In times of crisis cannibalism takes over. It is the way capitalism works, so Vincent is right when he proposes not to have all your eggs in one basket. Ultra specialization is a symptom of a highly stable and rich society, neither of which will last long enough in our small finite world. I also agree with him when he says many photographers will end up doing something else.
The problem with getting older in this or any profession is that your overhead each day gets bigger, you think your work is worth more, that you should charge more, and you everyday start getting less but bigger clients. The small gigs that make pocket cash vanish and you start working on bigger things. The downside of this is that it means having fewer clients, and when one leaves it makes a bigger dent in your finances.
In times of crisis it is sensible to be very ¨light¨. Keep your overhead down, buy only what is indispensable in equipment, rent the rest if available, be creative instead of gear dependent. Having big expensive studios is a no no, unless you are busy everyday, it is better to rent them (have somebody else maintain and pay for them). And in my humble opinion, try to be different in your work, try to develop a unique way of seeing the world thru your lens. Develop a personal way of doing photography. That will affect you bottomline positively more than spending your energy,money and time in technology and magnifying glasses to look at pixels.
Things are getting rough in the US and the world these days. I don´t agree with Vincent Laforet when he says that the crisis will last for a couple years and thats it. It is my personal and humble belief (don´t make flame wars out of this, its just my opinion, nothing more, nothing less), that this crisis will last more than our lifetimes. So it is best to spend our energy wisely. We live in a linear fashion in a universe that is stubbornly ciclical. We pretend our resource base is infinite, and our planet obviously isn´t. We think of nature as something cute, from which we take raw materials and where we dump our trash in. That shortsightedness is what has thrown us into this situation.
I agree with Vincent that video will take a bigger place in media, but it won´t replace photography. As I read in Craig´s link, you can read a full story from a photograph with just a fast glimpse. Video you have to sit down and spend a lot more time to do it. The same way we still use pencil and paper to write down things, even though we have computers. The same reason why there are still grand pianos being made, when you could have the very best samples in your electronic keyboard.
But the profession of the photographer will change and dramatically in the very short term. And above the clouds, could be even more clouds, not necessarily blue sky.
