"Where is your pride? Where is your Nutsack?" Has it actually come to this? Do you guys not know how to pronounce the word "no"? Do you guys just roll over at anything they'd ask?
The upside to this crapped out economy is "no more excuses".
When Agency groups like omnicom disavow any responsibility for payment, when editorial now pays about a buck fifty for a spread, when "pro"fessional cameras are now selling for the "asking" price of $40,000• (The Lexus brand, not the Toyota brand), when used "pro"fessional cameras that sold for $30,000 last month are now going on ebay for $15,000 this is the time for photographers to grow some hair and say enough is enough.
I've put every supplier on notice, retouchers, stylists, hair/makeup to do every task, no matter how mundane as if they were working for their portfolio, because in today's world your gonna need it to survive.
The same holds true with clients and art directors. Everyone is client afraid and wants to drop back to 1992 concepts just to "be safe" and safe is not good enough, safe will eventually get you fired and safe doesn't do anything but hold you as a photographer back, does a disservice to the people that "eventually" pay you and wrecks your brand equity. I just had a discussion with an AD on a project and I said let's do this for YOUR portfolio because god knows you may be beating the streets in two weeks looking for work.
That doesn't mean you have to be a camera throwing maniac, or not do what a client needs, but it does mean that everyone has to free themselves from fear and perform at the highest level. Break the mold, do something worth looking at, shoot something that actually makes a viewer either bookmark it or tear the page out of the magazine to save it.
This also holds true for camera makers. No more of this "to come" BS. No more beta testing software version 4point5point2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 hoping it doesn't crash, doesn't trash your files, doesn't loose the settings. No more lenses to come, no more moire the size of a fist, no more lenses on backorder. No more political little backroom games of hobbling one brand to sync at 1/400th where the identical body with a different painted on logo goes to 1/800th.
Word to the medium format makers. If you want to be around in 2012 make it easy on your customers not harder. Make your file format universal, make sure your margins are low, your quality is high and you deliver on every promise. Painting on a new logo doesn't up the price.
If a piece of equipment doesn't come into my door ready to rumble, then it goes back with a big note on the package saying refund due in full.
This forum has all sorts of photoraphers and some work in high pressured commerce, some are shooting trees for fun, but let the camera makers test this stuff on the fun guys, not the commercial guys because the world of photography for commerce just got a whole lot tougher.
Honestly, this is the time to grow some hair and protect your own brand as well as your client's. If you do great work it will eventually rumble down the hallways as "wow, what a project, but if you turn crap, then you will be the guy that turns crap and never shake that label.
• ($40,000 for a still camera, you've got to be kidding me).
IMO
Big