Photo Rambles
By P.G. Ramblings
What's $4 Million a Day to a Pro Photographer?

Ever wondered about the amount of money you spend each year on your photographic profession and whether the returns are worth the effort? I'm not just referring to the cash paid out for the latest must have camera, lens, flashgun et al. Did you really need that £3000 all singing, all dancing camera? What was wrong with its predecessor? Oh! You still have it. Trade in value was obviously on a par with the current price of scrap plastic. How many fully operational cameras do you have in your collection now? If you're anything like some friends of mine... quite a few I'd guess. Nearly enough to open a camera shop.

Now what about that other big expenditure... photography for pleasure, or research and development as it's more commonly known. Normally it's best not to think about it to much... usually tends to bring on bouts of depression, headaches, nausea and the like. Leastways that's what personal experience has taught me. What started me off was a photographic news article I'd been reading. Mainly it was a boring interview with S. Jameel Hussain, the Managing Director of Fuji Films Pakistan in which riveting topics as distribution, imports, exports were being discussed, and then just as I was about to nod off, I read that he'd said: "Fuji spends about four million dollars per day on R&D" Is it any wonder that photographic products and materials are so expensive or should that be... so cheap. How many films, cameras etc have to be manufactured, distributed around the world and sold to recoup $4 million per day.

I'll not quote specific amounts but the most I've spent was a number of years past when an idea for a somewhat specialised photography business came to mind. Several thousand was spent perfecting a recognisable style that I hoped people would want to purchase. Full-scale trial shoots had to be conducted to ensure consistency. Films were sent off to various photo labs in order to establish which one was capable of producing prints to the required standard and at the right price with fast turn around. No easy task and added to all of the foregoing was the more mundane tasks... finding customers for instance. Was it worth the expenditure? Eventually it was. Would I do it again? On another whim, I've spent... sorry... invested another not inconsiderable amount developing and testing another style of photography which I'm rather hoping will be equally recognisable and profitable. Whether it eventually earns me enough to justify spending $4 million per day on R&D is another story but somehow... I doubt it but what's the harm in dreaming.

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