Photography During the Pandemic Recovery
USA, English and European photographers are working in different circumstances to Australian photographers in mid 2021. This article may help events, wedding suppliers & venues in major cities during their lockdown.
Australia “Photographer” Search Trend over 3 Months
Australia Photographer Search Trend over 3 Months 18th May to 18th August 2021
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Last updated: 4-9-2020
We all know corporate events and weddings play an essential part in their respective communities. So lets work together and get our sector healthy again.
“The EEAA is committed to best-practice industry standards and the Safe Operating Framework has been developed to ensure the safe delivery and operation of exhibitions and business events across Australia.” said Claudia Sagripanti, Chief Executive of EEAA.
4 main areas of readiness are;
Physical Distancing, Protect and Detect, Cleaning, Hygiene Environment Management and Communication.
To have a better chance of business events making a quick return we all need to embrace this. To not only keep the vulnerable safe but to also give some confidence to all the stakeholders such as people who manage their expo staff, venues and sponsors
Hopefully the Government will play their part in allowing the industry to get back to business. “The number one priority of the exhibition and events industry is the health and safety of everyone who attends and participates in-person at trade and consumer shows, conferences and meetings.
The COVID-19 Safe Operating Framework forms the second phase of the EEAA be #ExpoReady campaign.
Event Safe Operating Frame Work by EEAA
Where are event staff and photographers at most risk?
New Study on the risks associated with corona-virus, indoor and outdoor events risks, ventilation and exposure time matrix may help Sydney Photographers gauge their risk on shoots.
This research is applicable to photographers that capture mass participation events such as weddings and event photographers.
This helps give us some confidence about where we as suppliers to the events sector are at low, medium and at high risk. Outdoor well ventilated events according to this report are where we could look for more opportunities to shoot events. Bride and grooms may decide an outdoor wedding is best in 2020. You can shoot headshots and portraits outside as well instead of a high-rise building in the CBD.
More space for people to spread out in large outdoor venues in fresh air. Though the economics of running events may be prohibitive.
Chart first published on BMJ.
About – They have been around for 190 years and publish articles that help readers around the world. Mainly to doctors so they can make better decisions about practice, policy, education, and research.
Photography for small to medium businesses and discerning individuals
Chart: Photographers Covid 19 risk outdoor and indoor. Source
Last Updated 26-04-2020
COVID 19 Effect on Photography
Will the photography industry be the same again? Going by history it will (in a macro sense). The photography industry has adapted over the last hundred years. Whether the influence is by technology or consumer trends. Creatives always get creating.
This post was first published on the 25th March, about 30 days ago. The Australian risk was very different with escalating numbers. Now we’re enjoying the peace of mind that comes from the early sacrifice. The mood is more upbeat about the mid to long term future on the newsletters we receive. Albeit lots of continued short term pain.
A month ago there was a huge thirst for information on the effects of COVID-19 and photography. That’s tapered a little. Either by an algorithm or searcher intent.
This article update highlights data on the charts below from visitors to this page. Although not huge numbers it gives us an insight into who had an interest in photography during the up swing of COVID-19 cases.
Australian photographers and others who are interested in the subject (just over 500) visited the page. That’s enough to see some patterns. All the data is from Google Analytics.
Photographers interest by age
Data sample from 25th March to 25th April 2020 with a data sample size of 535 page entrances in Australia.
First thing that jumps out is that the 25-34 year old are by far the highest visitors to this page, 41.5%.
Perhaps not too surprising given that many people in the entertainment, events and photography sectors are pre middle age.
With many gig, casual and part time workers.
People over the age of 65 are the lowest visitors to the article, 5.8%.
Given the higher numbers in the 25-34 age bracket, if you have staff or co-workers who fall into this segment, perhaps keep a closer eye on them as they may need more support.
The Australian government has not been as helpful to gig or freelance workers as other sections of the workforce.
Interest by Australian States
The clear observation that NSW has got the most views of the page is clear.
Our assumption for this is that one of the biggest population in proximity to us plays are large factor.
Search engines like to serve pages that are close to the searcher.
The numbers don’t accurately match the Australian interest probably because not everyone that has set Australia as their home country but a few may not have NSW listed as their State.
NSW 256 clicks, Queensland 100, Victoria 87 and the remaining from other States.
Photographers by gender
The interest by gender of Australian searchers to the site during the pandemic up swing is pretty even.
We had thought there were too few female photographers. Perhaps there are and these numbers were balanced out by events professionals, are there more females than male in the Events Industry?
48.8% female page visitors and 51.2% male.
All the data presented is from Google Analytics.
Risk for photographers and events professionals
The data from this research reveals some of the risk scores for our industry.
- Photographers COVID-19 risk score is 22.3
- Marketing Managers scored 23.7
- Meeting, Convention, and Event Planners 42.4
- Camera and Photographic Equipment Repairers 10.6
- Ushers, Lobby Attendants, and Ticket Takers 51.2
- Printing Press Operators 17.7
- Security Guards 23.9
See chart below for a visual on risk to income positioning. Not all job types are marked on the graphic but more are available with a manual search of the data. A few industry specific job types are added manually.
Photographers COVID-19 Risk Score
Last Updated 25-03-2020
Venues ‘Closed’ for Business
ICC Sydney our largest and newest purpose built exhibition and performance space is essentially shut down for the Federal Governments mandated period from 18th March to 16th June. With not more than a hundred people allowed indoors, this cancels every business event and live entertainment at all major venues.
Smaller venues are similarly effected. One of our favourite to visit are our historic houses that operate as “Living Museums” are also closed.
Lost Jobs During COVID-19 in Events
Jobs and business losses in some parts of the media sector will struggle. Change is going to hurt. APP – Medianet knows this well with their recent turbulence. Even so they’ve put together a Jobs Board for those who need every avenue to get a camera back in their hand.
They’ve also put this resource together highlighting some events and how they’ve been affected.
Survey Results from 400 VC Founders (US)
Survey released early April 2020 from 400 Seed, Series A & VC Founders (US based)
Research by nfx.com reveals what venture capital invested businesses are thinking. Technology plays an important role in the Events sector. Software and broadcasting comes to mind.
Survey results on who’s standing down staff and who’s hiring.
From NFX “We understand the challenges our community is facing. We hope this information helps everyone navigate more confidently”
Chart – Survey Who’s Standing Down Staff and Who’s Hiring Data Collection by NFX.com
Who’s Hiring During COVID-19 Coronavirus
If you need to pivot your career to keep your own job or business and keep your employees, casuals or otherwise. It helps to see a macro view of the shifting business landscape. Who’s hiring and which sectors are or have stalled.
It’s okay to stay in a sector that’s temporarily stalled if you’ve got the means to carry yourself through. If there’s no hurry to make a decision. Hold back. Rushed decisions should be avoided without consulting your trusted network and sleeping on it a while.
A positive note from Michael Taylor at Candor.co “one interesting thing I noticed, is that every industry still has some companies hiring”
Industry Sectors, Hiring and Firing – COVID-19. Data Collection by Candor.co
Wedding Photographers Also Hit Hard
Besides Photographers in Sydney of every sub genre loosing work. Spare a thought for Sydney wedding photographers.
With the Federal Health Department issuing specific limitations on weddings
“Weddings can be conducted with no more than five people, including the couple, the celebrant and the witnesses. The 4 square metre rule and social distancing must be observed.”
Wedding photographer play an integral role at weddings. Such a special time needs to be recorded. Photographers who specialise in this area full time will no doubt be loosing all their income. Same to for hair and make up, florist, stylists and how many couples and their parents have poured thousands of dollars into the wedding celebrations long in advance.
Wedding Cancellations and Refunds
The ACCC (Australian Competition & Consumer Commission) has this Q&A specifically mentioning this scenario.
Question – My wedding has been cancelled or reduced in size. Am I entitled to a refund of the deposit I’ve paid separately to other vendors for products or services I no longer need, such as my florist, photographer, live band, car hire company, etc.?
Answer –
- You should first approach the provider of each service to see if they are prepared to offer a refund or other remedy, such as credit note or voucher.
- Whether you are entitled to refund of your deposit will depend on the terms and conditions of your booking with each vendor.
- You may also have rights under contract law where the contract can no longer be performed.
- Given the exceptional circumstances, the ACCC encourages all businesses to treat consumers fairly.
During this very difficult period for both the vendors who have no future work guarantee and for the customer who may or may not have a job. This will be tough.
All going well for both parties it could be a great wedding come spring time.
Event Cancellations in Reference to Tickets
Again The ACCC has added some information specifically on tickets to events.
If you’ve purchased a ticket to an event and it’s been cancelled
Answers from ACCC
- If your event is cancelled the ACCC expects that you will receive a refund or other remedy, such as a credit note or voucher, in most circumstances.
- However, if the event is cancelled due to government restrictions, this impacts your rights under the consumer guarantees.
- You may be entitled to a refund under the terms and conditions of your ticket.
- You should contact the business directly to request a refund or other remedy such as a credit note or voucher.
- Given the exceptional circumstances, the ACCC encourages all businesses to treat consumers fairly.
With every event cancelled or postponed, we’ve seen emailed newsletters sent to consumers offering refunds or giving them the option to hold on to their ticket in anticipation of the event running again post pandemic.
On the question of incurring travel and accommodation cost, its a similar response from ACCC with the exception of the recommendation of checking with your travel insurance policy. A bit of a long shot.
A change of mind because of a concern for COVID-19 Coronavirus yields a different answer, basically a change of mind wouldn’t be covered by consumer. We doubt with would be a widespread issue as every major event has been cancelled anyhow.
When it comes to consumer law, always check with the ACCC / your local governing body or a professional about your specific circumstance.
‘Events’ and ‘Venue’ Google Keyword Search Trends Phase 1 of COVID-19
Graph of Events Sector Google Keyword Search Trends COVID-19
‘Wedding’ and ‘Photographer’ Keyword Search Trend Phase 1 of COVID-19
Trend Graph of ‘Wedding’ and ‘Photographer’ Keyword Searchers COVID-19
Google trends confirms what we already know. The search for industry specific terms have dropped. Terms such as ‘Events, ‘Venues’, ‘Wedding’ and ‘photographers’ are all down. We see a spike in people in Australia looking for information on ‘events cancelled due to coronavirus’ then as the new reality sets in that everything is cancelled that search term flat lines.
If the downward graphs reflect your business reality. It not you it’s the Coronavirus COVID-19 effect.
If you’re seeing less or no traffic and less to no enquiries it’s the current state and not you. Don’t stress about your website or marketing plan. Use this time to make long term improvements or pivot and shift. See the below action plan for what proactive actions you can make right now.
One question to ask yourself. Is your offer still sell-able in the market place right now?
If it’s not, then it’s time to regroup and set some new goals.
Post Pandemic
Post pandemic, how will the event market ramp-up in large cities, quickly or with a nervous trickle as we pull away from the grip of a health and economic crisis? Can we escape the gravity pull of a bigger slump in business confidence since the 20th Century. WW2 like economic distress has been mentioned.
Professional photographers could suffer a pandemic of their own as professions because they’ve had to move to other sources of income. Photographers with experience in local or major international events talent pool could shrink, this would open the way for the newer photographers to win more large multi-day event work.
Predicting Winners
Could we be in a situation where there’s a very strong resurgence in major events because of the pent up or backlog of annual events and a shortage of experienced photographers? Ya never know.
Same situation could happen to venues being booked out because of the compression of cancelled events in the first 6 months of 2020.
In this best case scenario, we may see a premium put on the highly sought after venues as they book out.
This could also open the door to part-time photographers, they can make up the shortfall if there’s fewer full time photographers that can shoot during business hours. Many full time photographers may move away from the profession to keep food on the table.
Event Managers will need to adapt very quickly so where the post COVID-19 investment roads leads us too. There will be some.
Marketing Managers know there’s always a few sectors that do very well out of adversity while others fall off a cliff.
News websites are up 50% on visitation, add revenue should follow. As Sparktoro’ Rand says “The First Wave: Nothing But Covid” “The Third Wave: Back to a New Normal”
The Third wave is where our focus is, planning on making a difference to the Events Communityin whatever shape it comes out of the deep winter freeze.
Times will get tough/er, some Corporates will need / must spend more to promote themselves. The business community will get really hungry for revenues. When leads are in short supply a bigger percentage of the budget gets spent on marketing and promotions. Cost per acquisition will be high. Every new lead will be more precious than ever.
State and Federal Governments typically focus more on the big picture, macro economy. Local Government will need to play a role in engaging local suppliers, the locals will need the neighbourhoods revived.
Those that invest in hard times will reap greater returns when markets stabilise.
We can hope.
Recessionary Pressures on Event Photography Pricing
Event photography pricing and rates vary by virtue of at least half a dozen sub-genres of event photography. Every medium to large event has enough differences to warrant costing up on a case by case basis. That’s in the corporate and commercial side of the sector. The domestic or personal types of events such as christenings and birthday parties are much easier to give fixed pricing based on time. Weddings are in a category all to it’s self in the way prices are determined.
In the lead up to and during the actual pandemic with a ban on all face to face gatherings means no events, all cancelled or postponed, end result means no revenue. A big zero. Every event professional specialist supplying to the business sector is all in it together.
When the recovery period of the recession starts, we expect the market will go one of 3 ways.
- If there’s pent up demand for major events that come to market all at once in the second half of 2020, we’ll see prices stay pre-COVID-19.
- A prolonged economic depression will drive the monthly $2.5b sector in Australia to being just a memory of what it once was.
- If there’s a hesitant or stalled economy in the corporate sector, photography prices will drop approximately 20% plus across the board. In other words a deflationary projection. Not good for the already 200 000 people struggling with uncertainty in the events sector.
Factors to Consider
One unknown factor is how the business consumer will feel about the rapid shift to the online world. This may take away some volume from the person to person events.
A prediction is that smaller events will use Video Conferencing and Live Streaming as the preferred way of people connecting.
Humans will always gravitate towards a face to face environment when they can. And we see the need for person to person contact grow from the social distancing that we’re all needing to adapt too during the early 2020. Human needs don’t change permanently so quickly.
Large Trade Shows can’t be replicated online, so they will thrive post-COVID-19. Small Conferences will move to online experiences. Large Industry-wide Conferences will grow with a shift of focus from ‘product and services’ to more of an ‘efficiency and process’ theme.
The Health and Medical sectors may be more reliant on Summits to share research and development.
Trade show photographers with experience will be in demand. Gala Dinner nights will suffer for a while, this type of event will probably stagnate until the end of 2021 is our prediction.
Another possible outcome is that event photography enquiries will grow for professional photographers but with more focus on by the hour and half-day, not so much for full days. If so, this could favour the on-demand entry-level photographers for smaller events or really tight on budget.
Part-time photographers will gain even more traction in the domestic market, such as birthday parties, nightclub photography and similar smaller events. In part due to the option of being able to reduce already very low rates as they are in many cases, only supplementing other income.
In the professional photographer sector, half day rates will become more commonly requested. This could either nudge the prices slightly higher because this will include costs like travel and most of the time limits what the photographer can do during the other half day. Same for ‘by the hour prices’ all things being equal. Which it may not be equal, this is all new ground were travelling on.
Recovery Actions and Take Control
What Can Event Suppliers Do While There are No Events
- Google suggests not to take down your website.
- You may be eligible for Government support.
- Consider which sectors will likely recover first.
- Do a SWAT analysis on your business capabilities.
- Research which genres of photography will recover first.
- Tweak or redo your website, great resources here for that.
- Send a personal email to every client in the last 12 months.
- Add content or refresh your articles and photos.
- Connect with like minded people in your niche.
- Listen to podcasts in your profession.
- Podcast COVID-19 Pivot Business Strategies.
- Behavioural and Decision Sciences Podcast.
- Photographers try Photobizx.com.
- Connect with your local Business Chamber.
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Join a creative group on Meet Up.
- Remind yourself, you are not alone.
- And, are we still all in this together?
What Never Changes – Relationships
Strong relationships have always played a significant part in the corporate space. This will only increase for Corporate events where revenues are smaller. They have events less frequent or scaled back in scope, this could be the new norm for 2020-2021.
The strongest relationships have always been built when there’s a personal connection. Face to face meetings and events are an essential element that will continue to serve the corporate market and their suppliers long into the future.
Peoples resolve to adapt and advance will always continue no matter how this health and economic crisis plays out.
Further Industry Reading
MEAA Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance – MEAAwww.meaa.org↗
MEAA is the largest and most established union and industry advocate for Australia’s creative professionals.
The Business Events Council of Australia↗ (BECA) is our peak industry body. It provides an umbrella structure for the key industry associations operating in the Australian business events sector.
The last big photo sector survey was done in April 2021 so we won’t repeat any of the data here. Only mentions US, Canada, and the UK. Not Australia.
Read about it on this news website. Or read the follow up intel direct from the source here, June 2021. Zenfolio Survey.
2021 COVID-19 business grant – Guidelines
Attachment A: Highly impacted industries list “6991 Professional Photographic Services”
