WHY DO WE NOT SPECIALIZE IN A SINGLE GENRE? A STORY ABOUT BOXES
Before I get into the meat of this post, I’d like to tell a short story of a past but relevant experience. A number of years ago I worked in Corporate America for a company that firmly believed each employee should be good at one thing only and never deviate, even if we had a good working knowledge of more than one task, we should never attempt to tackle more than what we were originally employed to do. I should say that prior to that I had enjoyed success working in companies that allowed me the freedom to step up and shoulder more responsibility as and when more ambition kicked in. So my new employer's attitude was one of shock. But perhaps surprisingly, especially to me, was the fact that their attitude was not immediately obvious when I first joined the company. One day we had some guys cleaning the building windows, and being the easy to get along with guy that I am, I got chatting with one of them. He explained that his company specialized in cleaning skyscraper windows. They were all ex-paratroopers who felt more confident being up in the air than being on the ground, and as a consequence, they hated having to clean my employer's windows. My employer, as they are in the habit of doing, had hired the best in the business and then placed them into an uncomfortable box, along with the rest of us. That’s when the penny dropped; I hate boxes.
Now anyone who knows me also knows that my favorite website is YouTube. I follow a number of professional photographers of various genres and I certainly do learn something new every day. One of the great things about photography is that you can never learn everything, that would take several lifetimes to achieve. But it can be fun learning a little at a time, particularly when it comes to my chosen genres of food, beverage, and product photography.
But now comes one of my pet peeves. Many people recommend niching down in photography. Not everyone, but the scales are certainly weighed in favor of those photographers who believe that we should only shoot in one carefully selected narrow-niched genre. In fact, I remember one YouTuber (I’m sorry, I forgot your name, but if and when I remember I will update this post) saying something like “No jack of all trades ever became famous”. Yes, I get it, and I could certainly understand if I was attempting to be known for wedding, event, sports, landscape, portrait, fashion, food, beverage, and product photography. Okay, maybe I’m going to extremes here, but yes, I get it. If I was attempting to be everything to everybody then I would likely end up knowing a little about a large number of genres rather than a lot about a single genre.
I dislike shooting people and only do so when my arm is seriously twisted. But even then I’ll try everything imaginable to get out of it. So out goes weddings, events, sports, portrait, and fashion. Just not going to happen! From the list above that just leaves landscape, food, beverage, and product photography. I do landscape photography, but just for fun. You’ll find a few landscape shots on our Instagram channel, and why not? We don’t use that as a portfolio. I can already hear a hundred YouTubers disagreeing with me, but you know what? It’s our account so get over it! It’s what makes me happy!
We specialize in food, beverage, and product photography. Yes, we have a few niches that we enjoy, and so that has become our business focus. We thoroughly enjoy participating in those photographic genres. I shoot a lot of beverages, but I don’t wish to sacrifice that just because we enjoy shooting products as well. For that reason, we pursue all three, and we refuse to sacrifice two of those three just because some YouTubers say we should. To prevent anyone from getting confused, our online approach is to have a dedicated website page for each, and when a client reaches out or if I contact them as part of our online marketing, I direct them to the actual page that will interest them rather than the website home page.
Returning to the YouTuber’s argument for less being better, here’s our take, just to provide a balanced point of view.
By embracing and working hard to master three genres that I would argue complement each other as opposed to competing with each other, is in my mind akin to stepping up and shouldering greater responsibility. In the professional world that often goes hand in hand with providing added value as well as leading to increased income. To me, pursuing and offering clients three photographic genres demonstrates our market value and technical competence and an attitude that shows we can be relied upon due to our dedication to our chosen profession.
But we know our limits so it’s important that we approach our markets with balance, as trying to do too much could be personally harmful and result in burnout, so limitations are important. This is what we do and we do not go beyond it. That would result in us becoming jacks of all trades and masters of none. I know only too well that there has to be a carefully established equilibrium between challenging ourselves and maintaining a sensible and sustainable workload. Yes, we will always rise to new challenges, but please do not put us in a box. We hate boxes!
True Images Photography never operates in a box, it provides professional beverage, food, and product commercial photography that gets your business noticed. Feel free to book a free 30-minute consultation here.
Do look around the rest of the blog here for more helpful posts, and if you have any questions please reach out. I’m happy to advise. You can also connect with me on LinkedIn where I always answer messages with a detailed reply.
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