hours this month watching new gear videos of your favorite influencers? Or have you spent 15 hours this month doing test shots, trying out new techniques, or arranging your own shots to push your boundaries? Any one of those metrics is a better indicator of how well your work has improved than the specs on the product page.
Chatting about the compelling specifications of the latest and greatest tech products can be fun, but the real key to improvement is the drive to improve. Small improvements in camera specifications can be important in a lab environment. But paying closer attention to your own performance and effort metrics is a much better indicator of the greatness to come.
