We are always looking at data and stats across the world and that we are a little on the edge or in front of many when it comes to development, technology and forward thinking..
As we all know a boudoir photo shoot is all about luxury and being pampered as well as the stunning images that are offered by photographer from all around the world.
But today I wanted to look at the markets for both the photographer and well tell you about you and others like you that have looked at boudoir photography.
This post looks at the trends and the effect the recession has had on the way you feel and think.. as well as the history of all you girls on the net that are searching for that photo shoot. I am by no means going to write a full detailed report with full details on every part of the searches and trends or down to the details of the searches, but this report may only be of interest to Boudoir photographers, Bridal Boudoir Photographer and Glamour Photographers..
This report is based on information from 2004 to date and will give a little insight to the future.. and will only cover the UK market.
“Boudoir Photography”
In 2006 we saw some of the first searches really appear on the internet and rise over the coming years. a jump seems to appear in the latter part of 2006 for people who searched for “Boudoir Photography” and this was fairly low all the way through to the middle of 2007 which was operating at around 20% in the final part of 2007 and the early part of 2008 the searches steadily rose and hovered to between 40 and 60% before the market crash which saw the searching drop back to a little over 40% and not recover until the last quarter of 2008
and through 2009 the market has been stable with regular jumping between 60% and 100% although the last quarter of 2009 has seen a drop in the searches.
Boudoir photography searches are seasonal, from the fairly detailed report I have in front of me Boudoir searches are lower in the mid summer months than they are in spring and also in the winter (final quarter)
I think that is would be fair to say that boudoir photography could be a strong result for valentines and christmas presents or treats.. Or they of course could be making a turn around over the summer months to other phrases, I will go into these as I write…
“Glamour Photography”
Glamour has been around for many years and we of course have the results back to 2004, Now as we all know search results normally turn into pron viewing if youre not careful with the search term that you use, and I think that glamour photography could be one of those words that people dont want to use because of this.
Glamour Photography is on a decline. dropping from 100% down to around 30% in the last quarter of 2009.
Interestingly = in the jump we see in boudoir searches there is also a small jump in the glamour photography at the same time… so there was an event that caused this, the media leading people once again as if memory serves me correctly, How to look good naked came to our screens..
From mid 2006 Glamour was around 40% and kept that way until the end of 2007 when it accounted for around 30% where it remains at those levels today.
It would seem that from the other related information that most of the search seems related to models or modeling.
Glamour photography searches (model) seems to have a key peak in the mid summer or late spring of each year. but the level of people looking to go into glamour is dropping from around 70% in 2004 to 40% in 2006 and around 30% in 2008 and in 2009 this has dropped from 30% to below 10% in the second half of the year.
Interestingly = glamour agencies searches are rising in the latter part of 2009 after a steep drop off in the middle of 2008 although the rise is only around 15% over the same period the previous year.
And the little peek in 2006 also saw a jump in people looking towards glamour model agencies..
Model agencies searches took a slump in 2008 but interestingly the data from 2007 and 2009 almost follow the same pattern over the year with a 3 quarter peek of interest, however it is down around 15%. but 2009 has doubled since the start of this year as a comparative.
“Bridal boudoir”
Well this is closely related to this blog, but interestingly we get NO data on this until 2009.. and as you would expect the searches peeked in the first quarter and dropped slightly by the end of the second ( like a small second wind) and then shortly into the middle of the year a complete drop off as you would expect with the following of the wedding season, well preceeding the actual season…
Looking at the results closely, it would appear that searching starts the 3 week into the start of the year, and really goes from March. and by june you have come to the end of that run.
” boudoir photographer”
there is limited data on this search, and runs from 2008 through to mid 2009 where there is a complete drop off in the terms use. There is a steady rise from spring to summer for this search..
Now switching this up to the battle of the sex’s just to add some fire to this report..
Sexism is rising again we saw a small drop in the later part of 2008 but it is creeping back up, but is not at the levels it was in 2007 but there is only a 10% drop.. and as you may have guessed it was of course “female photographer”
“lingerie photography”
After something a client said to me.. I picked this to look up, I will work with some variations..
Well I can tell you the summer of 2008 wasnt very sexy.. as the first quarter ended so did the searches until the end of the summer when it jumped back up to 55%. It does remain around the same for most of 2009 but there has been a recent peak in requests.
“Portrait photographer”
As you would expect the portrait photographer report peeks in winter, and drops in the summer. Winter portrait Photography requests seem as strong as ever but ar down by around 20% over preceeding years right back until the property boom of 2004 when they were almost at the same levels, Overall there is a drop of around 20% over 2008. In the data I am looking at, the top years for portrait photography was 2004 closely followed by 2007
2006 saw a large drop which in memory serves me was around the time that most of the semi pro cameras were targeted at the general public.
also “portrait photographers” has seen a drop since year 2006 and has remained pretty constant. and only sees a small drop in 2009 by around 7% until this winter which seems to be better than the pervious year.
Over all for portraits including family and variations, work is down 20% over 2008 and that is down 20% from 2007, so we have seen a drop of 40% from 2007 to 2009 for portraits, but this may fall into a drop of around 25%-30% in all sectors of photography.
Interestingly = More people are searching via pictures and videos than using the standard web search, this seems to be a tactic used for the start of the year in the first quarter, but there seems to be a slight decline over the past two years.
Set aside “wedding photographers”
boudoir goes with weddings, there is no doubt here from the previous mention I made and the flow of things.
wedding is dropped 20% from its peak for 2009 .. If I look at the data yearly and average them out a little then give the drops, you can see the difference.
2004 70%
2005 76%
2006 85%
2007 79%
2008 62%
2009 50%
Highs and lows
Peeks 3Q 2004 and 2006
Dips 3Q 2009 (joint 2004 and 2007)
I will let you draw your own summary from the information I have provided, the information clearly shows some dropped over the years and also shows how the market floats around within the year, some photography markets are down and have progressively been this way over the past few years with a drop in 2007 and some peeks in 2006.
as the market has had its down turn the libido of many people has also dropped as money strings has tightened, Many people holding close the family values for family photography but certain luxuries like boudoir has become every girls dream and wedding boudoir is really creeping in with brides wanting to both treat themselves and their partner and is most certainly on the rise while wedding photography seems to still be slowly declining.
The uncle bob and everyone else thats trying to give it a go (the competition) faded off in 2008 as the uncles money belts got tighter, but we are seeing a rise again in the wannabes taking to the market (up around 25%).
I did write a report in the influx of photographers from 2007 to 2008 which I think off the top of my head was around 40% more ammatures going towards photography.. and a drop in the market of around the same amount over the pervious year.
Some photographers have seen an increase in work and other have not, this will be based on geographical areas and also the price and packages of the photographers for the value for money, but with out know the logic behind some purchases and the offerings of photographers it is hard to say where things are going. so some photographers will be effected and others will not.
) and these are taken in a romantic and slightly provocative manner to ensure he is waiting at the altar for you.
