Price of professional pics at competitions? Do you buy many?

I buy way too many photos but do think you get what you pay for - generally the more expensive ones are the better quality prints. Do get disapointed when photos are taken at the smallest jump on course but as DHB has said earlier, light does play a huge part in the selection of jumps.

I do have a cracking photo of my old horse and I jumping a massive roll top with brush on top on our first PN together, at the first ever Hutton horse trials - I remember walking the course the afternoon before and nearly crying when I saw it at fence 5!!! Caused me a very sleepless night that fence - it was up to height with 8' of brush on top.

Photographer made it look even bigger - it was at top of a drop and he crouched down, so looking up as you jumped over. It was the biggest xc fence I think i had jumped up to that point and Font was foot perfect, luckily, as I think I did nothing to help him out. Think it jumped fine but they have never had that fence there again - I smile every time I look at that photo - that's what you buy - fantastic memories. I really didn't think we would make it round that course - it seemed so big but we sailed round and we had an amazing time.

I don't think competitors appreciate how much work the photographers put in on the day, how much (good) equipment costs, and obviously time spent. It really annoys me to see people stealing images to put on facebook etc - yes, it is an image of you and your horse, but if the photographer wan't there you wouldn't have it!
 
Hels_Bells said:
Have just been musing to myself and thought I would share to see what you guys think on the subject...

Does anyone else find the prices for basic pictures at competitions quite high? I would love to get a few of my comp pics from this season just to put in a photo album but at £10-15 for a standard sized pic it's just out of my price range to get more than one (maybe 2 at the cheaper prices) which is really disappointing. :( So am just wondering how photographers come to the pricing they do? Maybe they prefer to sell fewer pics for more money, or would it be better for them to sell cheaper pics and more of them??

I understand that a photographer takes 1-2 days to photograph an bog standard BE event plus processing the pics maybe takes a further day (unsure on that one) but if there are say 500 competitors over a weekend and half of them buy 1 pic (I think that's quite a lot) at £10 a pop (cheapest i've seen) thats £2500, not bad for a weekends work I think. Do you think that if pics were priced more around the £4-7 mark more people would buy them??? I know I certainly would every time as there is usually at least 1 good pic in each batch??

I remember the thread some time ago about people copying pro pics and posting of f/book etc which I don't agree with at all. However, I would be prepared to pay more for an electronic copy of the picture so I could print it out myself and pass it on to family etc, but I don't think I've seen any photographers that offer this service? Basically just wondering what people's thoughts are!!! :)
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My husband does events and charges £2.50 for a high resolution download, and his prices are really cheap. He's not a pro, but has a pro camera and pro lenses and has a good grounding in good photography and takes some great pics. www.riderphotos.co.uk
It's a hobby for him though, as he comes with us to events although he will attend other events if invited.
 
We bought 3 a couple of weeks ago, but only because it was the 1st time my daughter had managed to compete her horse in the nearly 3 years she's had her so it was a special occasion.

The photos aren't bad, better than I could take anyway- but they were £10 each(10% off if you bought more than 2) each and when they arrived they weren't even in one of those cardboard photo mount things.

I'm not sure what overheads a photographer has so am not sure what is reasonable in terms of cost, but most I have paid for have been around £7 for a 9x7, and that includes a cardboard mount

As a general rule we don't buy one each time she goes out unless there is an exceptional one.
 
I show, not event so the fence isn't an issue(!) but this year I have only bought 2 photos and they were both the smallest size available and were I think £32.00 for the two which was a bit OTT I felt but they were rather "must have" ones!

I am another who would buy more if they were generally cheaper. The prices do seem to vary quite a lot - Hickstead for example they are relatively cheap but you tend to get less choice as there is generally only one photo per horse per class whereas other shows you have a choice, which is probably why they are more expensive as more man power.
 
Over the years I have bought many pictures but never over the price of £7

I do not do Eventing, Show Jumping, dressage or even Show. I do Endurance.

I once bought a picture with the rain still showing, this showed what the sport can be all about. One was taken in the snow again we compete in all weathers.
 
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I bought 4 pics of my 2yr old at the College Futurity. Very pricey -£20 each for a digital image - but they were excellent (Greenlees) and I had spent a day and a half getting her clean. I heard on HHO that photos at other venues were disappointing.
 
Hmm sore subject for me at the moment - I am still waiting for photos from the Royal London Show to go up on the website, Royal London was 3/4/5th Sep so over a month later. Now normally I wouldn't worry and to be honest would not bother even looking this much after the event but I KNOW the photographer took some of me in a particular class and I really wanted one of them just to prove I did it!
However back to the subject, I don't mind paying for a photo but as others have said it has to be a good quality shot with ears forward, and me not grimacing! Wouldn't pay over about ~£13 pounds for one though as have a friend who can take decent equivalent shots for free!
 
I think also that the market has changed and photographers are not going with it. I, and many others I know, don't want numerous large pro photos all over the house - would much rather have them as my desktop photo on the computer and saved on there to look back on in future years. If a digital image was, say, £5 or £6, taken with light etc for a computer screen, I'd buy a couple, with no printing costs to the photographer. Often the ones I have of events are lovely, and taken on someone's camera phone, so very expensive equipment is not a must for a nice digital image. But photographers charge silly prices for a digital image, so it's buy the printed photo (that I don't want) or get a friend to take photos on their phone.
 
Mrs Pink said:
Didn't realise you had to make a contribution either!!!!
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For contribution read "whacking great fee" for many of the shows!!!

To have a stall where you can sell the pictures on the day you can pay anything from £50 at a smaller agricultural type show up to over a grand at some of the big shows.

My husband goes to shows at an artist, and has done some work for event photographers (as a photographer) in the past. These event photographers seem to struggle to make a profit as they go out of business fairly regularly, I know our RC actually struggle to get a pro photographer to go along sometimes.
 
I'm another one who is influenced mostly by the choice of jump, I want to make people go 'wow - you jumped THAT!?' - think centaur's leap at Burghley. (not that i would ever be jumping something like that :eek: except in miniature. maybe. very miniature)

It seems that a lot of the cost is the mobile printing at the show, a question for the photographers; you obviously think thats worth having? why? what was the reasoning? Personally there are usually too many people crowded round and I don't really have the time to look at the show, I like to wait till i've got home, put the horse to bed and had a bath, then I savour looking at the pics online.

I save the proofs to my computer (I do not use them anywhere) with the date, show, photographer's name and ref. Then at the end of the year I treat myself to a christmas present of 2-3 pics from the year. I would def buy more if they were cheaper, but I do understand why they are not. I would prefer electronically too - I only have so much space in the house for photos, and less is more in the case of photos so I swap the old ones out.
 
I totally agree about the van and print-out on the day stuff. Why do they spend so much money on that sort of equipment/set up when they could cut their prices/overheads and sell more pics instead??? I never ever buy on the day. Like you puffin, my main concern is getting my horse home, fed and comfy, so I always wait to look online afterwards. Great idea about saving the photos down to review at the end of the year!
 
I agree, sometimes I think the photographers choose the easy option. This is probably one of my favourite ever photos, taken by our very own photo_jo. The biggest rider frightener fence taken from way down on the landing side of the fence and IMO so very impressive.
My personal favourite photographers from BE would be Jo, John Britter (usually does St Mary's Bower at Chatsworth), Shawshot and Fotograffs (Mr Winstanley).
Racing pics on the whole are much cheaper, and of these Sweet photography, Grossick and Northern P2P pictures are the favourites.
Sweet do a high res digital image for £25, which means you can buy it, and if you are broke like me charge the family £2 each for a copy :-)

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I am very much influenced by the choice of jump. I really don't understand why a photographer would think you want to buy a picture of the smallest jump on the course. I want to be able to look a my photo and feel a sense of achievement.

If the photo is right, i.e horse in a good position over the fence, jump looks impressive etc I am more than willing to pay for it. I have paid up to £20 in the past. But I think once you have paid for the photo why you can't use it again. If you are paying around £15 for a photo I would like to be able to copy the photo and send it to my family, my horses breeder etc. Fair enough if you don't buy the photo then you shouldn't be able to infringe copywrite but once you have paid for the image why not!? The photographer could put a signature on it like an artist would so in a sense advertising their work. I think it would be a good idea to offer this.

I fully appreciate that they sit out all day in all sorts of weather and I always look at my photos. Also it does encourage me to buy more when you get money off on the 2nd or 3rd photo.

P.S Baggybreeches that is an amazing photo! I hope it has pride of place!
 
Bill Parrot was the chap at Stafford that I was talking about. His photos are great.


I get fed up with the cardboard frames. Surely thats somewhere that costs could be cut? Most of us pull them out and put them in a frame/album anyway....
 
Love the pic BB - I want one like that!!!! :D Fence 3 at Beckwithshaw this year would have been a similar shot, but again they chose a diddler. :(

Blooming good point about those frames Honey08.

In this world of increasingly customer focussed business decisions why are so many photographers out of touch with their clients needs? Is it because it is essentially considered and art form and the art is more important than the moneymaking side of things to some? Could this be why so many are going out of business (as per an earlier response to this thread) rather than the overheads causing it? If you can't make enough to meet your overheads perhaps you try a different approach to marketing and pricing before you lay down and fold your business??
 
mystiandsunny said:
Often the ones I have of events are lovely, and taken on someone's camera phone, so very expensive equipment is not a must for a nice digital image. But photographers charge silly prices for a digital image, so it's buy the printed photo (that I don't want) or get a friend to take photos on their phone.
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Sorry thats a very naive comment and one i think is fundamentally wrong. If we could produce professional quality photos with sub standard gear or even camera phones, why aren't we? How you can compare a camera phone image to a pro pic is beyond me. We use the expensive gear because it a. copes well in varying light situations, b. stands up to the constant use (ive taken well over 800 images on one day before), c. the quality of image i.e the clarity, colour range, depth of frame, sharpness, timing is normally spot on of the equipment is used properly by an experienced photographer.

R.e silly prices and overheads please see my earlier post, then you might understand why we justify putting such a price on our work.

If you wanted to buy a print by an artist, would you ask for a digital copy? Or food at a top restaurant (that only does eat-in) but actually can you take it away because it is cheaper- still enjoy it but not pay for the restaurant service.

I suppose at the end of the day it depends what your definition of a nice digital image is... Photographers always strive to produce top quality images, we don't settle for second best. You don't go to the event/show with the aim of coming second, you want to win, same mentality really.

On site printing captures those impulse purchases, people waiting around for results or championships often pop in to view pics, having worked with a photographer who often didn'nt print on the day we never sold as many photos.
 
Hells_Bells! I have just worked out who you are!! :D:D Give Remy a hug from me please.
I tend to buy if I have a little money at the end of the day and often buy if the horse has gone well or I have had a good day.
 
Hels_Bells which day were you on at Beckwithshaw as my photo is over Fence 3, (there on Sat, intro) have no idea how to post link but the fence was quite big but don't think the photo does it justice, he's too far away I think and the back of the fence looks a bit wierd as it's quite open if that's the right word
£10.49 for an unmounted 7x5 can't find P&Pwithout having to fill all delivery details in!!! :(
 
I think i was there on Sunday MrsP but I was doing BE100 and they didn't do fence 3, I wish they had as it was the biggest fence I think we've done all season. I can't remember exactly which one it was in the end but I think it was a dinky one!
 
hi
iv'e only bought a few this year as i find them expensive ,i don't mind paying £8-£10 for a nice pic but some are way over that

there is a pic of me through the water at one event that i would love and would of bought in a shot if it wasn't going to be about £17 :eek:
 
Hiya Gamebird thanks for the mention;) I am just starting out in eventing photography but have had a great learning experience this year. There are so many factors to take into account when selecting a fence, what I try to think about is - Light - if the landing side is into the sun there is not much point ! fence size and position on course, what is in the background - you can have an interesting fence but if there is a big ice cream van or chip van or worse still the ambulance in the background it rather spoils the look! The construction of the fence is important too, fences with high sides or lots of dratted fir trees are a pain especially as most folk seem to want side on shots so they can see the shape of the horse as it jumps.The other things that i think is a pity is that many fences are only dressed on the takeoff side , when most photos are taken from the landing side ! A couple of places this year were really hard to get a good fence as the course was being run the wrong way - I mean from a photographers point of view, with most of the fences into the sun . I have also been caught out by thinking I have chosen the best place to find that the rider I was following doesn't get that far , my disappointment will be small compared to the riders but it is still a pity if you were after a particular shot. So it is a real balance to find the fence that is the best option. Your points of view are really interesting and I have made notes of them for next year! As a solo photographer , covering a whole show if hard work I keep thinking a quad bike would be good ...... lol the other issue is preparing and uploading the photos, it can take hours and hours of work, and I am always so conscious of the time factor. I ended up going to too many shows at the back of the season and still have not managed to upload the back log yet! Maybe one of these days I can give up the day job and go full time. I met some really nice photographers on my trips this year who helped me understand how things work, and when you see the effort, equipment, time, fees and general expenses I can understand the costs. However I do think there is room for some price adjustments and do believe that plain prints could be cheaper or the option of smaller prints given. Mind you in support of the photographers out there it is disheartening to do all that work and invest the time to only sell a very few prints so the cost of the prints have to take into consideration all the shots that don't sell.

Hmm seem to have babbled on for ages:D but I just love taking photos and am chuffed to bits if it comes out well and someone likes it enough to buy!! Roll on next year:) take a visit to [Commercial URL removed] and leave a comment if you fancy
 
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What gets me is why it costs an extra £2.50 to add the name of the show and month/year to the bottom of the already £15 photo ???? Why £2.50 more? They do it at a click of a button. To me a £1 would be enough extra to pay for such adding. (photos are from showing finals/champs btw).
 
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