NC PANDEMIC PROFILE: Richard Barlow

RICHARD BARLOW (Richard Barlow Photography)

Owner/Photographer

I’m Richard Barlow. I’m the owner of Richard Barlow Photography. I do commercial, wedding and portrait photography.

When did you first feel the impact of COVID-19 in your business? March of last year. The beginning of March, end of February, people started calling concerned about the closures that were impending and wanting to know…what are the options here? Most couples were postponing, and most of my weddings weren’t until the summer they were still a few months out at that point, so a lot were still holding on, and then the fall was [going to be] busy.

But most of [the spring work] was corporate. I had commercial stuff scheduled throughout March and April that was pretty busy and then, when they saw COVID happening, [their reaction] was very knee-jerk. As soon as the news started reporting that there was a Stay at Home order coming – I don’t remember the date exactly – cancellations happened. I remember, St. Patrick’s Day was kind of D-day.

I had a wedding scheduled for May at a local venue, and the Stay at Home order was going to happen Friday at 5pm or something like that and it was Wednesday, and we scrambled and just did a ceremony at their house so they could get married that next day. The videographer came out to film it, too - super fast - and then everybody just went home, forever.

The commercial stuff – we had a whole spring campaign for a client – it was 10-days, one of my biggest gigs that I’d had in a while. And it went away. They just canceled it.

What adjustments did you have to make to your business practices as a result of COVID restrictions? Pivot. Pivot. (laughter)

It was a lot of filing for PPP and all the disaster assistance stuff that no one got, and then I did wind up getting some of it. Looking long and hard at everything: what was I doing? What did I want to do?

I went all-in on corporate, 100%. In May, I started getting work again – commercial – so I was pretty hopeful. Then, my fall weddings started to cancel, so as a direct result of COVID, I decided to go all-in on commercial work and focus my efforts there. I targeted some businesses that I had done some work with and told them I’m still here – I’m still in business – and that I need the work. I wasn’t peddling, but it was ‘hey, I’m here. I know some people may not be working, but I need the work.’ I had gone all-in on this. This is my living. My family depends on it.

Another thing I did – because I saw a lot of people doing it and, it was a service that I was getting constant inquiries for but was turning them away - was 3D photography, virtual tours. I looked into that and invested in a 3D camera and that whole setup and started doing that for commercial clients as another revenue stream. And it helped. It got pretty busy and its fairly steady work.

In terms of photography, I’m not doing anything differently – I’m still on-site and I’m still taking the pictures and editing them, and I’m not having to deal with virtual things. The only change is my meetings and consults that we usually have in-person, we’re now doing on Zoom. I haven’t lowered my pricing; it’s actually gone up.

Do you anticipate that you’ll maintain most of these changes in your business model? Yes.

Commercial has – I don’t want to say doubled – but the client base has gotten considerably larger during COVID, of all things. The other people who have pulled back are now starting to come back, and then, when weddings come back, I’m going to be busy. So, it’ll be a good thing on the other side of this. I handled it as well as I could have.

The corporate/commercial clients are just getting back to work. They might not be back in the office, but they’re all back to work, remotely, and they all want their website refreshed and new headshots and all the things. The problem that we kept running into was they wanted a group photo for their company – there’s new people, there’s turnover – especially with all this but you can’t gather people. So, I’ve been doing composite group photos: photographing people individually and compositing the images together to make it look like they’re standing next to each other in a group. Technically, it’s harder on my end, so now, there are fees. I tell the client it’s possible to do this it just takes more on the backend, and I charge for it and they understand and have been pleased. The results have been good so far.

Headshots are easy because it’s usually just me, the assistant and the subject – maybe one other person. We’re not gathering a bunch of people. Most have been outside, but there are still plenty that are inside. We’re not doing anything where we’re gathering in large groups. It’s me, working with a handful of people at a time. I feel safe. I haven’t contracted anything this whole time and hope it stays that way. I’ve done well. I’ve obeyed the rules; worn my mask.

Looking look back on the last year, what’s the most challenging part of running a photography business during COVID? Besides the obvious – getting the work. Trying to convince people not to cancel. Everyone’s knee-jerk is cancel, cancel, cancel.

During the Stay at Home, I did very little. I did do the “2319 sessions”. That was a desperate plea to get something, to be more creative, and money would be great. But I was bored. I wasn’t shooting anything. I’m scrolling through Instagram, and none of my stuff was out there – we’re reposting old things. My kids – it’s Disney everything – so the joke was, when the word ‘quarantine’ started happening in our house, they immediately started thinking about Monsters, Inc. ‘There’s a 2319!’ It was the whole panic, ‘You’ve been touched by a kid and you’ve been quarantined!’ So, that was the joke – it was actually Sam’s [my wife’s] idea – I probably did 15 of those 2319 sessions, and I told people to pay what they wanted - if they could. Some people couldn’t give anything; some people were very generous. Some people were still working – they were essential – and some were not. And I knew that. These sessions were mainly just opportunities for me to be creative, to see people and to get out of the house. That’s really all it was, and it wound up covering my car payment that month, so it was nice.

You said you immediately lost corporate work, and some weddings canceled. If you had to estimate how much of a loss you experienced – as a percentage – how much would it be?

I calculated that already. The period from March – June 2020 compared to March – June 2019 was down 52%, and that’s even while still working some.

In May, the work started coming back and June – I wouldn’t say it was busy – but I had stuff to do. We could be outside, the Stay at Home order had lifted. But it was over 50% down - way more than I thought.

How would you say your work or systems have improved because of COVID? I’ve put in a [client management] system. I’m trying to be better at working smarter, not harder. I’m trying to be more system-based, standardized across the board, and I’ve still got a long way to go, but I’ve made some strides in that effort.

Technically, I’ve tried to be more precise with my lighting on sets. I’ve been taking some courses on studio lighting and filling in some education gaps. It’s a lot of self-taught work. I didn’t go to school for photography like some people have, and [the education] has made a difference. It’s made my life easier. I’m getting the results in camera, instead of having to just hope for the best and fix it later. I’ve tried to educate myself more on photography and on the business end, as well. I’ve had time. A little bit of education, some marketing. What most companies are doing, or what they did, during the peak of COVID – drop back and punt. Spend this time – we all knew it was going to come back at some point - so use this time wisely. Refresh your headshots, refresh your website.

I was surprised at how much fat I could trim because I realized how much money I did lose – over $100k – but I was still alive and breathing and still okay.

I also realized how big 2021 was going to be (before COVID happened). Most of that work was large, corporate gigs that have now gone away entirely. But I have replaced that work. I have a whole new swath of clients now that I’m working with that I never knew before. I don’t know if that’s pandemic-related or just the natural course of business - who knows? But I’m okay. It’s not where I wanted to be right now, but I’m not further back. Hopefully, after this, 2022 can be the year that 2021 was supposed to be. Then, we’ll really be somewhere, and I will be hiring.

Let’s talk weddings for a second: how do you see the wedding industry improving as a result of the pandemic? Is there a cricket button that I can press? (laughter)

Honestly, I don’t think [weddings] are going to be small. I think people are going to go BIG. I think people are tired of being small. At least, there’s going to be that knee-jerk reaction to it all. I think 2022 weddings are going to be 200+ person weddings, and then after that, people getting engaged or married in 3-4 years from now – they didn’t have to deal with COVID, so it’ll be ‘whatever’ to them - but the people who had to deal with COVID, who just got engaged and are waiting for this to pass – they’re going to go big. I’m pretty sure.

I do think that people right now are going to be a lot more appreciative of the weddings. I think they’re going to have a lot more fun at the gatherings because people are just waiting to do this again. You don’t realize what you have until you don’t have it. So, that’s what I feel like. I think ‘21/’22 will be a lot of that – some big parties – it’ll be fun. I think the DJs are going to have a BLAST! People are going to be ready to throw down.

Are you ready for a post-pandemic boom? Yes. But I am liking having weekends. I’m enjoying being busy, but not having weekend work. I’m home. Although, I’m kind of over being home. You know what I mean, it’s a blessing and a curse. Our kids are starting to suffer – they’re exhausted by the change – they’re getting burned out. I can see it. They just want to go somewhere, see people and play with their friends.  

Do you think there’s any chance that the photography industry begins to speak with a unified voice – in the way photographers handle contracts, cancellations, postponements, etc.? Yeah, the whole force majeure[1] thing – everybody knows what that is now – contracts have gotten a lot tighter. But I don’t know about being unified. I feel like the industry got split pretty hard with the pandemic – whether they believed in it or not and the vaccines or not. Same with party lines, it really went down. There was a lot of infighting.

What’s something that you want the general public to know about the events industry?

It’s a thriving industry. People do this for a living. They provide for their families with the work. People talk about shop local, support small business: that’s HUGE. There are very few chain, corporate, franchise companies involved in the event industry. It’s mostly small businesses, sole proprietors – 90% of them. People rely on these events happening to provide for their families. Don’t forget about them. Hire good people, spend the money, invest in events like you would before because these people need the work, and they’re good at it.

REFERENCES:

[1] Force majeure: a common clause in contracts which essentially frees both parties from liability or obligation when an extraordinary event or circumstance beyond the control of the parties, such as a war, strike, riot, crime, epidemic, sudden legal changes, or an event described by the legal term act of God, prevents one or both parties from fulfilling their obligations under the contract. In practice, most force majeure clauses do not excuse a party's non-performance entirely, but only suspend it for the duration of the force majeure. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_majeure