Post by Hope C. on May 3, 2010 12:01:58 GMT -5
This weekend there was a horse show two hours away that a group from my barn was going to, and I tagged along to go take pictures. Of course, I contacted the powers that be first and asked if it was alright with them. Unfortunately, or so I thought, they said that I would be unable to solicit any business there because they had a regular photographer to whom photography retail was promised, but I was welcome to give some pictures to the equestrian park to be used on fliers and their website in exchange for being listed as a sponsor. So I decided the publicity was worth it and went along anyway. About ten rides into the dressage I, and the girl who wants to team up with me this summer for all the shows, started wondering where in the name of all things good their show photographer was. As far as we could see the only person there who could potentially be their photographer was a guy with a point and shoot on a tripod... and we were a little confused. Once the dressage was about half way through, my riding trainer texted me and said their show photographer wasn't coming, and one of the moms with our group went and asked the people in charge if we could then sell our pictures, and they said we could.
So, throughout the course of the show they announced that Cowgirl with a Camera and Elfen Photography were taking pictures that would be available for sale after the show. All in all I ended up with about 700 photos from the dressage, cross-country, and stadium jumping, which I narrowed down to about 450, and we're already getting requests to buy photos, and the riders haven't even seen the pictures yet.
I'm sure glad I decided to go despite being under the impression that we wouldn't be able to make anything off the event. So now we've been contacting event managers for horse shows to get ahead of the game and be listed as official photographers for a lot of the little shows through out the summer, and as the weather gets nicer more and more people come to the barn and we meet more and more people and they see out photos and want to buy them. One of the dressage girls' mom asked if I would take pictures of her and her horse this summer, and a bunch of the other moms are super excited to be able to have photos of their kids. So here's to hoping that with the combination of baby sitting two days a week and being a photographer at as many horse shows as possible I will no longer qualify as a penniless college student.
On the down side, I happen to be one of only two people not afraid of the literally crazy bib black mare we brought with us, so while the trainer (the only other one not afraid of her) was helping the kids and such it was my job to lunge her until she was worn out and would behave and not attempt to escape her stall at night while we were at the hotel. Unfortunately, she is an ex-racehorse, meaning lots and lots of energy. I lunged her for probably at least two hours over the two days we were there, and believe me, controlling and keeping pace with a horse with that much energy is a heck of a lot harder than it seems... and that ground was pretty hard, and I now have shin splints... but hey, at least we didn't lose the horse over night, right?
So, throughout the course of the show they announced that Cowgirl with a Camera and Elfen Photography were taking pictures that would be available for sale after the show. All in all I ended up with about 700 photos from the dressage, cross-country, and stadium jumping, which I narrowed down to about 450, and we're already getting requests to buy photos, and the riders haven't even seen the pictures yet.
I'm sure glad I decided to go despite being under the impression that we wouldn't be able to make anything off the event. So now we've been contacting event managers for horse shows to get ahead of the game and be listed as official photographers for a lot of the little shows through out the summer, and as the weather gets nicer more and more people come to the barn and we meet more and more people and they see out photos and want to buy them. One of the dressage girls' mom asked if I would take pictures of her and her horse this summer, and a bunch of the other moms are super excited to be able to have photos of their kids. So here's to hoping that with the combination of baby sitting two days a week and being a photographer at as many horse shows as possible I will no longer qualify as a penniless college student.
On the down side, I happen to be one of only two people not afraid of the literally crazy bib black mare we brought with us, so while the trainer (the only other one not afraid of her) was helping the kids and such it was my job to lunge her until she was worn out and would behave and not attempt to escape her stall at night while we were at the hotel. Unfortunately, she is an ex-racehorse, meaning lots and lots of energy. I lunged her for probably at least two hours over the two days we were there, and believe me, controlling and keeping pace with a horse with that much energy is a heck of a lot harder than it seems... and that ground was pretty hard, and I now have shin splints... but hey, at least we didn't lose the horse over night, right?
And Mom's are suckers for photos of their kids, I learned that one real fast. Haha.
