Post 15

I had a bit of a reality check this morning. The other day, while shooting for the Jets, I noticed another photographer shooting in the general area that I like to shoot from. I thought he looked kind of familiar, and I thought that he might be someone who had added me as a contact on Flickr, a while back. I thought about it a little more after that point, and decided that it would have been too much of a coincidence. What would be the chances that someone who had added me on Flickr would end up coming to photograph a team that I clearly took photos of? I thought pretty slim.

Turns out it was him though, and he was trying to take my job. At first I was pretty upset that he was trying to take my gig from me, especially since it's pretty clear from my Flickr page that I photograph the team. The feeling of being upset only lasted for a few seconds though, probably because I got to keep the job. The price I charge the Jets is pretty hard to beat. The only way someone could give a better price to the Jets is if the photographer paid the Jets to let them take the photos, since I take the photos for free. It also probably helps that I feel as though I have a pretty decent relationship with the organization.

I thought about it a little more, and also realized that other photographers trying to take my clients away form me is going to be something that I'm going to have to deal with my entire career. I can only see two ways of combating this. Either charge a ridiculously low amount for a session, so that no one can really beat my prices, which will result in me not being able to earn enough income to live. Or, strive to keep strong relationships with my clients and produce quality work.

I've seen the photos the other photographer provides, and they're pretty decent. It's fairly evident that he spends more time in post than I do, but that's more of a style preference. The photographer's photos were generally pretty sharp, and a lot of them were more of individual players. The more photos of individual players is also more of a style thing. One thing I did notice, though, was in some of the photos the other photographer took, the photos were edited to a point where the skin looked gooey. The players looked almost like action figures. This is something I try to avoid like the plague. There's no point in taking photos with people in them, if the people don't look like people anymore. To me, that makes less sense than a penny. But, to each his own.

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