Eventing competitors and Event Photography

Trying to get the attention of staff while they are busy chatting or having to shout and wave for their attention at the back of a busy crowd is another bugbear of mine! If staff could quickly assess what photos customers want, print them off quickly& then quickly look for the next customer, that would be great!
 
What I hate:

. . . togs who either don't take ANY pictures of part of a class or only take one or two - I get that you need to go to the loo, get the memory cards back to the tent, etc., but invest in some decent runners and find a bush or portaloo between classes. Togs who not only choose the most boring fence on the course, but the worst angle - I do NOT want a picture of my horse's arse going over a fence! I hate going to the tent to find only one computer, and I hate being hovered over by tent staff . . . I am perfectly capable of operating some mouse buttons and finding my pictures (horse is grey so easier to find than all the brown ones), and if I want a picture (or three!), I will probably buy it on the spot. Pictures need to be good quality - that's why I'm effectively paying you for them, otherwise I'd be taking them myself - but they don't need to be worthy of hanging in the Louvre. It helps hugely if the photographer has a basic understanding of horse's gaits so knows what makes a pleasing canter/trot/walk image - sounds simple, but I've seen some shocking examples.

What I love:

. . . you! Not you personally, but your work - you guys are one of my favourite venue togs. Discounts for multiple photos, and the ability to download images directly onto FB make me happy - as does the ability to crop an image on-site before I buy it. Friendly and knowledgeable staff are a must too . . . and putting your diary of events on your website might (believe it or not) encourage people to choose an event because you will be there . . . the flip side of that is that once a photographer has let me down, I will NEVER buy from them again - I won't even go and look at the pictures.

Hope that helps :).

P
 
charlimouse said:
I agree with pretty much everything already mentioned. A local photographer to me has a really good system where for £25 you get 3 images put on a memory stick which has their logo and website on. At future events (if they are the photographers) you can get photos added on to this memory stick for £5 each (it has to be their branded memory stick). They take some lovely pictures, so I generally buy at least 1 but often more. I keep the memory stick in the lorry, so I don't forget it.
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^^^^^What a great idea ! My photos are all over the place.

OP - I never visit stands, combination of no time and other customers with babies/dogs/3 friends whose opinions are vital making it a) a bit busy and b) making me rush a decision so I am not holding anyone up.

I buy a lot of photos (have 4 horses competing all season, from 3* to baby) but like to buy them online, usually a few weeks later, when I get a bit of time to look properly. Sometime one has to scroll through many photos to find the horse I want (I can never remember the time it went) which is slightly irritating - facility where you could search for horse or rider or even the rider number would be fab. Also, I would like an option of buying an electronic copy for domestic use only, rather than a hard print, as is like to send them to friend s and family (no matter how bored they are with seeing them)! My family live in Canada, so only way of keeping them in the loop. I don't do Facebook or anything like that - which I think is the 21st Century equivalent of writing your number on the lavatory wall - Plus, I can file them on the computer, rather than have them lying around. The house loo just won't take any more !

Hope this feedback helps.
 
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1. Exciting, scary-looking fences, from the right angle! I was at an event recently where the tog was at the widest fence on the course - an Intermediate table at max width! Only thing is, he took the pic from face on, as the horse was landing, so you couldn't see the extent of the spread. It was a real shame that it wasn't taken from side-on.

2. Pics easy to find. Whoever does Keysoe does it very well; you click on your number and all your pics are there. Far easier than trying to remember what time you went XC, then click on camera 1, camera 2, etc.

3. No queues to view pics; so enough computers for plenty of people to view simultaneously.

4. Pics up online quickly.

5. Cheap digital pics! Sport in Pictures do a GBP 2.50 digital print and I quite literally always buy one from them. Who wouldn't, at that price!
 
Thanks for all the feedback, some very interesting and useful insights. Now to go away and implement filing images by rider number- we'll trial it at Munstead.
 
Definitely keen on the cheap facebook pics - I often buy a bunch of them if they are £2.50-£3 each. Pictures I would not often buy if they were any more expensive.

I do buy prints - but I will only buy prints when on-site as I am far too impatient to wait for them to be posted to me. I will only buy one print at £10-£12, but have been known to be tempted to buy two if they are £8... so photographer effectively does better out of me.

Also keen on having true side on photographs at the right angle - always a better view IMO.

I also don't feel the need to have the flimsy grey cardboard frame when purchasing at a show - seems a waste of money, would prefer just a print as I'm going to frame it myself at home.
 
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