Fun ride photo prices ... your thoughts?

Blimey, at a small funride like that, surely he'd make more sales at £5-£15 a picture, than £60?
I can imagine it costing a fair wedge if it were a major event like HOYS, everyone's dialed up to the nines and will probably want to capture the memory and be willing to pay more.

Think he might need to think about his target audience at any given event and tailor his prices to garner more sales...
 
Dang that's steep. There's a couple of people (man and wife) who zip around the east coast in a high powered rib taking pics of yachts out sailing. Their overheads would be significant but still only charge £25 for a high res jpeg.
 
ester said:
Frankly I'd expect any photographer to put me in centre of frame before sending me the image or even uploading it and most will do small edits for no charge or a small extra, if not I am quite capable of doing that myself if I want to print it. Basically if I ever went to HOYS etc I'd pay whatever for a pic, a BHS funride doesn't have the same draw.

And although we say it is difficult to make a living at the sheer number of people doing suggests it can't be too bad, there are people taking photos these days where they never would have been 10 years ago.
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It is VERY difficult to make an actual living out of photography, especially horse event photography as everyone expects for very cheap (as seen here). The sheer number is simply because sadly anyone with a half decent camera these days sticks it on auto and figures they can make a business out of it, the vast majority do not make a proper business out of it and don't last long as they soon realise that doesnt work. Id say most horse event photographs I see (taken of me when Im competing) are pretty amateur therefore they command a much lower price. If they were really decent then Id be happy to pay more. New photographers really cheapen photography. I see it all the time, people are forever opening studios doing super cheap shoots - they dont last long as its simply not sustainable.

Also, its easy for you to say you expect a photographer to crop and do small edits for free but if you consider how many images these people take in a day that adds up to a LOT of work. And yet you probably still only expect to pay £5 for an image... when that photographer on top of this spent hours outside (often in the rain / cold), had to pay their own fuel/food for the day, have to cover all their expensive equipment, software, insurance, tax, vehicle, a studio (if they do other types of photography which some do) etc. AND have any money left over to actually live off. At that money IMO its just not worth it. Also, most photographers do not sell the copyright with the image (very bizarre if they do) so its actually illegal for you to alter any image they take yourself ;)
 
But surely the best model is a more flexible approach. So if the tog offers a hi res image for £50, he probably won't sell many - and at this point, all his outlays (time, equipment etc have already gone out). So why not offer low res images for an appropriate fraction of that £50, possibly with discounts for multiple images. I would never spend £50 on a single image, but I might buy multiple low res images to that price if they were good (and interesting).

BTW I'm not sure studio expenses are relevant - surely studio-based photography should cover these costs (i.e. charge sufficiently to cover them), and equestrian event photography shouldn't be expected subsidise the cost of a studio for an entirely different income strand...
 
JFTD said:
But surely the best model is a more flexible approach. So if the tog offers a hi res image for £50, he probably won't sell many - and at this point, all his outlays (time, equipment etc have already gone out). So why not offer low res images for an appropriate fraction of that £50, possibly with discounts for multiple images. I would never spend £50 on a single image, but I might buy multiple low res images to that price if they were good (and interesting).
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Quite.

I've definitely spent that much in the past for digital images (so not requiring printing consumables)
those photos have already been taken so it hasn't cost the tog any more to sell me 4 or 5 images than it would have done to sell me one... but they've made a sale. Whereas if one image was £50 I'd walk on by. It's about perceived value for money IMO.
 
I'd be surprised if anyone forked out £50 for any photo so he probably didn't get anything for a whole days work. Our local photographers seem to do ok selling multiple cheaper images. I know the equipment set up can be expensive but the days expenses are not high if travelling locally and having a packed lunch.
 
I am definately not suggesting £50 is a good price for one image taken at a horse event (that isnt a particularly special event), I do agree that its quantity over quality that seems to work in that particular line of work. However, what Im suggesting is that people expect to only pay pennies for images at these events purely because theres the odd amateur out there who will work for basically free. Its not actually doing much to support a local business and the photographers have ruined it for the more professional ones by asking such cheap prices.
 
JFTD said:
BTW I'm not sure studio expenses are relevant - surely studio-based photography should cover these costs (i.e. charge sufficiently to cover them), and equestrian event photography shouldn't be expected subsidise the cost of a studio for an entirely different income strand...
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But they are to be taken into account when that photographer has potentially missed out on a days worth of studio work (and income) to attend the horse event especially at a valuable weekend (when many families etc. want to book for studio sessions).

At the end of the day OP, nobody is making you buy the image. If you want the image buy it, if you dont then dont. I think some people get annoyed when its a photograph because they're in it so they feel they almost have a right to it...
 
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MagicMelon said:
At the end of the day OP, nobody is making you buy the image. If you want the image buy it, if you dont then dont. I think some people get annoyed when its a photograph because they're in it so they feel they almost have a right to it...
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don't think anyone is saying that tbh, we're all happy to pay for images... I am usually at shows etc on my own so frequently buy a picture if there's a photographer there - it's a nice memento to have of the day and I don't have another way to get ridden pictures most of the time so I'll always pop over to have a look or check it out online when I get home.

There are a few set ups locally who seem to have a great business going, they are busy, have some good kit so you can see your pics on the day, prices are reasonable, they send jpegs almost instantly by email - I'm more than happy to support them as the service works well - as they are expanding in number of togs and attendance at shows I'd say it's working for them too.
 
It's all about what makes best business sense for any photographer and his/her personal choice. I think when prices are very affordable, people generally tend to buy more photos, and overall probably spend more than they would otherwise. A few people on this thread have said exactly that. If a fun ride / low-key event photo is about £10 I might buy four or five, but if they are £20/£25 I wouldn't buy two, I'd buy just one, and at £50 each I wouldn't buy any at all, and I think that's quite a common attitude.

If the photographer is happy to sell just a handful of photos from the entire day at £50 each that's his choice, but I'd put money on the fact that he'd take more revenue if he charged less and sold more.

One of the best photography outfits in the business charges about £15-£18 per photo and includes copyright because they say it's not worth their while to manage copyright permissions. At a big show over a few days we might spend several hundred pounds with them, as do many people, and it's a thriving business that employs many photographers and assistants. I dare say that if they'd ever tried to charge £50 a pop they'd be out of business by now.
 
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I'd struggle to justify that for an important competition photo, I wouldn't dream of paying that for a fun ride photo.

One local photographer that covers a couple of our local RC's charges less than £5 for 4x6 prints, so I'll always buy one, if they were 5+ times this I probably never would.
 
MagicMelon said:
But they are to be taken into account when that photographer has potentially missed out on a days worth of studio work (and income) to attend the horse event especially at a valuable weekend (when many families etc. want to book for studio sessions).
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Hmm, see I fundamentally disagree with this. I don't expect to subsidise people's choices in income strands. It's up to the photographer to choose whether they want to focus on events and other non-studio based work (e.g. wedding or other sports photography etc), or pay for a studio base, or blend the two. If they choose to blend studio and non-studio work, it isn't a question of charging more to cover the lack of studio earnings that weekend, as they will naturally (and, arguably rightly) be undercut by those who choose not to do studio-based work.
 
very expensive I usually get my mate to do any photos I need from a ride. taken on the phone .its free.
 
MagicMelon said:
I am definately not suggesting £50 is a good price for one image taken at a horse event (that isnt a particularly special event), I do agree that its quantity over quality that seems to work in that particular line of work. However, what Im suggesting is that people expect to only pay pennies for images at these events purely because theres the odd amateur out there who will work for basically free. Its not actually doing much to support a local business and the photographers have ruined it for the more professional ones by asking such cheap prices.
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No, it's got nothing to do with amateurs working for peanuts. It's just people don't want to pay much per pic. I'd spend £50 happily, but I'd want at least 3 pics for that, printed and in a basic frame. I (and many others I suspect) don't want one top-notch photo studio standard pic that costs a fortune, I want a few reasonable pics of the event as a memento. By this I mean riders head/horse's head/hoofs/tail all in the frame, close enough not to be a speck in the distance, camera at a reasonable angle to horse/rider, no abnormal oops-I-messed-up lighting effects. I'm actually disappointed if I attend an event and this isn't available. There's never anybody to take photos of me riding so I really value these event pics, but I don't want anything special and I'm not willing to pay a fortune for them.
 
JFTD said:
Actually, thinking about it, the only images I'd be willing to pay that sort of money for are the really arty eventing ones like the ones from Little Downham last year. He's a 'tog' with serious vision!

https://www.facebook.com/equuisimag...143809143588/1258860237505269/?type=3&theater

https://www.facebook.com/equuisimag...143809143588/1168144363243524/?type=3&theater
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Wow, that second one is lovely, really well framed, great shot composition!
You could see paying more for something decent like that, not just some bloke whose set up his camera in a random spot, holds the button down as people passes and says £60 puh-lease! :p
 
A few years ago I would agree that there was a glut of amateurs giving it a go and not doing an amazing job, but they were covering things like unaff dressage that didn't have anyone to buy from previously. In recent years the ones I have seen and come across have generally produced excellent quality professional standard images.

I have a tog friend so fully get the situation ;) and I'm sure the taking tog would prefer I bought a pic and removed the giant dropping just behind my pony if they don't want to than didn't purchase for that reason.
 
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