Equine photography- would you use this service if it were near you?

Twizzel

Twizzel

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Bit of background information, if you could take a couple of minutes to read and then answer a couple of questions that would be fab and a great help
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Basically I am a 20 year old student, I have a share horse and love photography. I have experience of professional show/event photography in the South West, and over the past few years I've built up a portfolio, and have a noticed a bit of a gap in the market regarding photography.

I'm thinking of putting up a few adverts in tack shops, offering a 1 or 2 hour photography session with your horse(s). Activities can be loose schooling, portraits, hacking, schooling, jumping.

Would you be interested as a horse owner in something like this? If so, how much would you pay? I'm thinking of between £10-£20 per hour, say 10p per mile travel and 2 8x6 prints with the option of ordering more photos at an extra cost.

As far as I'm aware there is only 1 other person in the area that offers this, and judging by their website they are more human studio portraits and are only just branching out into sports photography, so don't seem to have the experience that I have.

Below are a few examples of my photos...

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Unfortunately most of my decent photos are copyrighted by the pro I took them for, so can't post, but these give you an idea
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Opinions? What would you be willing to pay for a 1 hour shoot and 2 8x6 prints?

Cheers
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Yes definitely, cos we would all like nice piccies of our horses but tend to be either rubbish or we are riding them and the ones someone else takes are also rubbish!

Price wise I think you could charge £20 and hour but maybe keep it lower for a bit to encourage business. The more you do the better as word of mouth is often the way this travels. Shame you are a bit far down.
 
My OH has done a bit of this - he also takes pics for some of the magazines.
It can be a bit of a nightmare as horse owners are very fussy and there is a lot of pressure to make their darlings look good!
From our experience, you would need to brief potential customers well about suitable backgrounds, who is going to handle the horse (esp if you are taking pics for stud cards or brochures which is quite popular) etc so you don't waste a lot of time when you get there. We went to one place to take picx of stallions and youngstock - the owner was too ill to handle them and her two young grooms were terrified of the stallions!
Your price structure sounds good - you might want to investigate extras such as collages and big canvases - OH has had a few requests for these too.
 
I would def be ito that if you were any where near me. Would be nice to have some pics that were good enough to go on the wall or something. Would be useful for people selling a horse too. I think between 10n and 20 quid is a good price
 
I would definately! Your prices sound very reasonable! I expect you could get away with charging slightly more, especially if you offered something like a cd of the prints as well, which wouldnt cost you too much but would give the client something more out of the shoot!
Its certainly a good idea and with a bit of thought could be a nice little earner!
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Good Luck
 
Really good idea and price, but the mileage might limit people using you being in Cornwall.
Your best bet would be to approach biggish livery yards and do several customers in one place.
I admit we almost always buy at least one pic from every event we do, and I would appreciate someone coming here to take some home ones.
 
If you're ever up in West Somerset, please let me know! May be worth visiting livery yards in a particular area on a particular day, having advertised in that area first? I bet you would find several people on the same yard might well be interested. Your prices sound very reasonable for such lovely portraits.
 
Yes I would and I think it's a good idea. Not everyone goes to shows where they can be taken by a professional photographer and everyone likes a good picture of their horse.
Your photo's are lovely.
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Fab, that seems like a resounding yes then!
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Have been talking it through with parents tonight, they both seem to think it might be a nice little earner. I'm not looking to do it full time, just to make a little extra money on top of the shows I do (if I am asked to go and shoot them!).

There seem to be a few of you in Devon/Sommerset that are interested... I had someone on another forum ask if I'd go to Scotland!!
 

Only just seen this, and YES would definitely use you. In fact, have always liked your pics and was thinking of contacting you regarding coming and taking a few pics of my mob this summer. Would love some really nice pics, so when the winter coats are gone, manes are tidied and the grass is a bit greener I will be in touch
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