Snappr solves the problems photographers face so they can earn more money doing what they love. But, unfortunately, not every photographer we speak to trusts that we're looking out for the best interests of professional photographers. Some put it more bluntly.
We understand the skepticism, now is the probably the most difficult time in living memory for professional photographers, and it's tempting to think that any change must be a change for the worse. But it's important to recognize that the way photographers and their customers connect today is broken in several fundamental ways, and the only way to fix these problems is by rethinking some of our sacred cows.
In simple terms, Snappr relieves photographers from the business administration tasks that take up the vast majority of their time so they can spend more time on photoshoots and charge a smaller hourly rate to make the same amount of money. That smaller hourly rate, and easy booking experience provided by Snappr, makes professional photography accessible to more people, which means more business and more happy customers.
Let's break down the way this works.
The Problem for Photographers
The photography industry does not work well for most photographers. In Australia, where Snappr was founded, Photographers are under-employed and underpaid.
In the United States, meanwhile, the number of professional photographers dropped by 18% between 2008 and 2016. Over the same stretch of time, median wages fell by 6%.
In short, demand for photography, or at least demand for photographers, is falling. You can blame consumers, you can blame digital cameras, or smartphones, but the change is undeniable and irreversible.
What remains is a world in which photography businesses only survive as premium services. Cameras are expensive. Lenses are expensive. Lights are expensive. Learning the trade takes a lot of time, and money if you decide to go to an elite photography school.
But there's a much bigger factor at play: professional photographers don't actually spend that much time shooting photography. They spend far more running a business.
When you book a photographer, roughly 94% of the hourly wage you're paying is not for shooting or editing. It's for marketing and a little bit of management.
And because photography is one of the most fragmented industries in the world, almost every photographer faces these huge expenses. So it's not surprising that the average booking fee for a wedding photographer is nearly $4,000 AUD in Australia and $2,600 USD in the United States.
But many people don't have that kind of money - so demand remains low, and will continue to shrink for everyone but the most elite tier of photographers.
The Problem for Consumers
In addition to the aforementioned huge prices for professional photography, finding a photographer is hard.
Yes, there are directories like Yelp and Thumbtack out there, but most use some kind of pay to play scheme and require users to sort through dozens, if not hundreds of profiles to find the photographer they want.
So it makes sense that word of mouth is a far more important channel to finding businesses for photographers than in many other industries.
But even once a connection is made, there's a ton of friction to hiring a photographer. Normally there's an exchange of emails about rates, times, locations. There might be an in-person meeting (or two).
So, if you're a typical consumer who knows next to nothing about photography, does it really surprise anyone that a person might be tempted to toss a cheap DSLR into the hands of a relative or the intern and say "That'll do!"
How Snappr Solves These Problems
The Snappr solution works by providing an easy, intuitive platform where customers can easily book a photographer at affordable flat rates, and providing a direct pipeline of bookings to photographers that does not require any time to be spent on marketing, networking, billing, and more.
While hourly rates at Snappr are less than many photographers are used to, they won't need to cover hours and hours of behind-the-scenes work. And because these flat fees make professional photography more affordable for millions of customers, which means much more business.
It's a new strategy to building a life as a photographer, and it's one that's much better suited to the 21st century.
