I used to own a business that specialized in shooting collegiate sports. I focused mostly on DII and DIII schools, so the sidelines were pretty much open.
When I started using the internet for parent’s sales I could count on 35% of my income from the web. By the time I closed up my internet shop 13 years later, the sidelines parents with their phones and crappy cameras had cut that to less than 5%. People are just conditioned that crappy pictures for free are better than great photos for a price are not.
Those “guys with cameras” essentially put me out of business, and I can assure you that they missed most of the games their kids played in. Its too bad. It was a great gig when it was great.
Another perspective. Thanks.
What you described has happened in many fields. I’ve always thought cinema was impervious to an amateur coup, given the money and crew required to create it. Yet recently I followed a link to an iPhone gadget that was a mini dolly track/steadycam.
Uh oh...
I love good photography. The one thing that could draw me back to it is medium/large format film...an area far from the camera phone crowds, lol. Hope to explore that some day.
Interesting point.