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glort Offline [X]
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I was hesitant to show accident pics when I first started sports work.
Funny thing was, the people, the injured or parents would come and ask if we got them. When we did, they bought them.
I got stuff many times where people were taken to hospital.
I had one call one night from the doctors at a hospital where a girl that had been thrown from a horse that afternoon had been taken. they wanted to know if I had pics of what happened. I had a whole series from start to finish. I sent them to the doc and from them they got info that resulted in the girl being allowed to go home rather than be kept in for days of observation.
To be honest, we loved the accident injury pics because they simply were guaranteed best sellers. I spoke to several parents about it over the years I did it and their response was all pretty much, " you didn't cause it, may as well have something to look back on and laugh or cry about later" Maybe that's just the Aussie way and others may be different but rather than being seen as distasteful or ... whatever, people LOVED the accident shots we got and ALWAYS bought them.
Thinking back to my long past days of sporting and stunt glory, I would give mates my camera's to take pics of me. I always gave them strict instructions if anything happened, to make damn sure they got it. Much for the same reasons. May as well have something to back up the war story with and get a bit of cred or sympathy.
My biggest sale ever was a series of accident pics. A girl got thrown at a national showjumping event and I got the whole series perfectly. At the time she was the Oz champ in her division. Daddy owned the national company that was sponsoring the event. I got the pics and told my son who ran the trailer to go through and print 3 off and put them in frames on the counter. Took 12 min before someone told the girl they were there and her and her father were there looking.
He bought 3 complete sets of I think it was 6 Pics and CD's. Over $500 sale. Also gave me standing exclusive rights to photograph any and all of his sponsored events I wanted and got his personal ph no. if I had any problem with the organisers. Sweet!
Another girl I used to see at a lot of events was basically blind. We got to know her and her mother and liked her a lot. She had real guts and determination and was a bloody nice kid. I remember seeing her come off badly one day and it rattled me a bit. Sure enough, no sooner did the professional first aid people let her go with her bandaged up sprained wrist and she made a B line to the trailer asking if we got pics of her fall. The mother told me a few weeks later when I saw her how she had been showing them off to all her friends and family and how much she loved telling the tale and the happiness and excitement it brought her. I thought it strange but for a girl in her position, it was a big deal.
I shot little kids falling off horses, car crashes, kids getting taken out with baseballs and head clashes in soccer, things that just looked horrific in BMX ( ever seen a bone not only poking through the skin but the clothing as well?) and they ALL sold even when they resulted in broken arms, concussions, blood loss and hospital stays let alone visits.
Wasn't what I would have expected and some high level horse events I did made me literally sick to the stomach with the sound of people hitting the ground every 10 min, 3M in front of me.
I spoke to people about it and they kind of looked at me like I was a pussy and said that's what happens at this level of competition and pretty much seemed to think it strange I should be worried or expect different.
And as always, They bought the pictures every time.
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Nov 08, 2016 at 10:07 AM |
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