Writing: An Essential Photography Skill

Most photographers have a difficult time with writing, yet writing may hold the key to a photographer's future.

A Million Words On A Photography Website

I now have more than one million words on my website! So why would a photographer be excited about having so many words on his site…particularly when most of us professional photographers cry foul when art directors put copy over our images…and when we strive so mightily to create sites free from words that might distract from the aesthetic integrity of our photography? It is because this Internet thing has twisted everything around. Now one word is worth a thousand pictures (because search engines can’t “see” photos). In reality, if you want to get those gorgeous photographs seen, then your going to need words, and lots of them.

The Unseen Photograph

It was Socrates who said “The unexamined life is not worth living.”  I would contend that the unseen photograph is not worth creating. So whether you are trying to make a living at photography, or sharing your vision with as many people as possible, you are going to need, and increasingly so, to turn to words (you can disregard this suggestion if you are only indulging in photography for therapeutic reasons).Words are what get your images seen.

An Important Skill For Photographers

I believe that one of the most important skills for us photographers to develop, at this point in time, is the ability to write. I am not talking about just adding key words here either, but rather having the ability to write clearly, cohesively and compellingly (I am still working on that). Having the skills to communicate effectively through writing can help with proposals, estimates, blogs, books and innumerable other endeavors that make up the world of photography. Writing certainly isn't always easy, and it takes time and effort. But the results are worth it...getting your work seen is worth it!

Stock Photography, Taking Control, and Writing

For me writing is playing a central role in my efforts to maintain a successful career in stock photography; an effort to make my photography easy to find through search engines and in doing so to supplement my agency sales and add additional revenue through a variety of photography-related avenues from imprinted gifts to print sales to online advertising. But perhaps most importantly, writing and the Internet are giving me an opportunity to take more control over my photography career. Ultimately we all have to take responsibility for our own success or failures. We owe it to ourselves to find the tools that are necessary and that work for us, and with the emergence of the Internet as the de facto vehicle for finding just about everything, well, developing writing skills is as close to a no-brainer as there is.

The biggest Challenge For Photographers And One Possible Answer

The ability to write is an important skill for helping get your photography seen by potential buyers.

Imagination, Execution and A Level Playing Field
When Photoshop first came out I was fond of saying that it eliminated the barriers between imagination and execution, and that it would level the playing field in photography as never before. Fast forward almost twenty years and we see the playing field has been leveled again. The Gate Keepers are gone, swept away by microstock and flickr. Microstock eliminate the barriers to participating in stock by allowing anyone to submit images. Now Getty has opened the doors to the “biggest” and “badest” traditional stock agency in town (OK, in the world). In just the last few weeks Getty has accepted over 50,000 images from 11,000 flickr photographers.

Flickr And Microstock Opening The Doors
Back in 1990 when I first began using Photoshop I believed that it would make photography skills less important and imagination and creativity much more important. Even though pretty much every image we see these days has been run through Photoshop, I wasn’t really very accurate with my predictions. Digital capture has perhaps been an even greater force for change, making photography easier, cheaper and quicker. And now we have flickr and Microstock and all the other similar entities all opening the doors to photographers everywhere.

The Biggest Challenge
As a stock photographer you are not just competing with other photographers, you are competing with the best individual images of dedicated photographers through out the world. But that is only one way in which the creativity bar has been raised. The biggest challenge facing us is that of being seen among the mountains of images out there.  That is where our creativity is again challenged. How do we get our work seen by those who will license it?

Words And Images
There are numerous answers to that question. Writing is one answer.  Adding words to your images can provide a huge boost in getting your work seen. There is, ahem, blogging, but there is also article writing, both for the Internet and for the printed page. Yesterday I ran across the most recent copy of Shutterbug magazine. The image on the cover, a shot of a Burmese fisherman on Inle Lake, caught my eye. I have been to Inle Lake several times, and have photographed some of those fishermen myself. It turns out that the cover photo was shot by a friend of mine, Maynard Switzer. As a matter of fact, I think I was in the boat next to his when he photographed that fisherman! But it is Maynard’s image on the cover of the magazine, not mine. He doesn’t just have the cover either. Maynard has three more pages in the magazine in an article he wrote about his transition from fashion shooter to travel photographer. Maynard's ability to write gets his work seen by a huge audience.

Blogs, Articles And Comments
There is no question that the ability to write well is a huge advantage for photographers right now. Writing gets you found in search engines, can get your images on the covers of magazines, and can make your proposals and estimates more effective. Writing can take the form of magazine articles, photography blogs and e-zine articles, but it can also be effective as well-thought out and informative comments on other people’s blogs. But whatever form your writing takes, the key is to actually do it. So what are you waiting for?