A while back, we saw a post about how a videographer, who used to profit well in the business, is finding troubles getting clients for his drone videography business these days. Is this surprising? Not the least bit, in all actuality.

While many believe photographers and videographers make a lot of money out of their skills alone, what we don’t see is the amount of time they spend making the photos and videos look good and the money they invest in buying equipment such as drones, cameras, lights, and audio system.

For a time, customers are willing to pay good money for aerial photos and videos. They want their events and their businesses to look great on photos and videos and they spend heavily on photographers and videographers.

Some drone videography clients spent close to $10,000 for an aerial shot of their wedding. Some pay $200 per hour for a photo shoot session. These are the good times, but those days are gone and probably numbered.

While there are still plenty of companies out there that make good money from photography and videography services, they are becoming less and less profitable because manufacturers decided to make cheap drones that the general market can now purchase and have access to.

Those days when only photographers and videographers own drones and high-quality cameras are long gone. Now, anyone with a mirrorless camera can shoot stunning photos and videos. The quality, some would say, is even better than a professional camera.

These manufacturers made the equipment accessible to the public by cutting down their prices. Now, previous clients own drones and they believe they can make the photos and videos themselves.

If they could not achieve the quality they want, they would simply do it again and again until they manage to produce photos they can use in their campaign materials. Why, after all, would they pay a hefty fee if they can do it by themselves?

The result is that photographers and videographers are now selling their services for a far cheaper price than they should. Proving that they are the best in the industry is more difficult because truthfully, many social media users have mastered the right way of handling the camera that they can also take stunning photos using only their inexpensive drones and mirrorless cameras (sometimes, using only their smartphones).

So now, not only are they finding it hard to find clients, but they are also facing a perennial problem of having to market to an audience that seems hell-bent on learning how this is done and doing it for themselves in the future.