perspectives on the market...

[rgy1993]

Just thought I'd start a thread on discussion of the general photography market nowadays... please keep it clean i'd really like for this to be an insightful look into the different perspectives of this topic from people...

coming from a students point of view, i don't have that much experience in the proffesional field... only worked at a studio for a little while for work experience and that was awsome, so i do know a little bit about what goes on in the real world of photos.
I myself treat photography as more like a hobby, but intend to take it with me into a career path of some sort after school, and also its a great way to earn a little side money should people be interested in the stuff i do.

more and more though i see people that might pick up a 450D or D60 or something, and putting up their services on a little blogsite at, well compared to the pros, relatively cheap prices... just wondering if there's any actual proffesionals out there (by that i mean you earn a living and put bread on the table through photography) that can share their opinions on this? is the market being "eaten up" in a sense by these people that offer a few cool snapshots although maybe without proper training as you guys have...
are gone the days where a guy that knew how to take good photos one of the most respected dudes around?

hope to get some insightful discussion on this..
cheers!

 

[ckuang]

Hi RGY1993, the question that you're asking is really really complex because there are so many factors that overlay each other and are intertwined with each other. So to frame my answer, my thoughts are just from my perspective as a niche professional photographer that only shoots about 40 weddings a year so my opinions may not necessarily be a good sampling of what the market is really like.

So to answer your question, has the appearance of blogs changed things for the professional, yes, i think it has, but i think it also depends on the market that the photographer is targeting. I have a feeling that the emergence of blogs and people picking up cameras and shooting as a sideline probably affects the lower end market a lot more than the higher end market for a variety of reasons.

At the same time, blogs have also opened up much more avenues for the professional photographer. ie, we're shooting tons more weddings outside singapore for non singaporeans than we were 5 years ago. So all said and done, I think we're probably still the same where we were 5 years ago.

Does the good photographer still get respect? Sure, i think so. At the end of the day, if someone is going to be bothered to get a photographer at whatever price, be it high or low, they're still fundamentally there to buy photography that appeals to them.

Personally, i think the rapidly rising cost of doing business in singapore will change the professional photography landscape way more and faster than the emergence of weekenders in the last few years.

 

[Zohan]

Fees have gone down across the board in Singapore. This includes advertising and commercial photographers. This is largely due to the influx of photographers due to low prices on DSLRs and tech. It's pure economics working over there, it's largely a demand and supply issue. There's a lot of bad work but most clients can't really see the difference.

The only genre that has photographer fees going up is the wedding market is due to the organizations set up 4-5 years ago that raised standards and price points.

Z

 

[rgy1993]

i see...
Cheers for the reply zohan & ckuang, great to see things from another perspective..

what do you guys reckon the future is then?
will proffesionals have to sort of adapt to the new market, lowering their prices slightly to compete with these new kids on the block?

on a side note... just came to mind the other day.
people say photography is a very competitive business, which it appears to be in the media. however, when i take a look around me at school i'm the only guy in my grade who seems to fully understand cameras and such a little more then "its big it takes pretty pictures", is it really that competitive out there?

 

[Chris Lim]

Hi RGY1993, the question that you're asking is really really complex because there are so many factors that overlay each other and are intertwined with each other. So to frame my answer, my thoughts are just from my perspective as a niche professional photographer that only shoots about 40 weddings a year so my opinions may not necessarily be a good sampling of what the market is really like.

So to answer your question, has the appearance of blogs changed things for the professional, yes, i think it has, but i think it also depends on the market that the photographer is targeting. I have a feeling that the emergence of blogs and people picking up cameras and shooting as a sideline probably affects the lower end market a lot more than the higher end market for a variety of reasons.

At the same time, blogs have also opened up much more avenues for the professional photographer. ie, we're shooting tons more weddings outside singapore for non singaporeans than we were 5 years ago. So all said and done, I think we're probably still the same where we were 5 years ago.

Does the good photographer still get respect? Sure, i think so. At the end of the day, if someone is going to be bothered to get a photographer at whatever price, be it high or low, they're still fundamentally there to buy photography that appeals to them.

Personally, i think the rapidly rising cost of doing business in singapore will change the professional photography landscape way more and faster than the emergence of weekenders in the last few years.

:thumbsup: i now see where you are coming from Kuang. Can you share a little on the outlook of the market from you point of view in the next 2-3 years?

 

[confession]

I am only a hobbyist but I am hoping to maybe one day turn semi-professional so I am interested in this discussion with the players in this field.

In a nutshell, all industries are competitive. I hold a day job in the banking and finance sector and competition between banks for clients and even talents is strong. The reason why we see that the photo biz is competitive is because the market is very small. Barriers to entry are low but to make a name, is something that takes a lot. People like Chris Lim and William Chua have done that along side with other big names Jonathan Ho and Chris Ling. I once spoke to Willy Foo about the biz and he said that Weddings and Events are possibly the only two areas of photography that can earn a rather constant revenue stream. But that said, the differentiation of the services each photographer provides is the key. Willy Foo has indeed differentiated himself by providing live photography where every image captured is WYSIWYG.

While blogs and webpages have no doubt pushed the boundaries of marketing, the new media wave like Twitter and Facebook adds a very distinct and important advantage to the marketing concept in every single sense of the word. As a platform, Facebook serves as an important interface between the client and the service provider. But ultimately in every biz, it is a question of what can the service provider provide that can make stand out to survive. While it is true that now we see even 12 year old kids hold up a mid range to a high end DSLR, I do not think that this will erode the market for people who need the professionals in the field. At the end of it all, it is who is able to deliver and more importantly evolve. He or she can survive. The evolution here is not about using digital from film but rather bringing something different to the fore.

From what I have seen so far, there are very few people who are able to survive in this tough and challenging market for these people to survive, tenacity is the key factor. Chris Lim has begun to offer his services for portraits. But as we know it, the market for portraits is very small, to quite virtually non-existent (correct me if I am wrong on this). By offering a diverse range of services but concentrating on a niche market is in fact in a way diversifying and a differentiating one self from the pack. But as long as the client base is there and as word of mouth travels (of course it has to be good), the services of the professionals will still be in demand no matter how many entrants there are in the market.

 

[ckuang]

:thumbsup: i now see where you are coming from Kuang. Can you share a little on the outlook of the market from you point of view in the next 2-3 years?

Hey Chris, my perspective is that in the next few years, the cost of doing business is going to run up much faster than wedding photography rates. Photographers are probably going to have to work much harder for less money as the disposable income of the general population continues falling as the cost of living in Singapore rises. Retiring as a photographer would likely be increasingly difficult.

This year there has been quite a lot of talk among my photographer friends in Singapore of what next? in the sense of what is there to do that is not photography related? I think over the next 2-3 years, there might be several high end shooters leaving the market as they'll find that for the same time, effort and level of fun, they'll probably do better working for someone else in some other industry and not having to stress about running a business of their own. As a result of this, I have a feeling there might be a drop in prices or a stagnation of prices but a drop in real income...if it hasn't already started.

The rapidly increasing cost of doing business in Singapore and the need to spread our risk is the reason why we pushed ourselves hard to set up our California office this year and even within our office, my absence has certainly changed things up and now the definition of high end to our customers have changed as well, making it an interesting challenge to rebrand and reorganize. I can in some ways see this happening on a macro level.

Then there's also the whole issue about economic cycle. In the last few years, our industry has kept going up on every front. From rates to cost to the number of photographers. So as with all cycles, what goes up must come down and I feel like last year was the start of the down cycle which would generally run for a couple of years. Just ask those older photogs that have been around. I think they might have witnessed a few cycles themselves. Was it just the economic crisis? no, i think it was a combination of factors between the economy and a down cycle in the industry. How this overlays with my more micro view of things I'm not really sure. It will sure be interesting watching from afar. you know who I think would be able to give a really good perspective would be wedding album makers. they would probably have the best stats.

 

[mattlock]

The wedding photography industry has been great, I'm always impressed by the levels they've brought it up to

on my side, in advertising photography, I have to say I have been surprised at the amounts which companies are asking me to shoot for, at times where my margin is $0 (yes $0!!!) after factoring in production cost (in-house, not outsourced!).you know there's a serious problem when people are asking you to work for free basically. It's like asking macdonalds to sell you a cheeseburger at 20 cents.

work harder for less money, yes that's the situation.
tenacity is one thing but also look at the demand for advertising and media. SPH just released their year results. Look at the revenue from advertising and their print. Take a walk down orchard road and see how many ads even use proper photographs. The only ones I can really remember at the moment are the New Moon essence of chicken ads. And those are not the epitome of good photos.

One scary thing is that the heavy use of DI has lead to a situation where people seem to value photos less. And art direction these days are more illustrative rather than emotive, which is good for DI artists but reduces photographers to button pushers.

I am not sure how discerning people are nowadays about photography and whether they find it worthwhile to pay a premium for a great photo versus just a good photo.

I could go on and on but on my side, I am assessing how to adapt to the market here, we're eating each other alive each time the client plays the "oh this studio is quoting cheaper" card.

I think the photography market will become smaller. If I were in the clients' shoes too I would think hard about whether I want to pay a photographer a big lump of money for images which will mostly be transmitted via the internet now.
and as a client I definitely need to spread my money out to more media, as opposed to in the past that you could target outdoors,print and TV alone

Hey Chris, my perspective is that in the next few years, the cost of doing business is going to run up much faster than wedding photography rates. Photographers are probably going to have to work much harder for less money as the disposable income of the general population continues falling as the cost of living in Singapore rises. Retiring as a photographer would likely be increasingly difficult.

This year there has been quite a lot of talk among my photographer friends in Singapore of what next? in the sense of what is there to do that is not photography related? I think over the next 2-3 years, there might be several high end shooters leaving the market as they'll find that for the same time, effort and level of fun, they'll probably do better working for someone else in some other industry and not having to stress about running a business of their own. As a result of this, I have a feeling there might be a drop in prices or a stagnation of prices but a drop in real income...if it hasn't already started.

The rapidly increasing cost of doing business in Singapore and the need to spread our risk is the reason why we pushed ourselves hard to set up our California office this year and even within our office, my absence has certainly changed things up and now the definition of high end to our customers have changed as well, making it an interesting challenge to rebrand and reorganize. I can in some ways see this happening on a macro level.

Then there's also the whole issue about economic cycle. In the last few years, our industry has kept going up on every front. From rates to cost to the number of photographers. So as with all cycles, what goes up must come down and I feel like last year was the start of the down cycle which would generally run for a couple of years. Just ask those older photogs that have been around. I think they might have witnessed a few cycles themselves. Was it just the economic crisis? no, i think it was a combination of factors between the economy and a down cycle in the industry. How this overlays with my more micro view of things I'm not really sure. It will sure be interesting watching from afar. you know who I think would be able to give a really good perspective would be wedding album makers. they would probably have the best stats.

 

[cabbySHE]

so..how now, rgy1993 ? do you see blue sky, sunshine ahead or storm clouds approaching ?

Being a professional is never as easy or as glamourous as one thought.

There are a lot of untold worries that go behind the scene.

 

[Chris Lim]

Hey Chris, my perspective is that in the next few years, the cost of doing business is going to run up much faster than wedding photography rates. Photographers are probably going to have to work much harder for less money as the disposable income of the general population continues falling as the cost of living in Singapore rises. Retiring as a photographer would likely be increasingly difficult.

This year there has been quite a lot of talk among my photographer friends in Singapore of what next? in the sense of what is there to do that is not photography related? I think over the next 2-3 years, there might be several high end shooters leaving the market as they'll find that for the same time, effort and level of fun, they'll probably do better working for someone else in some other industry and not having to stress about running a business of their own. As a result of this, I have a feeling there might be a drop in prices or a stagnation of prices but a drop in real income...if it hasn't already started.

The rapidly increasing cost of doing business in Singapore and the need to spread our risk is the reason why we pushed ourselves hard to set up our California office this year and even within our office, my absence has certainly changed things up and now the definition of high end to our customers have changed as well, making it an interesting challenge to rebrand and reorganize. I can in some ways see this happening on a macro level.

Then there's also the whole issue about economic cycle. In the last few years, our industry has kept going up on every front. From rates to cost to the number of photographers. So as with all cycles, what goes up must come down and I feel like last year was the start of the down cycle which would generally run for a couple of years. Just ask those older photogs that have been around. I think they might have witnessed a few cycles themselves. Was it just the economic crisis? no, i think it was a combination of factors between the economy and a down cycle in the industry. How this overlays with my more micro view of things I'm not really sure. It will sure be interesting watching from afar. you know who I think would be able to give a really good perspective would be wedding album makers. they would probably have the best stats.

indeed, i agree with what you have said. We have been very much concentrating on the internal aspects of the business for so long that alot of people actually forget about the external factors affecting the business or industry on the whole as well. And also many have been input with the impression that the "Glamorous" life of a photographer is one that is easy to due with till they run into trouble too.

Actually, if you are available, lets have coffee sometime?

 

[rgy1993]

so..how now, rgy1993 ? do you see blue sky, sunshine ahead or storm clouds approaching ?

Being a professional is never as easy or as glamourous as one thought.

There are a lot of untold worries that go behind the scene.

haha i was just thinking seeing as i'll be off to uni this time next year, time to start considering career options and such...

i did work for a little while at a studio and yes it was bloody hard work; late hours into the night, clients that are just like ;( but still... its what i love so i did it haha

however i think i'll be heading more into the sense of photo-journalism instead of pure just wedding photography or things like that. ultimate dream would be to work for national geographic or something like that haha

 

[Jed]

I've been following this thread with interest, seeing as I'm considering a possible return to Singapore. I currently ply my trade in the UK, and I suppose as such I have a different angle on most things business related.

Looking at the general photography situation in Singapore, I must say that there certainly does seem to be a much bigger impact made by the semi-pro. Proliferation of expensive cameras among non-professions is much more widespread than it is over here. I suspect plenty of the people doing weddings as a side job for example are not necessarily insured, either for public liability or professional negligence.

To be honest looking at some of the rates on this forum for example, they are staggering. There are people that would get paid more to do a 15min PR job over here than some people are charging for a whole day wedding job on this forum.

At any rate, it would be interesting to find out more, and if I can contribute then I'll try as well. Plus I'm back in Singapore in November for the first time in yonks, so heh a coffee sounds good!

 

[rgy1993]

i wonder if the world needs reminding... of what is a "good" photograph... and what is a "great" one that only a proffesional can really provide.

 

[stor]

In this business, it is not what you could deliver. It is who you know and if you got good PR skills that can ensure your survival especially in this digital world. If you could not get good networks and have good PR skills, do not step in. You will find strong head wind even though you could deliver tip top images.

Besides, as everything is going north, the price of photography is going south due to intense competition and customers will take every advantage of it. Can you swallow it when customers goes for lower cost and accept lower quality works because they need to meet their bosses budget?

i wonder if the world needs reminding... of what is a "good" photograph... and what is a "great" one that only a proffesional can really provide.

 

[Chris Lim]

i wonder if the world needs reminding... of what is a "good" photograph... and what is a "great" one that only a proffesional can really provide.

U have to understand that its not so much about photographs esp in times like this. Its about survival. Its about business. Its about managing clients and standing out. Its not the same as 5 years ago where you can just say its about passion. Even if some of our dear friends are charging at 500 or more per hour. You need to start asking yourself. Are they rich? Most aren't, in fact most are struggling now as well. The cost of offices, home expenses, album cost, equipment cost, insurances, business expenses.... and so much more. And these are only money going out. Not coming in. Because the inflow of clients these days are more and more unstable. A year ago some of us can average about 2-4 inquiries daily. These days its maybe 1 every 4 maybe 6 days?

There is really nothing we can do about the influx of "new talents" much less regulate prices via means of groupings or associations as well. Because this is an age long problem for every industry. And this will eventually kill the industry because clients will get confused and they will not be educated on the proper practices that the players in the industry are practicing. The levels in low end and high end may even possibly just become a stagnate line on the graph board because a lot of people just don't get it.

A good example of how bad its affecting us. "I received a call from a certain someone one night, questioning me on why did i comment on his album and photos being sub par to a client during an actual day wedding shoot? And then proceeded to lecture me on how i should be protecting the industry players and so on." Now, I'm a person who has never had the practice of commenting on others work much less slamming the photographers work to any clients. More so since its on the job as claimed by the caller. He threatened to "RUIN ME" and "HARM ME" more then what i have done to him because he has been in the industry for many many years.

My question is. 1st, Does he have factual information that it is me? because all he heard was from an apparent client whose actual day i shot. And i have checked with them, none knew of the existence of this photographer.
2nd, Why did he not report this to his association who supposedly takes charge of matters of educating service providers and try to achieve a level of higher competence?
3rd, Why did he not come to me and clarify things first before confronting me just because a client said something?
4th, how is what he has done shown that he was protecting the industry?

So think about it. Is this dog eat dog world what you really want?

 

[limwhow]

Similarly, I have followed this most insightful thread with interest. I am not in the industry. However, I am equally concerned about the impacts which the economic upheaval and a proliferation of semi-pro camera have on the professional photog industry.

...

however i think i'll be heading more into the sense of photo-journalism instead of pure just wedding photography or things like that. ultimate dream would be to work for national geographic or something like that haha

rgy1993, I am glad that you have a vision of your career in your future. And more so that you see yourself as being involved in photojournalism. Just for my information, can you elaborate on the scope of work for a PJ? Do you see yourself working in Singapore, or more so overseas? How are the markets for a PJ in Singapore compared with say, a European/US country?

I've been following this thread with interest, seeing as I'm considering a possible return to Singapore. I currently ply my trade in the UK, and I suppose as such I have a different angle on most things business related.
...
At any rate, it would be interesting to find out more, and if I can contribute then I'll try as well. Plus I'm back in Singapore in November for the first time in yonks, so heh a coffee sounds good!

Jed, thank you for sharing. May I ask, as you are in UK and in a good position to advise, how different are the photog markets in UK/Europe/US (or even any other Asian markets) compared with Singapore in terms of scope of work and remuneration (apologies, a sensitive topic)?

***
And to all professional photogs here in CS, just for my info as a layman, what are the common and not so common work scope we have here in Singapore? And do our neighbouring Asian countries have any aspects that are unique to themselves that a Singapore photog may perhaps want to try?

Thanks to all of you!

 

[hotwork77]

Just thought I'd start a thread on discussion of the general photography market nowadays... please keep it clean i'd really like for this to be an insightful look into the different perspectives of this topic from people...

coming from a students point of view, i don't have that much experience in the proffesional field... only worked at a studio for a little while for work experience and that was awsome, so i do know a little bit about what goes on in the real world of photos.
I myself treat photography as more like a hobby, but intend to take it with me into a career path of some sort after school, and also its a great way to earn a little side money should people be interested in the stuff i do.

more and more though i see people that might pick up a 450D or D60 or something, and putting up their services on a little blogsite at, well compared to the pros, relatively cheap prices... just wondering if there's any actual proffesionals out there (by that i mean you earn a living and put bread on the table through photography) that can share their opinions on this? is the market being "eaten up" in a sense by these people that offer a few cool snapshots although maybe without proper training as you guys have...
are gone the days where a guy that knew how to take good photos one of the most respected dudes around?

hope to get some insightful discussion on this..
cheers!

The problems mentioned is not just affecting photographers who have gone pro but is a problem affecting other industry as well. I'm from the design industry where a single project can command a few thousand dollars. Now we have kids who think they can do a bit of photoshop or take a few simple photos and then offer their services at dirt cheap prices just so they can buy the next iphone. The market then thinks we must lower our cost to match the kids. Who suffer? In the end the client get crap service and we loose our means to earn. It is no wonder not many people would want to try. It is not that we are afraid of failure but succeeding in a sea of craps.

 

[limwhow]

The problems mentioned is not just affecting photographers who have gone pro but is a problem affecting other industry as well. I'm from the design industry where a single project can command a few thousand dollars. Now we have kids who think they can do a bit of photoshop or take a few simple photos and then offer their services at dirt cheap prices just so they can buy the next iphone. The market then thinks we must lower our cost to match the kids. Who suffer? In the end the client get crap service and we loose our means to earn. It is no wonder not many people would want to try. It is not that we are afraid of failure but succeeding in a sea of craps.

hotwork77, does your industry have any regulating association? Of course it is a free market outside there. But in my opinion, that is where the respective associations/society's regulating or advisory body will be of importance in maintaining a certain level of proficiency in keeping a list of quality service providers from the rest of the non-affiliated ones.

 

[confession]

Truth be told there are two schools of thought regarding the proliferation of semi-pro DSLRs from what I gather.

One school regards it as a boon while the other a bane. But there is a twist to this. The school that regards it as a bane says that it actually erodes the value of the photo biz as a whole based on the argument: any Jack, Tom, Dick or Harry who holds a camera can take a picture. Thereafter what comes next is after a few rounds of photo taking, they offer their services as a photographer and to a point of undercutting the market as a whole. We have often seen this argument here on CS. But this does not apply to weddings alone but in other aspects as well.

The other school in fact welcomes it. The argument here is that yes, while it in a way erodes the value of the biz, the twist comes here when it actually forces the current players in the market to think out of their comfort zones and move into something that is different and stand out from the crowd. The thing is some of these hobbyist or amateurs are in fact very good at what they do and are able to bring something different to the table. So this forces or pushes the current market players to do things differently and take a different approach to the way they have been working so far. So it is a welcoming scene in fact for them. An added point in the argument is that a lot of the new entrants tend to fade out over time because they cannot take the heat or tend to lose interest after a while once they find that it is tough. So it is the tenacity of the current market players to survive that plays a major role. Over and above, at this point it is about evolution of not only the biz but the photographer as the key aspect to survive. So the bottomline here is: what is the USP (Unique Selling Point) of the photographer that will affect his bottomline i.e his biz revenue.

I am not in the industry, but what I believe is that with the influx of many new entrants to the biz, kudos to the many players in the market for being able to deliver as promised. The results actually do speak for themselves. I was surfing the net and found a very old vid link as below about wedding photography in Korea. One thing that caught my eye was a hand painted pic of the couple which cannot be reproduced and it is one of a kind.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6632631420697510355#

At the end of it all, the ability to deliver is important as the clients demand so. Bring able to do what you do best and doing it over and over again producing the same top notch results is what makes the photographer standout (a very famous photographer here on CS told me that before) which should be the first and foremost issue. Thereafter, differentiating is the next step.

There will always be a market. The thing is for new entrants to capitalise and for current players to evolve.

 

[rgy1993]

U have to understand that its not so much about photographs esp in times like this. Its about survival. Its about business. Its about managing clients and standing out. Its not the same as 5 years ago where you can just say its about passion. Even if some of our dear friends are charging at 500 or more per hour. You need to start asking yourself. Are they rich? Most aren't, in fact most are struggling now as well. The cost of offices, home expenses, album cost, equipment cost, insurances, business expenses.... and so much more. And these are only money going out. Not coming in. Because the inflow of clients these days are more and more unstable. A year ago some of us can average about 2-4 inquiries daily. These days its maybe 1 every 4 maybe 6 days?

There is really nothing we can do about the influx of "new talents" much less regulate prices via means of groupings or associations as well. Because this is an age long problem for every industry. And this will eventually kill the industry because clients will get confused and they will not be educated on the proper practices that the players in the industry are practicing. The levels in low end and high end may even possibly just become a stagnate line on the graph board because a lot of people just don't get it.

A good example of how bad its affecting us. "I received a call from a certain someone one night, questioning me on why did i comment on his album and photos being sub par to a client during an actual day wedding shoot? And then proceeded to lecture me on how i should be protecting the industry players and so on." Now, I'm a person who has never had the practice of commenting on others work much less slamming the photographers work to any clients. More so since its on the job as claimed by the caller. He threatened to "RUIN ME" and "HARM ME" more then what i have done to him because he has been in the industry for many many years.

My question is. 1st, Does he have factual information that it is me? because all he heard was from an apparent client whose actual day i shot. And i have checked with them, none knew of the existence of this photographer.
2nd, Why did he not report this to his association who supposedly takes charge of matters of educating service providers and try to achieve a level of higher competence?
3rd, Why did he not come to me and clarify things first before confronting me just because a client said something?
4th, how is what he has done shown that he was protecting the industry?

So think about it. Is this dog eat dog world what you really want?

wow... thats pretty harsh...
wouldn't that be the clients fault for saying such a thing though? :nono:
true it might be a dog-eat-dog world, but isnt that the same as with a lot of industries? just that its particularly so with the creative ones like photography, design, music, etc...
i suppose when the time comes my heart will decide whether i love the business enough to take the **** that comes with it... haha

rgy1993, I am glad that you have a vision of your career in your future. And more so that you see yourself as being involved in photojournalism. Just for my information, can you elaborate on the scope of work for a PJ? Do you see yourself working in Singapore, or more so overseas? How are the markets for a PJ in Singapore compared with say, a European/US country?

Hmm, well I myself am an Australian, having grown up for most of my life in Indonesia and being able to speak the language I believe gives me a kind of edge over other PJ's that might want to work in the region. Plus with the crackdown on terrorism around here, and other factors I'm sure this part of the world is a melting pot of stories waiting to happen... Although ultimately I'd like to be all over the place not just in South-East Asia, haha

as for the markets, I would say as a Photojournalist to be purely working within Singapore, there isn't too much oppurtunity? I duno... singapore just isn't exactly the place that comes to mind when you think of breaking news stories haha. Back in Australia, my uncle use to be a photographer, retired now but he told me that in the 90's the market in Australia was not exactly booming, but stable enough to make a living out of... even if it was canberra haha



Not sure where he is, but i think it'd be really cool to hear from asiansheperd on here, he's a PJ in afghanistan and some of his pics are incredible... i reckon it would be quite an experience to work in a place like that, and compare it to here, where we really take for granted the simple ability to walk down the road, grab something from 7-11 and come back without getting shot..

just my perspective.. haha