Expert: Don Wood - 5/4/2005

Question
hello don, I have an idea to use my photo skills and just wondering if there is such a need for it.so im asking you for an opinion. I'd like to do photographic work for insurance companies and lawyers. gathering photographs of insured items and legal shot if needed. Is this a shot in the dark or is there a real need for things like that.I would also like to advetise to see if i could make a photographic inventory of insured item in peoples homes. I've read of such things but is it really a good avenue to go down? Ive been doing photography for many years but want to do something diffrent with my skills.

thanks for any advise you can offer


adam k
jasper al.

Answer
You would have to solicit the lawyers and demonstrate that you can produce better pictures of the evidence than they can take with their own cameras. It is so easy to take pictures today that most lawyers will do their own work. As far as photographing in people's homes of their prized possessions for an insurance inventory, I'm afraid that the same idea of easy to do picture taking would be true. IE if someone wants to do an inventory, pick up a disposable camera, get the pics printed at the 1 Hour lab. Save the money you'd spend getting it professionally done.
In my 35 years of general photography I only had one client who wanted me to take pictures of several prized possessions, mainly artwork. My dad after retiring as a florist did restoration work of oil paintings, he did his own work, using a polaroid camera. This is a rough business to be in, it's either feast or famine. Either too much work and you're rushing, working long hours to get things done, or you're sitting and wondering if you will get another job coming in the door. It is always better to keep your day job and use the photo income to better your equipment or provide a better vacation. Probably in a large city you might have such a need as you're proposing, seems to me that you'd not be getting much repeat business unless you had someone that turned over his inventory quite frequently like an antique dealer. Even then they will be more inclined to take pictures with their own cameras.
Sorry I couldn't be more enthusiastic. Bear in mind that of every 10 photogs that start out pro, after a year, you may have 2-3 just barely making it, at the end of 5 years, there may still be 1 working, occasionally you'll hit a market in desperate need and you'll fit in and be able to make a living in the field.
You will have to pay your dues, meaning taking any job you can get just to build your reputation as a photographer of merit and worthy of the higher prices you will need to charge to survive. It helps to have a helpmate that can provide extra money for you to survive on.
Thanks for asking, if you need further assistance, please ask.
Don