Almost every city has a car portal or a bulletin board. Well, the car market, at least, should be everywhere. Once I noticed that on the forum, which is dedicated to buying and selling cars, there are very similar, well-designed ads for the sale of a car with a great optimized photo. Besides, I found not one but several ads. They were placed almost every day. But in these ads, despite the same style of the photographer, contact numbers were still different. And so it was repeated every day: sometimes more, sometimes less. It turns out that someone is very seriously engaged in such a business in photographs intended for forums or newspapers where there are free advertisements for the sale of cars. And since he is doing this constantly, it turns out that the profit is constant.
I was very interested in this, and the first thing I did was call the car owners. I asked them about advertisements for the sale of cars, and so, inadvertently, asked about advertisements on websites or in newspapers. And they all told me that after they placed a text ad in the newspaper, a man called them and offered to post ads with a high-quality photo of the car. For the fact that he would take a picture of the car and place ads on websites, he asked only 250 rubles. And this is for the owner of the car who wants to get from 200 to 500 thousand rubles for it, just little things. And all the clients said that they agreed to such an offer without even thinking. Moreover, it takes a long time for them to do all this, and no one wants to spend time on this, besides, they do not know how all this is done.
The man arrived at the appointed time. He had an ordinary digital camera with him. He took pictures, then very carefully wrote down the description of the car, as well as the contact phone number of its owner. For all this he was paid 250 rubles. And in the evening, an advertisement for the sale appeared on the Internet. Here's what I was able to find out after talking with the owners of the cars.
This is how a simple and profitable photography business is implemented. A person has nothing but an inexpensive digital camera and Internet access, but he has a great desire to make money, and, of course, there is a fantasy.
In order to find several clients a day in the city you don't have to work hard. And in the evening you need to spend somewhere only half an hour to place ads on the forums of your region. If you work like this every day, and work twice on weekends (after all, there is more free time on weekends), then you can get five, or even ten thousand rubles a month. Well, for students this is generally good money. Plus, it can be a great extra income. So, I wish you good luck in such an interesting photography business.
What does the coming year have in store for us?
Laszlo Gabani and Bulat Aleev predict the main trends of the next year and explain how they will need to work to improve the photographer's business
CRISIS OF WEDDING PHOTOS
Right now, the demographic hole that happened in the early 90s is taking its toll. So, the number of people getting married will decrease and the struggle among wedding photographers will grow proportionally. And no matter how you improve the quality of your photo, there will be no more clients from this. What to do about it? It's simple: do more than just wedding photography. But more on that later.
SERVICE FIRST
Yes, the client has become very picky and picky. But, first of all, not to the quality of the photo, but to the service. Therefore, in 2016, special attention should be paid to communication and correct customer service.
POPULARITY OF FAMILY PHOTOS
This trend was outlined back in 2015. But if in 2016 you want to stabilize your income and stop being dependent on wedding photography, then go to family photography. It is she who will be in trend. Indeed, at the time of crisis, people are more and more holding on to their families.
Just offer all your past wedding clients a child and family shoot. As a rule, most clients give an affirmative answer. It is likely that in a year or two the market for wedding and family photography will become equal - both in terms of volume and in terms of finance.
TEAMWORK
More and more photographers began to hire managers to completely give up planning and communicating with clients. It really does release a ton of strength and energy. Moreover, many have ceased to be afraid to share their income. And they began to delegate the work on processing, and on the design of books, and to work with a second photographer. This is how cool teams are created that make it easier to differentiate themselves from competitors.
PROCESS AUTOMATION
As photographers devote more and more time to business, the trend next year will be the introduction of technological processes, such as automatic e-mail newsletters, the implementation of CRM systems, and even self-tuning marketing funnels. Since customer contact information is so important in the photography business, all of these tools will help you get it and assign it to groups.
WORKING WITH THE CLIENT BASE
Now the quality of work with existing clients is simply disgusting. Everyone is chasing new ones, although now is the time to reach out to your old clients. To those who are already loyal a priori.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Behavior of webinars, broadcast on Periscope, use of Instagram. All this will gain momentum in 2016 and will be the main toolkit of the businessman-photographer. This is trust marketing - before you take a photo to a client, he already knows you and separates you from other photographers
In the rapid age of information technology, photography has become available to many and an exciting hobby... But if this activity is not just a hobby for you, and you are planning to become a professional photographer, we recommend that you pay attention to your own online photo business.
Of course, the first thing to do to start a successful online business is to create a personal thematic website where potential clients can see examples of works of authorship and get all the necessary information about the services of a photographer. This means that you need to choose a good platform for creating a website and take advantage of its capabilities.
There are many different sites for creating websites, and it can be difficult for a beginner to navigate all the variety of Internet technologies and web design in the field of creating your own website. Our advice will help you not to get confused and get the desired result with the least effort and loss of time.
Let's define what needs to be done to create a good website that will help the photography business thrive.
The easiest way to get a personalized website is to seek help from professional web developers. But many are stopped by the high price of such services. Moreover, even a professional may misunderstand your requirements, and the result will not be as expected.
Fortunately, there are quite a few platforms for building websites from scratch these days, and everyone can handle this task on their own. Using ready-made templates, you can create a site "for yourself", exactly the one you need. In addition, by creating a website based on existing templates, you will undoubtedly save money and time; as a result, you get what you wanted, because the site can be edited independently, without the involvement of third-party specialists; you can make a website without programming skills.
The first thing to start with is to choose a template on the basis of which you will create your own Internet portal.
Three Best Solutions for Online Photo Business
In 2017, the choice of ready-made website templates is quite large, since many companies are developing them. For example, we suggest that you familiarize yourself with the information about three modern solutions for online photo business in order to understand what functions of templates you should pay attention to first.
Defrozo is a great template from MotoCMS with a handy built-in editor. The many features and tools that the template is equipped with will help you get started quickly on creating a website. You don't need programming skills to work with, because even a beginner can create a website for a photographer thanks to the built-in admin panel.
Besides the constructor, the template has many interesting features. For example, a handy block editor. All you need to do to create a portfolio design is to place ready-made content blocks on the page. The editor works on the drag-and-drop principle, which only simplifies the task. Defrozo contains ready-made page layouts that you can use when creating a website. For each page, 4 original versions of the finished design are offered. You can create a personal blog to share interesting information with clients and prove your professionalism. It has all the necessary functionality for this. The template offers 3 types of photo galleries that can be used on the site.
Another useful template feature is Aviary photo editor. A functional image editor and file manager are included for your convenience. We assure you that these tools will certainly come in handy.
It is worth noting that you do not need to buy a template to start working on a website. You can use the demo version and evaluate all the advantages and disadvantages of the template before purchasing it. If after the trial period you want to purchase a template, all changes and edits you made will be saved!
Zenfolio is a popular platform that offers many ready-made website templates. The peculiarity is that no matter what tariff you use, you will not be limited in disk space. Moreover, you can download videos in FullHD quality, which is very important for a website dedicated to photography, as well as create unique slideshows, complementing them with musical accompaniment to your taste.
Zenfolio invites you to showcase your work through the Photo Center, where clients can choose the right photographer for them. This will help attract more visitors to your site. By the way, with you you can also open your own online photo store.
Zenfolio provides clients with useful tools for blogging, social media integrations, and gallery building. You have the option to use your own logos and watermarks.
Each customer has the opportunity to take advantage of a 14-day trial period to determine if this service is right for you. Within two weeks you will be able to weigh the pros and cons and make the right decision. Plus, you don't have to provide your credit card information, so you won't be charged any fees even if you forget to cancel your subscription in time.
It has all the necessary tools to customize page layouts and create an original website design. Unfortunately, at first you may find it difficult to navigate the many tools and functions.
PhotoShelter is a popular platform that has long been known in the website development services market. If you want to create a quality website yourself, this is a great option. This service provides disk space for storing photos, and allows you to create an online store for selling them. By the way, the team recently introduced a new product called “Beam”. Beam is an API platform that, in addition to the standard PhotoShelter functionality, offers fundamentally new features and tools that customers need.
The template allows you to edit site pages using the drag-and-drop principle. You can directly upload photos using. This can be done in three ways, including FTP upload.
PhotoShelter offers customers a great e-commerce solution. There is an icon next to each uploaded photo, by clicking on which you can send the photo for sale.
PhotoShelter allows you to use the product for free for a 14-day trial period to ensure that it is of quality and meets your needs. But in order to use the demo version of the product, you will need to immediately determine the tariff and provide information about your credit card. Therefore, if after the trial period you decide not to work with further, do not forget to cancel your subscription. Otherwise, the payment amount will be automatically charged from your card.
When starting a career as a photographer, it's worth choosing a photo editor. You can take great photos, but illiterate and poorly edited pictures will ruin the impression of you.
The skill of owning a photo editor will increase the opportunity to earn money through photography. You will be able to create cards, invitations, wedding albums and announcements. This work is always in demand and is well paid.
By the way, in a convenient editor, you may even like to edit photos, and you will discover a new talent in yourself. Check out the list of photo editors to choose the one that suits you best.
Some of the proposed programs can be downloaded for free. For those just starting out as a photographer, this is a great option. We present to your attention two good free photo editors.
Pixlr is a popular photo editor with over 600 ready-to-use photo editing effects. This program contains all the necessary functions and tools with which you can create a new image, upload a finished photo from a computer or using a URL, crop the photo, resize it, remove red-eye, etc. If you've worked with Photoshop before, Pixlr's interface will be simple and straightforward for you.
GIMP is a popular open-source photo editor that offers a wide range of tools for working with images. With this program, you can retouch photos, improve the composition and perform many other manipulations. GIMP allows you to work with all known image formats, which is very user-friendly. The GIMP also contains many handy tools for working with color. Basically, GIMP is a great free alternative to Photoshop's photo editor.
Despite the fact that these free editors are of high quality and good functionality, most photographers believe that it is unwise to spend thousands of dollars on professional equipment and save on an editor. To agree with this or not is a personal matter. In any case, you will probably be interested in checking out some of the options for paid photo editing software.
This program replaces Photoshop CS 6. It is available only to users with a Creative Cloud subscription. All the features of Photoshop CC cannot be described in a short overview. To understand how good this editor is, you have to work with it. Without a doubt, Photoshop CC is the perfect program for those looking to edit their photos professionally. The only thing you might not like about this editor is its price.
Adobe Lightroom is another good product from Adobe. The main difference between Lightroom and Photoshop is that the latter is not designed for the complex photo manipulation that Lightroom does great. Moreover, Adobe Lightroom allows you to store all your photos in one place, edit them and share the finished photos with your friends in social networks... Also, this editor offers many unusual features and is a good alternative to Photoshop CC.
DxO Optics Pro 10 is a high quality RAW converter with unique functionality. By purchasing this program, you get access to great photo editing tools and options such as smart DxO lighting, moire reduction, ICC color management. You can also create presets, customize color palettes and save photos different ways... You will also love the list of supported cameras and lenses for DxO Optics Pro 10, which is constantly updated with new devices. In addition, this editor supports importing images from Lightroom and exporting photos to this program. Many experienced photographers find this feature extremely useful.
PaintShop Pro X 9 is one of the best alternatives to Photoshop. The program contains advanced functionality for photo editing and supports all known formats, including raw files. In PaintShop Pro X 9, you can see about 1000 ready-made filters and effects. Moreover, this editor boasts support for 4K monitors, the ability to correct distortion, tools for adding text, automatically filling the background and removing large objects without cloning.
Now you know where to start creating a photo business and how to make it successful. It's time to put this knowledge into practice. Good luck and inspiration!
Julia Blake, blogger, SMM specialist, email marketing expert
Recently, the well-known photo stock Shutterstock posted on its blog the opinions of photography experts who talk about the prospects for photography in 2017. Read the full translation of the article on photo stock trends for 2017 on our website!
More than 115 years ago, when the art of photography was just beginning to develop, an article was published in one of the popular magazines for housewives, authored by engineer John Watkins. In the article, Watkins gave some predictions for the next century. He wrote that the technology of the automotive industry would remain unclaimed, predicted that the letters C, Q, and X would be removed from the English alphabet as unnecessary, believed that humanity would completely get rid of flies and so on.
However, along with a large number of predictions that were not destined to come true, John Watkins suggested the following: “It will be possible to photograph objects from any distance. Moreover, a photograph taken in China could appear in newspapers around the world in an hour. ".
Of course, John Watkins was absolutely right about this. At the time of this writing, Instagram alone has over 13 million photos with the hashtag #China. The most recent photo was taken 40 seconds ago ...
Following in the footsteps of John Watkins, we asked renowned photographers for predictions about changes in the world of photography for 2017.
Photo quality comes first
Brian Hodges believes that with millions of new photos posted every day, the quality of the photos will be critical.
Realism and authenticity in commercial photography
Andy Smith is not predicting any dramatic new traits in the art of commercial photography in 2017. Instead, according to the photographer, the previously outlined trend of photo stocks towards authenticity in commercial photography will continue. Instead of the ideal images of businessmen, smiling broadly doctors and neat and tidy repairmen, whose images were full of banners of various campaigns, the attention of photographers will be attracted by real people in real conditions.
Of course, models can act as real people, and the setting will be created in the studio, but the general trend towards realism will be visible. Interest in everyday imperfect textured images will undoubtedly increase and such commercial photographs will become more in demand.
Videography will attract more and more photographers. Anyway, I think we'll see more interesting landscape and first-person videos. Cameras and gadgets are becoming more affordable, and everyone loves to take selfies, right?
Video is coming!
Matt Dutile believes we will continue to see increased interest and demand for videos. Clients of photo stocks demand more and more interesting content of an interactive nature. The video responds perfectly to these requests. You will see a lot of high quality first person videos. It's not just about showing beautiful landscapes; First-person video is a great opportunity to capture the moment so that the viewer feels like a participant in the event.
The art of videographers will also increase. Playing with focus, choosing scenes - everyone will be able to offer their own approach, you just need to find your own promising style and cultivate your vision.
Photo and video as masterpieces of fine art
Jen Huang believes that filming videos will once again become more aesthetically focused. Today, when almost everyone has a camera, the exceptional skill of the photographer and videographer will be appreciated.
Creative storytelling versus standard photojournalism techniques
Amanda Mustard sees the modern photography industry as a downward spiral, but she also finds positive moments in photojournalism. Today, photojournalists use a variety of creative approaches to present a story as interestingly as possible. We are moving further and further from the standard techniques of photojournalism. In 2017, photojournalists will offer us more and more profound and aesthetic images.
Aspiring photographers will make their mark in the photography industry
Michel Figet seems like there is still room for new photographers in the photography industry today. Young photographers today grow and develop in an open environment full of diverse visual imagery.
Stop for a moment
Ayesha Malik says the world is full of contradictions. We are constantly photographing and taking pictures, posting photos on social media, creating a non-stop feed of images. We try to capture every moment without giving it credit for its beauty and uniqueness.
It's probably time to stop, grab a bulky camera that only works under certain conditions, and pay tribute to the history of photography by creating a unique image that is unhurried and deep.
More good images
Dave Brosha predicts photography in 2017 that the number of quality photos will grow at an astronomical rate. Never before in the world have there been so many professional photographers, and at the same time, there have never been so many photographers outraged by this fact. Dave, on the other hand, sees only the positive in this, since the increased competition provokes an increase in skill. Everyone wants to be the best!
Dave Brosh also predicts the phase out of the now popular “look” preset, which has been in widespread use over the past two years. Most likely, photographers will return to portraying timeless images using professional technique and artistic vision.
Photo boom from travelers - in search of the unknown
Aaron Joel Santos is optimistic about 2017. He predicts the emergence of photographers from Southeast Asia on the world stage due to the fact that there is great emphasis on the quality of images, both artistic and commercial.
He predicts the emergence of many images of distant places that have not previously been captured by photographers. The world is getting smaller today as people travel more and more.
New technologies will create new opportunities for photography
S. Gary Chapman believes that any new technologyand each new social platform creates new opportunities to experiment with photography. Our industry is changing so fast that even without the magic crystal ball, it can be predicted that technology and social platforms will continue to create new avenues for creativity in photography. The role of print media in the photo business will continue to diminish.
The photographer will have to try on a new role
Erica Dufo believes that today many amateurs can create good pictures without involving a photographer, so a true professional should also become a master of creating scenes, and a master of lighting and, in general, a jack of all trades.
The photo studio market has been stagnating for many years - people prefer to post pictures on social networks, rather than in family albums. However, especially resourceful entrepreneurs managed to find profitable niches in the photo printing segment.
The return of the photo booth
Each smartphone has a camera, each has more and more photos, but less and less people print them. Indeed, it is troublesome - looking for a studio, downloading images, waiting for a card. Long, uncomfortable and unfashionable. Why not invite people to print photos directly from social networks using vending machines in shopping malls, thought the founders of Boft Tos Movsisyan and Artem Garmeryan, who met while studying at the Finnish Institute of Technology in Lappeenranta. So the idea of \u200b\u200btheir business was born.
The partners ordered the first machine from the manufacturer of vending equipment. It took almost a year to develop and assemble a working prototype. The owners of the Moscow design plant Flacon agreed to place it in April 2014.
And it immediately became clear that the service was in demand among young people - some printed ten photos at a time. Then the entrepreneurs decided to invest heavily. They invested $ 200,000 in the creation of their own production near St. Petersburg and the assembly of the first few automatic machines. “I sold two of my cars, Artem sold an apartment, plus they borrowed from relatives,” says Tos Movsisyan. They decided to make the frames made of wood: firstly, it made production cheaper, and secondly, the machines made of wood looked more stylish, with a hint of antiquity - what hipsters love.
By the end of 2014, the partners had installed more than ten machines in Moscow and three more in St. Petersburg - business was going slowly, the owners of commercial real estate did not really understand who and why needed these photo booths. “Once we were invited to a meeting by the vice-president of Crocus Group Emin Agalarov (son of Aras Agalarov, president and owner of Crocus Group. - RBK) - he saw our devices somewhere, and he liked them. His assistant asked to send the make and number of the car in order to order a pass to the VIP parking. Then I drove the "fourteenth", I felt ashamed, and I went on foot, "Movsisyan laughs. This meeting became crucial - after the installation of Boft machines at the Crocus Group sites, it became much easier to negotiate with other shopping centers; in addition, applications for franchises began to arrive.
“Today we have 45 franchisees in 21 countries,” boasts Tos. Boft started selling machines to partners in 2015, and by the end of the year the network has grown tenfold. The device is sold for 490 thousand rubles, plus the franchisees pay 7% royalties and buy consumables. In Moscow and St. Petersburg there are exclusively the company's own vending machines - there are more than 90 of them, in total there are more than 300 photo booths in the network. “The average revenue from one of our devices is about € 1 thousand per month, but everything strongly depends on the location,” says Tos. For example, in the summer most of all the machines are brought in parks. The partners claim that the investment in the booth pays off in six to eight months.
Last year Movsisyan and Garmerian began their international expansion. Foreign franchises are usually bought by Russian-speaking business expats and acquaintances of the founders of Boft. The partners' greatest hopes were in the United States, where the Instagram audience is concentrated. But it turned out that American youth do not like photographs on paper - the vending machines installed in shopping centers did not even cover the cost of transportation. But in Asia, things went uphill. “They love to be photographed and print. In addition, in contrast to oversaturated Europe and America, new products are well received in Asia. For example, in one of the shopping centers in Vietnam, vending machines are 30 meters apart, and both are profitable, ”Movsisyan says. Franchisee Thay Nguyen, a former classmate from an institute in Lappeenranta, is developing a franchise in Vietnam. Another partner, Mark Mayer, operates 60 franchised machines in 12 cities in Russia, as well as Singapore and Hong Kong. “In Russia, the average revenue is 50 thousand rubles. per month, in Asia - $ 1.5 thousand, ”he told RBC. The company plans to enter the Latin American market, because Instagram is very popular in Chile and Brazil.
Now the company also makes money on advertising - they play it while the photo is being printed. For example, in Moscow, Boft vending machines showed promotional codes for a free ride with Uber. Last year, advertising brought in 2 million rubles. revenue, and the total turnover of the company exceeded 230 million rubles, of which almost half are payments to the franchisee.
In April 2017, the project won the prestigious Generation S startup competition and received 5 million rubles. “We want us not to have 300 machines, but 3 thousand. For this we need investments, mentors, expertise. That is why we went to the competition only now - there was no time at the start, ”Movsisyan says.
The onset of smartphones
1.6 billion smartphones was sold in the world in 2016, in 2010, at the peak of the popularity of digital cameras, 120 million of them were sold
379 thousand digital cameras was sold in Russia in 2016, in 2012 - 5.5 million units
1 million selfies users of social networks make a day, 13% of them always retouch photos
More than 150 million photos are uploaded to the Snapchat network every day, they disappear after 10 seconds
Source: Techinfographics.com, deloitte.com
Photo party
The founder of Event-shows, Alexey Utkin, chose a slightly different path - he rents out photo booths and instaprinters to party organizers, which he collects with his own hands.
Before Utkin worked as an HR manager in a large corporation. In 2010, I saw an interesting thing on the Internet - the mobile studio Dance Heads. Two or three people enter it, sit down against the background of a chroma key - a green television background, wearing green shirt-fronts, the built-in camera removes them, and after five minutes you can see a video with figures with the faces of "actors" dancing to recognizable hits and pick up a disc with a recording ... Such entertainments were popular in the United States, and Ukrainian entrepreneurs acquired the master franchise in the CIS.
Alexei found the format interesting, he thought it was possible to put such studios in shopping centers, and persuaded his two friends to invest in equipment. In total, about 1 million rubles were spent on the purchase of two Dance Heads stations. However, already at the time of signing the deal, the franchisor explained that this format is not available in shopping centers. “Adults in ordinary life are embarrassed to engage in such nonsense. But during feasts, when the guests are in good condition, such entertainment goes with a bang. While someone is filming, the rest are watching on the big screen what is happening inside. So everyone has fun, ”says Utkin. The entrepreneur decided to rent out mobile studios for private parties. At first, the business went on with a creak - the partners were disappointed and sold their shares to Alexey.
The situation was saved by a friend from the event industry, who invited Utkin to several holidays. According to Alexey, a wealthy audience liked the novelty. At first, there were especially many orders from Rublevka - they went to private parties of senators, deputies, athletes. The cost of an hour of renting the "fun station" at the holiday was up to 15 thousand rubles, the investment was recaptured in a year.
Photo: Vladislav Shatilo / RBC
However, after the first surge, interest in Dancing Heads waned. It was necessary to come up with something else. Utkin decided that photo booths like those that were still in the USSR would be in demand at parties. Utkin needed a mobile machine capable of printing frames with frames, on different backgrounds and with additional effects.
The first project of such a booth was helped by his sister, an engineer by training. He ordered the frame according to his own drawings from a company specializing in metal structures. The difficulty arose with the software. “It requires quite sophisticated software that would allow you to use different kinds of layouts, as well as choose whether to print one large photo or four small ones,” explains Alexey. He found businessmen from Krasnodar who were also involved in photo booths and developed software that provides the necessary functionality. Krasnodar residents sold him the technology for 30 thousand rubles. (later it turned out that this is just an adapted version of the American software). In total, Utkin spent 250 thousand rubles on the creation of the first photo booth in 2013.
“I remember the first exit now. We worked at an event in GUM. And on the second day, the equipment refused. It was September and it was cool at night. We left the equipment in the car for a day, and when we brought it into a warm room, it turned out that condensation had formed there. But when everything was dry, the machine started printing, ”the entrepreneur recalls.
The income was lower than when working with mobile studios, but the costs were also lower. Each blank disc that had to be purchased from the manufacturer Dance Heads cost $ 1.6, and the cost of printing one photo did not exceed 15 rubles. As a rule, the cost of printing photos is included in the rental price of equipment - 14 thousand rubles. in an hour. At first, Utkin went to events alone, rented a minibus to transport equipment, then began to attract assistants. Now a designer and an engineer work in the staff, equipment operators are involved as needed.
Then Utkin rented a workshop in the Moscow region for 20 thousand rubles, where he began to collect entertainment photographic equipment. For example, in 2014, Alexey found models of the first instaprinters on the Internet. The scheme of work is as follows: a blogger posts a photo and a certain hashtag on the social network, and the photo is automatically sent for printing. These printers are popular at parties.
Today, in addition to photo booths and instaprinters, Utkin collects and rents out gif stands (recording looped mini-videos that can be posted on social networks) and other photo attractions for parties. Among the customers are both large agencies and private traders. “In December - corporate parties, in the summer - weddings, calm only in November,” says the entrepreneur. He has not gone to events for a long time, he is mainly engaged in promotion and communication with customers. Over the past year, the entrepreneur earned 11 million rubles from the love of people for photos. revenue with a profitability of 47%.
Retro style
“At some point I had a wedding overdose,” recalls Georgy Keimakh, co-founder of the “Chypre” photo studio. A professional photographer was so tired of endless wedding photography that in 2005 he went to study at the Faculty of History and Philology of the Russian State University for the Humanities. In the first years of the university, Keimach also moonlighted with photography, but then completely concentrated on his studies.
George Keimakh (Photo: Vladislav Shatilo / RBC)
“By the time I graduated from the university, it turned out that the photography industry had changed radically - now it was a high-tech, almost IT profession with a high entry threshold. People were no longer satisfied with photo sessions with a DSLR - a similar quality could be filmed with a smartphone. We needed a camera for almost half a million, ”Keimakh recalls.
His wife Tamara threw up the idea: to rely not on fashionable manufacturability, but on the contrary, on vintage, and to open a photo studio with traditional photo printing. Georgy decided to team up with fellow student Anastasia Sukhomlinova - they became friends because of his passion for photography.
They decided to start small - they bought a 1967 Polaroid for 3 thousand rubles, another camera was rented, and in April 2012 they began to photograph visitors to events on the territory of the "Flacon" for 200 rubles. The guests liked it, but there was no talk of serious earnings - the cost of each picture was 150 rubles. But it became clear: the concept of a retreat photo studio could well take off.
The partners bought an antique wooden camera, a tripod, a mobile mini-development room from 1942 from an old man who had kept a photo shop on the Arbat for many years at Avito. “Equipment, for example, the same wooden road cameras, can be bought both for 300 thousand rubles and for 3 thousand - you just need to know the places and the right people,” says Georgy.
Photo printing technology is complex, but that's part of the show. An off-site photographic studio consists of three zones: photography, printing and an exposition of finished black-and-white works, which are hung on clothespins to dry. In the first zone, a person is photographed on an old camera with an "accordion" using a powerful flash. Next, the film from the camera is placed in a mobile developing room, which is a suitcase covered with an opaque cover with "sleeves", inside which there are baths with reagents. “There is a frenzy of excitement around us at any event,” assures Georgy. - There is always a crowd of children and men. One needs to look at the camera, the other needs to ask about the technology. It's not for you to press a button on your smartphone. "
Anastasia Sukhomlinova (Photo: Vladislav Shatilo / RBC)
The main income of the photo studio comes from outdoor events, payment is calculated by the number of frames. Average check - 50 thousand rubles. Initially, Georgy and Anastasia went everywhere themselves, then they began to attract assistants. “We do not have employees, there are just sympathetic people with whom we have an easy relationship. For their work they get half the cost of leaving, ”explains the retrophotographer. But the business is very seasonal - usually half of the annual income comes from one December. In 2016, the revenue of the photo studio exceeded 5 million rubles, profit - about half.
In addition to visiting events, the partners conduct photo shoots and photography master classes in their office (this is a room in an old mansion in the center of Moscow, which costs them 27 thousand rubles a month). In addition, the photo studio has points opened under the franchise - in Sochi, Kazan and Yekaterinburg. Keimach helps them with the selection of equipment and allows them to use the brand, while not requiring royalties. For example, in Sochi there is a retro photo studio in the city center. “Local chips do not understand, but the photo studio delights tourists from Moscow or St. Petersburg, they find it through Forsquare and other similar services,” says the entrepreneur. He dreams of saving money and opening a photo studio in New York - as his idol, photographer James Van Der Zee did in the 1920s.
View from the outside
Dmitry Merkulov, manager of the Fotoproekt network (11 photo laboratories in Moscow)
“The market is really changing before our eyes. First, the demand for film photo printing fell, and now for digital. Instead, conventional digital photographs have been replaced by photobooks (each page is a print that connects processed photographs, comments on them, and artistic elements. - RBK). At the same time, our income does not fall, since the average bill for photobooks is higher by orders of magnitude - 2-3 thousand rubles. against 10 rubles. for printing a separate card. We produce about 4 thousand photobooks every month. We do not compete with automatic photo printing machines, which are also gaining popularity now - they have a younger target audience. "
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