We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Brian Lumley a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Brian, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to start by getting your thoughts on what you are seeing as some the biggest trends emerging in your industry.

One of the largest challenges is the constant race to the bottom. There are literally thousands of photographers just here in Northeast Ohio with various levels of skills. Some are just starting out and have no idea what to charge a client. Others have been shooting for decades but have been slow to switch over to digital, no-film based cameras.

The newbies usually undercharge because they aren’t too confident of their skills quite yet. The old timers are used to getting $3,000 to $5,000 for a wedding. Both of these sunsets of people are affecting the industry because they don’t have a grasp on current trends within the industry. Those that give their services away lower the bar and set unreasonable expectations for other, “middle of the road” professional photographers to deal with cheaper pricing that, in most cases, a professional shouldn’t have to entertain.

I had a message a few years ago in my inbox from a woman who followed my Facebook page. She Asia shaw loved my work and would love to have me shoot her upcoming wedding. However, she said, her cousin was a photographer and had offered to do the job for $300.

If I would be match her cousin’s price she would use me and my studio. I already had an event that weekend so I couldn’t do it anyway, so I politely declined.

A few months later I went to her Facebook page and saw the photos that her cousin had taken of her wedding. They were horrible: low light, no off-camera flash, etc. and it appeared as if they were taken with either a cheaper point and shoot camera or a cell phone.

Frankly, if she had come to me and said that she didn’t have a lot of money for a photographer or there were extant circumstances, I may have tried to work with her and give her some photos that would have accurately captured her wedding day.

Brian, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

When I first picked up a camera I realized what a creative outlet that it gave me to express myself. My son was about seven years old and I loved documenting our adventures together at places like Cape Cod and New York City.

As time progressed and I got bored with shooting sunsets and Cleveland’s numerous parks, I decided to ramp things up a bit and set my eyes on bigger things: America’s national parks. We started traveling specifically to parks across the country and photographing dozens and dozens of parks and historical places. More importantly, my son was getting a fairly important, hands-on education regarding the country that we call home.

Now that he’s approaching thirty, we still travel together and I’ve taken him to Egypt and Jordan with me. Next year we’re heading on a fourteen-day trip to Türkiye so we can explore and capture that country’s wonders.

That passion has always driven my business; as time progresses I’ve realized what I’m good at doing and what’s not been too successful. I’ve photographed dozens of weddings and recently transitioned away from them because I don’t really like doing them. They’re a lot of work and, as I stated previously, the profitability isn’t what it once was.

I love shooting portraits; I really enjoy travel photography and meeting new people. If I can get my story across to a subject who, in most cases, doesn’t speak my language, I’m usually able to capture a phenomenal moment in time with a person who is a complete stranger to me and my lens.

I think what keeps me interested in my work is that there’s always something exciting around the corner. I recently invested in a GoPro camera and although it’s primarily a high def video camera, it also takes some pretty magnificent still photos.

I’m looking to head back to Africa next year and do a 25-day safari across four countries, ending in Capetown, South Africa. I’m planning on cage diving with great white sharks and using my GoPro to get some great video and stills underwater of these big fish. That type of photography really gets my blood pumping..

The key to longevity in any business is to constantly look for new challenges. I suppose it’s a way to reinvent yourself without changing your line of work. Twenty years ago I never would’ve thought I’d be traveling the world taking photos in interesting and dangerous places, but now I know I wouldn’t have been able to sustain a wedding or senior picture business by doing the same exact thing over and over, year after year. Maybe it’s a form of ADD, but my attention definitely needs to focus on interesting, new endeavors so I can keep growing as a photographer.

Alright – so here’s a fun one. What do you think about NFTs?

I think NFTs are interesting and, quite frankly, a potential new source of income that I’ve been meaning to dive into a little deeper. I don’t know what kind of shelf life they’re ultimately going to have and I’m not too sure I believe in their validity as an art form. But I suppose it makes sense to see if it’s a good ancillary form of revenue.

My larger concern is whether or not it’s worth the investment. You read stories of how someone with $1.92 in the bank minted a series of cartoon duck NFTs and they sold for a million bucks. I read that and think “what am I missing out on here?” and then temper that with a realization that those stories are few and far between.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

When I originally set out on this endeavor, it was a means to capture the time spent with my son. It quickly grew beyond that mission and, now that he’s received his Master’s degree and living elsewhere, this journey is mine alone.

About six years ago I was diagnosed with a mystery illness. The doctors thought that I had cancer and there’s nothing that will get your attention better than the thought that your time here on earth may be coming to an end much quicker than you might want.

I put together a haphazard to-do list of the things I wanted to see and the places I wanted to go.

Thankfully, the diagnosis was incorrect and, even though I do have a fairly-serious condition, it’s not life-threatening.

It taught me to complete the goals that you set for yourself. Don’t put it off until you retire or have $100k in the bank.

Do it NOW because there may not be that cliched tomorrow.

I created a “My Life” gallery that has a handful (more like 7,000) of my favorite photos that documents this journey thus far. I have travel photos, pics of concerts that I’ve shot over the years, senior pictures and wedding photos that stand out from the rest, and other photos that have taken me on this odyssey.

I feel, at the very least, my son will have a hell of a slide show to project at my wake when I finally leave this world.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: brian_lumley
• Facebook: Facebook.com/brianmlumleyphotography
• Twitter: @brian_lumley

Image Credits
All images copyright Brian M Lumley Photography. All rights reserved.