hiring a photographer, experiences, recommendations?

bakewell

bakewell

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I've been consistently disappointed in my photography efforts with my boys, not their fault at all. If they see me trying to photograph them covertly they come over so quickly my camera doesn't have time to refocus and it ends up all blurry (and nosetastic!). I seem to get the wrong angles in the stable too as they focus on the camera and pull faces.
Plus I feel like an self conscious idiot asking my other half to take photos as I canter past (not horsey).
I would really love some professional shots of them and am wondering if I could ask for family to do this together as my birthday present. However I have no idea of the prices, or who is really good.

Ideally I'd like some outside action shots (ie horse running free), some stable shots and some ridden shots. Say 6 digital images so I can print them off in various sizes?
I would love that artistic shallow depth of field BW look but would be open to anyone who could put an artistic spin on it.
I'm in the SE if any regional recommendations but happy to pay travel etc for a really great photographer.

So does anyone have a recommendation, website link and ideally any idea of prices for what I'm after? Thanks so much.
Also any tips for how to present ourselves well?
Thanks in advance
 
Just be careful when booking a photographer that you check the actual costs of any photos you might buy. I booked a photographer to come and take photos of my friends horse and mine, both at the same yard. When making and paying for the visit, I was not given any photo prices, and was only sent them by be mail just prior to the session. The prices were completely OTT and a huge shock!!!
 
For those in the North East, there's a new kid on the Block, literally, Mathew McDonough photography, 14yrs old with real talent, his work can be seen on Ivesley EC FB page, very reasonable prices and a natural feel for horses, dogs and children, photoghraphy runs in his family, so don't let his age put you off, visit his FB page, well worth a look
 
just last week my friend got a photographer to our yard, he was brilliant. charged £50 to come out but stayed for over 4 hours getting loads of shots of us- 3 of us at the yard with 7 horses and 3 dogs- split the £50 between us, not each. did some ridden ones of our friend, as well as in-hand ones with us and solo shots of the horses grazing. took loads of time and happy to try any suggestions we wanted. cost wise photos were also not bad- prints not particularly cheap, but big downloads £10 a picture or a whole CD of 20 for £50 including rights to print, send to friends, put on facebook ect. so basically, even on your own, you can get a photoshoot, for as long as it takes, for £50 and 20 photos of top quality (can then print cheap on photobox for example) for £50- £100.

Sean cameron http://www.seancameronphotographic.com/
 
Went to a local show recently were Wayne Jones was the photographer. I have never seen such rubbish. I asked if a person could be removed from the picture and was told that it would cost me £35 a minute plus the cost of the photo and he did not do it himself. He also does not do his own printing, that is all sent away.

I have had good results from a chap called David Saunders http://www.saundersphotography.co.uk/
 
Saneta said:
Just be careful when booking a photographer that you check the actual costs of any photos you might buy. I booked a photographer to come and take photos of my friends horse and mine, both at the same yard. When making and paying for the visit, I was not given any photo prices, and was only sent them by be mail just prior to the session. The prices were completely OTT and a huge shock!!!
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Thing is, I bet that photographer was really cheap to come out and take the photos in the first place so she would have then had to make her profit on the photos themselves. Loads of photographers do this and there's nothing wrong with it - I often see horsey photographers saying they'll come out to your yard for like £20, of course they wont make any money on that! Proper photography equipment is not cheap, neither is the training, running a car etc. Simply ask the photographer to see their price list before you book them then there's no shock. It really annoys me when people expect everything for nothing or don't appreciate quality - yes, you can pay for a jpeg and then get a cruddy canvas made by a cheap online company but its not going to last or be nearly as nice as the one I could order for you!

pippixox - That photographer will not be able to do that for long. 4 hours of a shoot and then editing all those images (so a further however many hours) for only £50 and then possibly another £100 on top of that. He couldn't possibly make a living off that. He'll be hoping very much that you all buy a nice big frame or something so he can make a decent profit.
 
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paulineh said:
He also does not do his own printing, that is all sent away.
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Why do people seem to think photographers do their own printing?! I don't know ANY professional photographer that does this, why would we? We are skilled in taking photographs and editing them, we aren't printers! We all outsource and get our printing done by professional printing companies so they are top quality, I wouldn't fancy expecting customers to pay for prints which I'd just printed out on my own printer... Remember that we also order products so frames, canvases, acrylics etc. which obviously we are not expected to do ourselves...
 
Michael Rogers (www.mdr_photo.co.uk) - Good guy and events too so knows horses. Came with us to Chatsworth and followed horse and team for the day. Absolutely brilliant. Think he is in Herts. Also second Wayne Jones. He is in Berks. Really good idea - I lost a horse suddenly once and my one regret is I don't have enough photos of him :(
 
MagicMelon said:
Why do people seem to think photographers do their own printing?! I don't know ANY professional photographer that does this, why would we? We are skilled in taking photographs and editing them, we aren't printers! We all outsource and get our printing done by professional printing companies so they are top quality, I wouldn't fancy expecting customers to pay for prints which I'd just printed out on my own printer... Remember that we also order products so frames, canvases, acrylics etc. which obviously we are not expected to do ourselves...
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I know of three at least that do their own printing ,editing and framing. In the past I have asked for things/people to be removed and have got these done by the photographer at no extra cost.
 
paulineh said:
I know of three at least that do their own printing ,editing and framing. In the past I have asked for things/people to be removed and have got these done by the photographer at no extra cost.
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I'm very surprised to hear that. They won't be able to offer a big range of products though as there's no way they can produce / print their own acrylics, canvases, albums etc. Maybe horsey photographers don't offer those sorts of things though. We certainly do but then we do weddings and have a studio.

Most good photographers will do their own editing, that's part of it generally.
 
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paulineh said:
Went to a local show recently were Wayne Jones was the photographer. I have never seen such rubbish. I asked if a person could be removed from the picture and was told that it would cost me £35 a minute plus the cost of the photo and he did not do it himself. He also does not do his own printing, that is all sent away.
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This sounds very odd to me - I know Wayne well (was on a livery yard with him for two years and have bought several pictures from him) and know for a fact that he does his own editing and has, in the past, removed objects from pictures on clients' request - but perhaps that's just for commissioned individual shoots rather than images at a show. No, he does not do his own printing for commissioned shoots, but he does do on-site printing for shows - I know most of the girls who run the van too :).

Obviously canvases and specialized printing finishes are handled by a third party . . . as someone else has said, why on earth would he want to be doing that himself?

P
 
We had a lovely woman who came to the yard and took an hour with everyone who wanted for a 'free' photoshoot.
What was not made clear at the time - despite several people asking,,,
Afterwards the photos were only available to view only by visiting her home, during work hours (No good to me working full time)
Yes the photos were SUPER expensive, (I do understand why - cameras and time are not cheap) - However if she could have given a ball park figure, we probably wouldn't have had her visit the yard, and save everyone a lot of time!

She was very insistent that we should 'see the photos before the prices'... needless to say, once the first person had viewed the images, and reported the prices - the rest of us had to politely decline!!

Such a shame as I am sure some of the photos would have been really stunning!

Hope you find a really good one OP! :)

Where abouts are you OP - There is a nice one I see on facebook regularly,,, https://www.facebook.com/EmmaBearmanPhotography - I have no personal experience with her, but some of the shots are stunning!
 
Happy Hunter said:
She was very insistent that we should 'see the photos before the prices'... needless to say, once the first person had viewed the images, and reported the prices - the rest of us had to politely decline!
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She's silly. I think prices should be easily available at the very beginning, silly of her not to let you see them. I'd rather people agreed to a shoot AFTER seeing the prices than not, and then saying they cant afford anything.
 
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