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[MrSMW]

Regarding the tech side, I am less ‘sure’ about that.

I’m no fan of tech for tech sake. In fact, like politics, it bores the pants off me.

But at the same time, there is no point in sticking your head in the sand and pretending it does not exist.

Yes there is a market for older techniques such as tin type prints, film photography etc, but it is all quite niche.

Niche can be good and arguably physical product has a better chance at longevity over digital tech.

I bet with 100% certainty that the couple who have not viewed their wedding video for whatever reason will have that tin type print on the wall from the moment they received it.

This is the single biggest problem I see for photo and especially video, the tangibility of it.

I think with tangibility comes value.

Other than societal changes, over the last 2 decades, I have seen a huge change in value/appreciation proportional to clients having wedding albums.

The closer to 100% (having albums), the higher (almost 100%) the value, the appreciation, the referral.

Today, with near zero tangible product, appreciation is at it’s lowest point as is referral.

Partly that is also the world we now live in, but still…

[kye]

21 minutes ago, MrSMW said:

Regarding the tech side, I am less ‘sure’ about that.

I’m no fan of tech for tech sake. In fact, like politics, it bores the pants off me.

But at the same time, there is no point in sticking your head in the sand and pretending it does not exist.

Yes there is a market for older techniques such as tin type prints, film photography etc, but it is all quite niche.

Niche can be good and arguably physical product has a better chance at longevity over digital tech.

I bet with 100% certainty that the couple who have not viewed their wedding video for whatever reason will have that tin type print on the wall from the moment they received it.

This is the single biggest problem I see for photo and especially video, the tangibility of it.

I think with tangibility comes value.

Other than societal changes, over the last 2 decades, I have seen a huge change in value/appreciation proportional to clients having wedding albums.

The closer to 100% (having albums), the higher (almost 100%) the value, the appreciation, the referral.

Today, with near zero tangible product, appreciation is at it’s lowest point as is referral.

Partly that is also the world we now live in, but still…

I've read quite a lot about the customer strategy for various companies and your above post (and the one on the previous page) have a couple of things that stand out to me.

The first is from your previous post where you outline your own style and seek clients who fit with that style.  This is an excellent approach, and as you have noted, tends to give you customers you enjoy working with.

The second is the idea of the wedding album and what is associated with it.  My thought is maybe you should consider providing one as a standard offering in all your packages?  I say this because customer strategy can often contain things that are counter-intuitive, like giving the customer a better experience by not giving them what they want (because they are wrong in their assumptions about which things create which outcomes).

Reading between the lines on your posts about your business, you are fully booked and are in the position to turn away clients.  If you included a wedding album in all your packages and added the cost of the album (printing and all the admin required by you) to each package, maybe you could keep the same profit over less bookings?  Or maybe you wouldn't keep the same profit per booking but might have more referrals and thus make a saving in any PR and sales efforts?  Lifetime Customer Value and all that.  

I'm reminded of this post from Noam Kroll about having less clients but of higher budgets:
https://noamkroll.com/how-i-built-a-7-figure-production-company-with-no-advertising/

In terms of tech, the aesthetic is made from the tech.  The tech isn't a side-topic - it's not even a separate topic by itself (contrary to how it is discussed online) it is simply the details of telling the tools to create the result you want.  If you are bored by it then you have forgotten why it is important and lost sight of the objective.  The people who are truly great, in any discipline, obsess over the minutia involved because the final outcome is the product of the thousands of choices made during the process.

Perhaps the biggest issue with modern film-making is that people have forgotten these are tools, not toys.

[MrSMW]

The album approach is a tricky one these days Kye as I serve the destination wedding market and successful sales regarding this kind of thing are done at 2 stages:

Prior to and after the event. In person. That opportunity was lost to me the moment I moved out of the UK to France.

For UK weddings with UK clients, the album included approach worked very well.

I replaced it with the hybrid multi-day coverage approach instead and this season for instance, only 1 of 33 did not have video in addition to stills and only 4 couples have had single day coverage.

I do provide a tangible element and tick that box, but not with anything they are expecting or included in the package, but a surprise bonus delivered direct to their door. First year I have done this so we’ll see where it goes…

Re. the tech. Oh I am interested, but interested as you say as in what it can do for me rather than tech for tech sake, ie, any upgrades or purchases I make are for very considered purposes.

The reality doesn’t always work out but it mostly does.

8k for 8k sake does not interest me for instance. Providing productions in 8k most definitely not unless a client says can you deliver me in 8k and I’ll book you…but no one even asks for 4K or even mentions resolution. Ever.

I am not even interested in it for cropping sake. I’d rather select the right focal length and composition in the first place.

I am interested in it for pulling off stills however and at some point, this might be my future direction as in stop shooting stills altogether and just focus on the video capture knowing those moments are there.

But a subject to be explored when my 8k camera turns up…