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Archive 2016 · What would YOU do for this event?

  
 
glort
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · What would YOU do for this event?



Got a referal from a friend for a dance Comp/ eisteadford.
Normally not the sort of thing id do without Viewstations but I hate to pass up an opportunity and was wondering was clever suggestions and stratiges the brains trust here might be able to put forward for something like this.

Here's all the facts I know so far:


Hi ,

My name is XXX, I'm Zoe's friend that is looking for a photographer to shoot photos for me at a dance comp I'm running!

Just some more details for you!

The dates are 6th, 7th, 13th, 14th and 21st of August.
Times are from 8am until approx 8pm on all days.
Venue is XXX Community Centre.
It is solos, duos and troupes with ages 6 and under to open age.
The photographer I usually have shoots photos and has a bunch of cards with their website of where the parents can order photos online from.
There are a lot of competitors - I'm not sure of how many to be honest because there is a lot! I can estimate for you if you need!

Please let me know if you need any other information!

Looking forward to hearing from you!

If you'd like to give me a call my number is XXX.

Kind regards, XXX


Now I have often said here that i would not do an event I couldn't sell on site or was prepaid.
In the absence of your great and brilliant Ideas I believe I can make money with, that's what I'll be sticking to.

My View stations are long gone as is my lead to borrow 10 or 50 Machines to set up a banks of vstations.

The idea of selling online leaves me thinking not a hope in hell. If I'm shooting 12 hours days, I want some more sort of certainty in return than the tiddly winks online selling - may- get me.
I am wondering if shooting a studio setup would be better and more profitable?
Also wondering what alternatives there could be to doing online. I just can't see that as worthwhile at all.

Any suggestions or thoughts on how to make real $$ out of this opportunity or are there none and it's best to say thank you but not something I can help you with?




Jul 30, 2016 at 11:29 PM
tntcorp
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · What would YOU do for this event?


hmmm... doesn't sound too promising; especially if you are not the sole event photographer, which doesn't seem so from the sales pitch.

1) unless you are guaranteed a fixed amount for your time on-site, it will be difficult to forecast revenues and profits from online sales.

2) also unless camera & tele-lenses are restricted from entry and the perimeter of the stage is declared off-limits from the audiences (and both criteria
are strictly enforced), you will lose potential sales from cell-phone toting audiences.

I think you have more questions to ask and negotiations to do before you can commit; good luck.



Jul 31, 2016 at 12:32 AM
gschlact
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · What would YOU do for this event?


Glort,
Is there anyway that your contact could enact for the event a mandatory photography fee in the registration? (If so, I can suggest distribution methods later for you where you would have to even touch the order nor product for fukfillment.)

If a mandatory fee cannot be enforced, is there a way for your Contact to send a communication to all participant with a message to the effect that the Event Photographer requires prepayment to photograph their chilD during the event. Prepayment would give the participant of their choice of package you want to provideo (do you think you could coerce all diGita packages?). At least this will give you an estimate for you minimum take. While you wouldn't need to shoot for all 60 hrs, you likely would still be there the whole time and need compensation.

You need a lot more info.



Jul 31, 2016 at 01:02 AM
Michael White
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · What would YOU do for this event?


I use to shoot mounted shooting in nm and several asked for a online purchase offer after several events I set up online purchases but I kept the onsite sales also. I never received one online purchase. Even years later. I would do both as you may have both but in my experience sales decline after the event is packed up.


Jul 31, 2016 at 10:34 PM
glort
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · What would YOU do for this event?



Thanks for the responses.

Yes, there is a lot more to ask but I was trying to see if there were any approaches I hadn't thought of before I got any further. I'm not inclined to do it on spec with uploading the pics so I thought until I have a basic strategy of some sort, everything else will be a moot point.

Given the gig is a week away pretty much limits any pre payment or even much communication with the parents.

So far what I'm thinking is find out if they have Video and maybe do that instead OR, instead of shooting action, do a portable studio setup and sell the pics there and then.

I have tried Online before as well when I did other events and sold onsite and I could not get a single sale that way either. I know people do OK this way but saying that, the people I know of are not here in OZ so maybe people in other places are more responsive to it than here. I tried everything I could think of to make it work and failed. I doubt I would do better with it years later.

Like I said, I hate to walk away from an opportunity but I hate to work hard for days on end and get nothing out of it worse.

I'll talk to the teacher/ studio owner soon and see what I can work out but not holding a lot of hope for this to be a winner.



Jul 31, 2016 at 11:31 PM
Michael White
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · What would YOU do for this event?


Keep us posted


Aug 03, 2016 at 09:49 PM
c.d.embrey
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · What would YOU do for this event?


glort wrote:
I have tried Online before as well when I did other events and sold onsite and I could not get a single sale that way either. I know people do OK this way but saying that, the people I know of are not here in OZ so maybe people in other places are more responsive to it than here. I tried everything I could think of to make it work and failed. I doubt I would do better with it years later.

Like I said, I hate to walk away from an opportunity but I hate to work hard for
...Show more

What opportunity? As you said: ...and I could not get a single sale that way either. Times change and from what you have said repeatedly, it sounds like it's time to run, not walk, away from this "opportunity."

Per Albert Einstein: "Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."



Aug 03, 2016 at 11:02 PM
glort
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · What would YOU do for this event?



HAha.

Yes, I agree totally and that's what I have done. I sent the politest email I could muster saying that unfortunately It would not be viable for us to do but If I would be happy to talk to her about end of year or concert pics.

I think any time there is the possibility of getting in front of a lot of people and taking pics there is an opportunity but whether you can make that opportunity worthwhile and financialy viable is another thing.

I was pretty sure I'd walk from the start but i have learned a lot here and I know very well there are a lot smarter people than I around who may be able to give me a heads up to something I hadn't thought of.
If there was a way to approach this and make a Dollar out of it, I wasn't aware of it so I let it go.

In the back of my head I was thinking I bet there are 100 keen people that got a Camera for Christmas that would love to do this and the returns are not important to them.
If this was a day or even maybe a weekend, I would have probably given it a go and seen if I could have pulled a miracle out my backside and got something out of it.
having little to no confidence I could, 5 days was way too big a commitment to risk.

I did do some research on the net and found some interesting things.
It seems " attraction" photography is really taking off despite the complete contradiction that has to the rest of the market and modern living.

Companies are investing big bucks in technology to photograph people going to tourist venues like Big wheels, zoo's, aquariums etc. They are developing new and varied systems to cater to the unique requirements of different locations.

I have to say in all smugness, I found a lot of satisfaction in this.
I went after "volume" photography years ago seeing much greater potential in that even just from an ability to market myself POV. It's been very successful and I have made very good money out of it.

I have been lambasted and ridiculed so many times for doing " Sausage machine" and " production line" photography instead of the more creative work which seems to be loved by the starving artists.
I'm in this for the money. It's my profession and business. When I want to go out and be arty farty and creative and indulge my ego, I'll do that on my own time. Other than that, I have to run the business like a business, not an excuse.

It's pretty clear to me that right now, the only sort of photography I can find that is not going backwards at 100 MPH let alone progressing, is in fact the volume type work like the attraction/ event work.
Haven't heard of any shooter opening more studios , putting on more people or progressing beyond anything near a small business in ages. Everything in fact is how things are getting harder and there is no money in the game.

We have to move with the times and stay ahead of the game and the influences thrust upon us. Nothing new about that, same as always.
We can't control the fact every phone now has a 6 Mp or better camera so no use crying that our traditional markets have died in the arse. what we have do do is what these rapidly growing attraction photography companies are doing and that's look for new inroads we can make the tech available work for us.

Wasn't so long ago we were all uploading things to the net and selling that way seemed brilliant at the time and gave us an opportunity we didn't have. Now that's past it's use by date and we have to look at other ways to sell what we do and make a decent buck.

I learnt a lot from the bit of research I did. The main thing was these people are not selling photos. They are selling the experience, they are painfully aware they are in the tourism NOT the photo market and they are selling the presentation and value added aspect of the visitors trip to the facility.

In a lot of my work, I have made the presentation Minimalist, first to save on costs and 2ndly, because I didn't believe it was as important as delivering a quality photo the client would frame, put in an album or do nothing at all with.
These attraction photo companies are actually using the presentation in the for of folders and more so booklets to be an integral part of the product and not something used to protect it during handover and the journey home.

It's probably pretty obvious thinking about it and that's part of the problem. We don't stand back enough and take in the big, whole picture and see what really is important and motivates our CLIENTS rather than what we think does or what we want to do.

I have a lot to think about now and if nothing else, the heads up this approach to do this work has given me has been a good and worthwhile thing.

Have to work out how I am going to restructure this side of things now and the angle I am going to come from with regards to presentation of the images and integrating them to be a whole package.




Aug 04, 2016 at 12:02 AM
c.d.embrey
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · What would YOU do for this event?


@glort, thanks for the info on attraction photos. When I was young all the Seaside Amusement Parks had wooden stand ins. Stick your head through the hole, and get your photo taken. Now with Green Screen technology they can do so much more.

The reason to have a business is to make money ... not art. The most successful commercial photographers I know in SoCal, don't shoot—they have employees to do that. No portraits, no events, no weddings, no retail sales at all. All they do is "Sausage machine" and "production line" photography for catalogs and manufacturing websites



Aug 04, 2016 at 03:50 AM





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