Hey Jim.. good to hear!! is the Wife coming? (Dee wants to know) anyway good to see you coming to the shoot... got you down for the cat shoot also..
sooo.. what flea bag you stayin' at??
My wife & I and mike Mattix & his wife are staying at the Trade Winds Motel... I think Anil (saaketham) and his wife are also coming, not sure where they are staying if they are making it a weekend....
Here is what I have so far...
Deffinately Coming:
Myself (DSallee) and wife for the weekend
Mike Mattix (Mike Mattix) and wife for the weekend
Rolf Strasheim (Lunatech) and wife for the weekend
Jim Powers (Jimbobp) for the weekend
Duane Angles (dangles) and wife
Anil (saaketham) and wife and friends
$100.00 Cat Shoot - might get this cheaper
Myself (DSallee)
Jim Powers (Jimbobp)
Anil (saaketham)
Duane Angles (dangles) {let me know if any wives are going to shoot the cats also}
Might make it
Justin Mackey (BigMac)??
Dustin Guyse (WozniakMac)??
Marty Allen (mallen)??
Erik (eadesigns)??
(braindeadmac)??
(Dave C)??
(jhill)??
(adamfast)??
Ok.. I hope this is close..lol ... Those of you in the last section "might come" please let me know if you are AND if you are going for the Cat shoot... This sunday, I'm going to try to talk him down a little on his price per shooter.. going to try to get close to $50.00 per shooter...
Let me know any changes that need to be made above ....
BTW.. if there is ?? by your name or your spouse, that means I'm not sure if you or the spouse is coming... please clearify this for me..
Thanks ALL..
This ought to be a BLAST!!!
Dave
PS.. Monday, I will be PMing all on this list to make sure you have seen the update...
Edited by DSallee on Apr 17, 2005 at 12:18 AM GMT
Edited by DSallee on Apr 17, 2005 at 12:20 AM GMT (Reason: added lunatech and wife)
Edited by DSallee on Apr 17, 2005 at 12:22 AM GMT (Reason: added friends to saaketham)
Dave, The Mrs. can't come as she's running low on vacation time since she agreed to go with me to Utah in the fall for a couple of weeks. I bought her a 20D and she hasn't picked it up yet. Oh well. I ended up with a room at the Travel Lodge. Don't ask why. It's my idea of camping out. We're going to spend a couple of days taking the youngster to a Day Out With Thomas The Tank Engine (yeehaw), so I had to conserve a bit on the room since Mom wants to stay someplace nice. That's her idea of camping out.
Rolf... got you and wife added buddy... are you going to do the cat shoot also?
Dee and I are going down there tomarrow (sunday) to check the place out and talk to Scott about cutting us a better deal than 100.00 per photographer...
I hadn't got around to picking a spot/time to meet... will probably meet at the visitors center next to the Trade Winds Motel... from there it's a hop/skip/jump to down town and also the tour bus/tram thingy stops there... it will take you down town at the many stops throughout the town... cost to ride it is 6.00 for all day pass .. to park your own car down town it cost 5.00 & up depending on the lot you choose ... of course you can walk it which isn't too bad going down but coming back UP the hill is a PITA ..
Those that are going to the Cat shoot could probably car pool together, not sure who all is going... 100.00 for the private shoot and 12.00 for an all day pass for those that are not doing the private shoot... but would like to get some cat shots.. (caged) .. I can tell you more about the Cat place after tomarrow, I have never been there myself...
So far there is a total of 11 to 15 of us that are going to Eureka Springs... I'm thinking once I PM everyone else that was interested in this thread.. it might make it to 20 people total...
Going to be a nice little meet... of course we HAVE to get a group pic... say CHEESE!!!!
Hey guys, Greg Sudderth down here in SE OK, 4.5 "yahoo driving hours" from y'all. Would love to come on up and meet some FM'ers!
Negotiating tactic: Get the guy to do a flat-price (high-enough)...I bet he'd go for it...either that or the "lower it and they will come" progressive price ("50$/each for 10 guys, 75/each for 7, 100 for 5....").
Boy, I'll tell you what... you all ain't gonna believe this... geee!!
Well, to start off, we (Dee and I) was able to go to Eureka Springs Sunday to get a few shots of the cat place to give everyone an idea of how it was going to be.... here is the following things that have happened sense!!
Monday morning, I go pay some bills and drop off the 35mm roll of film to get developed so I can show you all some pics of the Cat place...
Monday at 3pm.. I started getting chest pains so Dee forced me to go to he hospital... they run tests, keep me over-night... soo, I wasn't able to pick up the pics from the one-hour... no heart problems found but may have some pulled muscles around the heart cavity from lifting our DJ sound equipment according to the DR after the stress tests, blood tests ect....
Tuesday at 3pm.. I get released from the hospital, go by to pick up the pics and guess what!! The clerk ACCIDENTLY gave my pics/CD/negatives to someone else Monday night!! The clerk did say that she was very sorry and the pics were "amazing!" The clerk THINKS she remembers who she gave them to and is trying to contact her to see if she can bring that packet back or that I can go get it....
Sooooo... that means NO pics to show you as of yet... so I will try to describe it to you to the best of my ability... I will break this down into the two costs and the pics you can/will get....
12.00 all day pass
With this fee you will get to see the caged cats, lions, tigers, monkeys, bears ect.... this will also include a "walk" tour of the larger habitats.... RULES: you have to stay on the walk about 20 ft from the fence to get pics in the habitats and for the caged animals, they are in concrete floored cages with 2x3 openings in the cages with a railing about 4 ft from the cage you cannot cross soo no way to get good shots of the animals without any cage/fence in the pic....
100.00 Private Shoot
This IMO would be worth it... you get the same as above AND you are with a smaller groups (3 photograpers) per Zoo keeper... one hour with the "Habitits" ... you do NOT have to stay on the walk, you can get right up to the fence with it's 6x6 openings to shoot through the fence... just got to make sure and back up if a cat comes to the fence where you are (one did me!!) The "Habitits" are all natural ground/woods ect.. each habitiat is on 1/2 acre to 1 acre of land... (big enough you probalby WON'T get the back fence in any shots) I was shooting with my Sigma 70-300 and had no problem getting a full frame shot of the cats body or head shot...
HOPEFULLY... that lady will return the pics that is not hers so I can post them here.....
My personal opinion... the 12.00 shoot to me is not worth the 12.00 a person..
The 100.00 shoot is WELL worth it!! especially in the larger habitats....
If anyone has any questions at all, I will try to answer tham as best I can...
Scott was pretty stern on his price with only 5 or so photographers... so, I think that's about the best we can do.. .... he did mention a better rate if we had like 15 or more wanting the private shoot but I don't think that's going to happen....
Hey everyone... boy this is so hard to do after all the planning.... but, this is what Dee and I have to do....
After all that has went on these past two weeks.. my parents then my hospital ordeal... then a client not paying like they promised... there is no way we can make this trip.... financially, we are tapped out because of med bills and such ...
I REALLY wish there was a way for us to go... I have spent the last 2 days trying to work the budget to make it happen and it just won't... Dee had thought about coming down for just Saturday so we could at least meet everyone and shoot a little but we are so tight on funds that it would be a decision of Eureka or food on the table even for just a day trip...
Well, enough about my financial situation, I REALLY hope everyone has fun and gets some good shots ...
Those of you doing the Cat shoot... I was going to call them tomorrow (Monday) to set the appointment for the shoot on Saturday but because I'm not able to go, it would be best if someone would take over this part and call to make the appointment... Their number is (479) 253-5841 .. they are open from 9am to 5pm...
Those of you going for other shooting and for the weekend, the best place to meet would be the visitors center on Hwy 62 right next to The Trade Winds Motel. It is about 1/4 mile west of hwy 23 North ... they have a lot of info there on where would be the best place to get some good shots... and they can tell you how to get to Turpentine Creek (Cat place) ...
I am REALLY sorry about dropping the ball on this one.. but I see no real choice in the matter....
We still might be able to make the Saturday Day trip but it depends on if we receive payments as promised from 3 other clients that promised to pay by the 30th... unfortunately, I won't be sure until I receive the payment/s which could be as late as 1pm the 30th.....
About the weather, yes, it doesn't look to good I'm afraid ... I'm not sure if anyone will cancel going to Eureka Springs because of the rain possibility or not.... I'm sure it won't rain 24hrs a day that three days... so there still might be some photo opportunities between rain showers...
Again, I am real sorry about this everyone, I feel that I have let everyone down that trusted me to make this happen....
Well, I've still got my room and right now am still planning on being in Eureka Springs this weekend. It looks like the weather is pretty much the same at all my other alternatives. Took two photo trips last year and it rained everyday on each of them. Drat the bad luck.
Hey everyone... FWIW, I finally got the pics from the one hour... they said they still couldn't find the person that took my pics but they was able to pull the images off the Hard Drive from when they made my 1st CD... sooo.. I got at least a CD of the images.. yeah!!
Well, there not as good as I had hoped, I think I have a focusing issue with my Sigma 70-300... I had it set to AF but some still turned out OOF... Oh well.. I guess this means I need to upgrade to a good L lens.. lol Which I will definately do when I get my digital....
Here is a few pics to show you..
This first set is from where the 100.00 private shoot is... I was only alowed back there for about 5 minutes so the composure is not that great....
Hey Adam.. It was good'ol Walgreens, 20th & Main... I had been using them because they are only a few blocks away from me.. my main problem with them before this was that all my pics would be up-side-down on the CDs.. lol .... this takes the cake so I'm considering somewhere else... do you have any preference locally??
Locally you really can't beat Eccentrix. The main guy that handles their photo department (Robert) is an absolute genius that has done just about everything a person could ever do with film. They're the only lab locally I use, but lately I just haven't had to get anything printed and I haven't shot any film. I do my own b/w work at home.
Yeah, we canceled. We were going Friday AM and spend Friday and Saturday and while the Sat/Sun forecast has improved it still has a 70% chance on Friday. I will discuss again with my wife as we had decided to head west instead (much better weather).
He should have known! I've talked to him, giving him the date...discussing prices...and he was firm on the price. You must have a sales background buddy, or he was really preoccupied when I talked to him. I hope the pics turned out for you and hopefully you had a good time.Sorry we missed it.
!!
.... he did mention a better rate if we had like 15 or more wanting the private shoot but I don't think that's going to happen....