So today I found myself in somewhere in the Cotswold's, and my what a beautiful place, it was not unlike a model village or a train set layout, only slightly bigger.
I happened upon a fella who ran a 'photography studio' or in other words he was 'a high street photographer' . Now before I go any further and you gasp and sigh, I have to say I have a lot of time for the high streeter for the simple reason that no job is too small or crappy for them. Be it a pet portrait, granny at a wedding, a welder, a still life of a fishing rod, or a saucy one of someones niece. These guys provide a service to the public even though some of the work (usually on canvas may be a little bit naff-a-rooney. The fella I met certainly did the lot. He even had a processing and printing service for peoples holiday snaps and semi naked girlfriends of the local keen amateur. He told me of how ten years ago he was a booming business providing his services as far away as Manchester. He had three full time staff, two decent sized studios, a public lab, three darkrooms, and lots of work. Only five years ago he claimed the lab work dried up overnight as everyone seemed to go out and buy a digital camera and a small printer. The Studio was flooded and the road adjacent to the property blocked off for one year in an attempt to sort the 'blocked' drains that caused the local flooding and his business ceased. In that time he had to pay off his staff and look for new ways of making money from his assets.
Now I am sure parts of this hit home with a lot of photographers no matter what line work they are in and its certainly quite sad to see a photographers career grinding to a halt. You can blame what you like, digital, the economy, camera phones, x factor, Rankin, whatever. But my friends the simple truth is, like the climate change, things are always changing and evolving. We can either move with it, or get out the oil paints and start making candles and horse shoes.....

Now wheres my mule..