Time spent.. value received?

Snowgirl · May 26, 2011

I've spent the past couple of week-ends shooting horse events - one driving; one dressage. Spring, such as it is, has been VERY late arriving in this neck of the woods. In fact, it's a miracle that ANY photos are in focus considering the shivering that was going on under my parka:rofl

That said, I'm now re-evaluating the value of doing this type of shooting - hours spent relative to sales made. I figured out that on these two events alone I'm probably earning less than minimum wage - versus doing family portraits shoots with a decent return on investment.

Any thoughts?

catspaw · May 26, 2011

I've stopped doing events unless I get a fee upfront from the show organizers. Not a lot (I asked $60 for a local dressage schooling show) but enough that if NO sales occurred, I wouldn't feel as if I just blew an entire day for nothing.

mind you, said schooling show series never replied :P I figured it was affordable enough for them IF they wanted to offer a photographer, but if not? oh well. I'm happier

FlyNavy · May 26, 2011

I suggest you shoot a series with your lens wide open to throw the background out of focus? Also, Try some panning shots to get the background to blur. Might give the clients a different perspective. FWIW, I like your work.

torags · May 26, 2011

From what I've read, the parents of entry level participants are usually more likely to purchase.

The champs have plenty of pix along the way

catspaw · May 27, 2011

FlyNavy wrote: »

I suggest you shoot a series with your lens wide open to throw the background out of focus? Also, Try some panning shots to get the background to blur. Might give the clients a different perspective. FWIW, I like your work.

Alas, while panning works in motor type sports, it does not with horses, specifically because the LEGS are moving, so any panning gives you blurred leg movement which just looks .... pathetically amateur. the sorts of shorts people who don't have good cameras get. Otherwise, yes, panning good for sports. Just not this one

johng · May 27, 2011

Snowgirl,

Without a doubt, your sentiments reflect the reality of much of the shoot-on-spec sports world. In today's world, photos are mostly shared electronically and on social media. It's more about recent than quality. So it is extremely difficult to shoot on spec and make it worth your time. Additionally - take the dressage photos - let's say the rider in shot 1 does 5 events. How different can each photo really be? How many photos of herself does she really need? It does not, to me, seem like a sport that lends itself to different looking photos. I would also add, you have to look at a photo beyond technical merits. Shot #3 is certainly not a flattering facial expression of the rider. Few people want to pay money for a photo that doesn't look flattering. I could argue the same, to a lesser extent, about the next photo.

In a lot of sports people just don't want to spend the money for photos - they have friends/family taking 100s of photos and giving them away for free - and since most such photos are viewed on social media or printed 4x6, no one really cares that it isn't the highest quality. As you've found out, the result is that shooting on spec doesn't lend itself to a great hourly pay rate.

Snowgirl · May 27, 2011

Good points, all. I just read an interesting article in The Chronicle of The Horse by another show shooter and her comments resonated with me as well. Check it out.

Thanks for the comments and suggests as well. Photo #3 is my riding student - took that shot to show her why she lost points executing that particular movement (horse's head up, back hollow, head tilted) - and it got posted in error. I meant to grab the next one in the series which is more flattering to both the young lady and her horse

#1, #2 and #4 all sold to the respective handlers.

I'd be curious to see what you all think of the article... let me know.

Snowgirl · May 27, 2011

FlyNavy wrote: »

I suggest you shoot a series with your lens wide open to throw the background out of focus? Also, Try some panning shots to get the background to blur. Might give the clients a different perspective. FWIW, I like your work.

Sadly panning doesn't work.

Also, if I have my lens (70-200mmf/2.8IS) wide open, my margin for error in depth of field is a matter of less than a couple of inches. Consequently, not only do you blur the background (a good thing) but, sadly, you usually end up blurring a part of the horse and/or the rider. It's such a large target to get in focus.

Glort · May 28, 2011

I can completely relate to what your saying Snow on so many points.

2 Weeks ago i did a 2 day event and it literally took me till the following Wednesday to be able to walk and move again without pain from my back. Dunno what it was, normally I don't have trouble but i think for whatever reason the standing around got to me bad.
Although the few events that i have done this year that haven't been canceled due to lack of entrants or bad weather, have been pretty good for me which was a pleasant change from the few i finished the year off last season which were freaking wastes of time.

What is spoken about in the article is true, also on a number of levels. Amateurs are getting better equipped for one.
last year during our world cup SJ qualifier i was shooting out in the middle of the main ring and looking back at the grandstand I was counting off the more than 2 dozen white lenses i could see people shooting with. Yeah sure, they are amateurs and all that but if anyone thinks that doesn't cut into our returns, they are kidding themselves.
I tried the online thing and for me it was a disaster and i fully agree that heaps more pics are stolen than bought and a lot of people in the equine game are interested in looking to see the technical s rather than interested in buying. I also stopped doing all the major events this year because the more regular the rider the less desire for pics they have. For me its the 4-12 yo's that are where the money is.

Sure its an ego trip to be asked and to shoot the most premier event in the country but making it pay is something else. Now i have done it i'll put that on the resume to get myself into the most grass roots amateur level events I can find because i can forgo ego for cash.
I have been trying to make the prepaid model work but have had no success. i tried pitching an all inclusive coverage for the state level events this year but that was rejected because the association thought that the $15 per rider I wanted for a disk of unlimited shots was too much of an ask on the competitors despite the hundreds they charge for all manner of things just for the riders to compete.
I'm looking at another angle with that and circumventing the association all together and see how that goes.

I am starting to feel a bit lame standing out in a paddock all day in the blazing sun of the freezing cold or either one with rain thrown in taking a 1000 pics to sell 20. For the moment I don't have a better way so I'll stick to it but not for much longer.
The thing I believe is if something isn't working change what you are doing or give it away and thats what i'm working towards.
I did a T&I of one of the horse clubs a few weeks ago and given the club had only 25 members and i was told that not all would show, i wasn't expecting a lot.
The $$ i took home with me however are something I would have never dreamed of nor believed anyone else had they told me they did it.

Within a week i had sample posters of packages printed and a booklet I put together with all the info including lots of sample pics put together and took that to my next comp the following week and had a word to all the club presidents that were there. So far i have booked a club of 80 riders and got another booking for a club of around 35.
I had an event tomorrow which i passed on with the blessing of the club as there are only 24 riders entered and its a zone level event. there seem to be a big fall off of riders competing this year and I have already had 3 comps that should have been big canceled due to lack of numbers this year.

What I am doing is going out to the event with my brochures and posters and going to talk to the clubs there and arrange club photo days for them. i spoke to the zone sec last week and she is stoked with the idea and wants to arrange a day with the other 4 clubs in the area to do it together.
These are going to be fast and hard work but that is more than fine when i know the effort is worth it. As you are painfully aware, it's pretty demoralizing to work yer butt off and have nothing to show for it.

the other thing i'll be doing tomorrow is trying doing some vids on my SLR with a view of offering those to the riders. And the hair brained scheme of the week is the thought of buying one of those Tiny HD helmet cam type units and offering that to the riders for hire to film their rides from their own POV.
I saw a guy in the US is doing this and I have written to him asking him how its going but i haven't heard back from him yet.
I'll pitch it at the people i talk tomorrow and get their feedback on the idea.
I have only been doing the events 2 years and i got into it because i saw it as a relatively unsaturated market. I have done pretty well in it and I'm far and away the biggest set up I know of in the country ( as insignificant as that is in comparison to the guys in the US) however the thing I'm looking at now is I have already hit the ceiling.

I have lots of ideas of where I'd like to take my setup and expand it but the reality is there is no point. I am already overly set up for the interest people have in buying pics and the event sizes here I can cover. The other thing is events are just so small compared to the US that you just don't have the numbers to sell to in the first place.
The biggest event in one place here in the biggest city in Oz is 2500 people. guys i talk to in teh US are doing 15,000 people events and not even interested in " little" 2500 competitor "Local" shows.

The only way for me to go is into other things like dancing comps where i have a lot better chance of employing the pre paid model and having a decent size audience to pitch to so I'm more likely to get a worthwhile return for my time and efforts.
The other avenue is of course the T&I work which is a particularly appealing one given the returns and the comparatively minimal time, labor and most of all equipment i need.

Like you snow, i'm a lot more marketing savvy than the average shooter but there are factors at play beyond our control now we are going to have to adapt to. The old school thinking of doing good work and producing interesting/ desirable products and a lot of other marketing practices and logic just dosent apply anymore because photography has become something which is less special to the public and easier to create themselves which lowers their inclination to buy professional pics substantially .

Photography is far from over but a lot of markets are fast becoming nonviable for anyone serious about getting a return on their time and efforts so we are going to have to move with the fixed circumstances we can't change and move into other things that are more lucrative.

It's hard to change from what you know into something your starting again in but its either put up and shut up or make the change to other more promising markets.

Time spent.. value received?

Comments