Understanding the new world....

We are at a wedding of two friends at the Stanford Sierra Camp.  When we arrived yesterday we were informed that the couple was using a new APP called WedPics.  It is a sharing application that allows individuals to snap photos with their phones and then upload them to a common site.

When our son got married, at the end of the reception, I had the bright idea to ask all the people with cameras to let me copy their memory cards.   Between me and a friend who is now in the wedding photography business we got a total of about 700 photos but the request to the guests yielded another couple of hundred shots.   Most were horrible but some were quite good - in places where neither my friend nor I had been.  WedPics is a good implementation of that notion we did seven years ago.

I did a note to my friend (who is now in the wedding photo business) who immediately dismissed the idea.   He looked at the site and said "there are a lot of crappy pictures on the site (for this particular wedding)" - that is undoubtedly true.   But the idea behind WedPics and other APPs like this is crowdsourcing.   You get to capture what is already happening at social events like weddings.   The iPhone is now the most popular camera in the US.   From my perspective having a professional photographer use this has several advantages.   First, you are conforming to something that is already happening but you appear to be supportive.   Second, you may indeed get a shot which you missed.   Third, the most likely hard core users of smart phones for pictures at events like weddings are likely to be people who are more likely to use the services of a wedding photographer in the future and you have encouraged them to think your business is supportive of this "disruptive" technology.

Markets are changing in all areas - even wedding photography.   This looks like a real opportunity which the smart professionals will embrace.