beltair.org Blog

 Landscape Photography – A Niche in Search of an Industry

As I go about each day trying to get my fledging startup going, my days are filled with brainstorming the tried and true formulas as well as ‘thinking outside the box’. And as I spend so much time thinking, I keep realizing that I am not only trying to create a  business, but I am also trying to create an industry. 

 Sometimes, reinvention of the wheel is obviously not needed. It is not clear that someone needs to reinvent the gas station, the dry cleaners, or the grocery store.  But subtle as it may seem, invention and innovation are exactly what is needed in almost anything we do.   That  is the engine of small business and landscaping is no exception (http://photographyforrealestate.net/).

To the layman, landscaping is an artform with a practical purpose.  Landscaping enhances the beauty and value of a property.  Landscaping showcases so many  related talents that it has become a necessity to maximize the most valuable asset an individual or company may have – property. 

In this millenial era, information is an incredible industry. With just a little effort, you can find information  on just about anything – usually free. Technology has been made available to a wider audience that ever thought possible.  The trap is believing there is nothing new to learn – no new innovation to make; that we know everything already and can use that knowledge in all the ways that it can be used.

The aforementioned engine of small business is supported by individuals that can do something common and do it uncommoningly well.  When that is no longer possible, our standard of living will go to a place we really wouldn’t like and our futures will become bleak.  But small business success is created with vision, invention and innovation.  Take the issue of providing aerial imaging to support the most important or mundane of taskings and efforts. 

 Aerial photography can be found on multiple websites that use national assets the public previously had no way of getting. But dependence on non-localized assets  has pitfalls.  It is still controlled by a collection strategy that is dicated on the needs of the country rather than the needs of an individual.  The imagery that suits your needs  is more likely to be coincidental rather than task driven.

 This is where industries like landscaping needs new tools, new access to problem solving services and utilities.  Tools like elevated imaging don’t  necessarily represent ‘new’ technology.  It represents an innovation in getting  a picture – the fact that the  picture is needed is not new; getting it this way, is.  Using this method, you are better able to customize the image to provide just the right look you need to the prospective client.    And as I work to develop my company’s service,  I can sense, feel that a landscaper is going to seize on  what I do. 

 Two things will happen at that time; one – the landcaper’s competitors will sit up and notice, they will integrate this asset into their own operation, and inadvertantly create an industry.  Next, my competitors will sit up and notice and the industry of elevated imaging will flourish as people scramble to come onboard until the next ‘new thing’ comes along.