Professional Photographers Spurn CD’s in Favour of USB Flash Drives

There are an estimated 50,000 professional photographers in the UK making it a highly competitive sector. Add to this the thousands of students taking photography courses at college and universities every year and you start to get a sense of just how many photographers there are chasing business in UK.

Add to this the falling price of professional photography equipment and throw into the mix the flexibility that digital photography offers the “enthusiastic amateur”. Combine it with top-end software products that are enable the to turn out near professional results and you get a picture of not just a crowded professional sector but understandably a sector that is concerned about its future - should it be?

Yes, barriers of entry are low but arguably they’ve always been low and yes, some clients will always go for the “cheap option” and pay “cash” to an enthusiast with a camera but they run the risk of ending up with poorly framed, poorly shot and poorly printed results. You can’t re-run a wedding or a christening because “your mate” screwed up the photography!

When choosing a professional photographer experience is a fundamental requirement and it’s not something you can buy over the counter or order online. Experience ensures that those “once in a lifetime” moments are captured properly and clients are happy with the end results.

Of course it’s not just the ability to take a good photo that is important, professional photography is also about running a business and this includes a wide range of skills from advertising, marketing, cash-flow management, customer relationship management and time management to name just a few.

USB Flash Drives

On the marketing and delivery side of the business more and more professional photographers are turning to USB flash drives to supply the finished photographs to their clients. In the past digital copies of the client portfolio might have been delivered on a CD or DVD but these are increasingly seen as “old fashioned” and not a particularly attractive way to present the portfolio.

Printed USB flash drives on the other hand offer an exciting, professional and innovative way to present a portfolio of photographs. The flash drive(s) can be supplied in a wide range of shapes, designs and styles and they can be engraved or printed up with the photographers logo, website address and contact phone number.

It’s little touches like this that will help to differentiate a professional photographer that invests in his business from a new start-up that might just be looking at photography as a way of earning a “few quid on the side”.