Lesson #1 - The Nature of the Horse Show Photography Business
Do you dream of combining your love and knowledge of horses and photography into a full or part-time career? Ask any full time equine photographer and they will tell it's a big challenge. Equine event photography is not for everyone but opportunity exists if you are willing to work smart and hard.
Is event photography for you?
Are you an outgoing person that thrives on new experiences?
You need to love taking photos. You'll be taking lots!
A genuine interest and passion for horses will take you a long way and excellent horsemanship is a big advantage.
How good is your photography? Be honest with yourself. You skills need to be excellent and reliable.
You need to enjoy hard work. Your days will be long. Event photography is not easy money.
Good computer skills are a must. In the digital world people expect proofs to be available very quickly.
You need to be task oriented. Take the photos, post the proofs and fill the orders.
You need to be comfortable with self-employment and all that means. There is greater risk than a 9 to 5 job and your income will fluctuate.
You need to have solid business management skills like basic accounting.
Being an event photographer means meeting lots of new people and working with the public. It is very much a retail service business. Part of the business is taking photos but there is much more to event photography than just taking the photo. You will have many other hats to wear.
You really have at least two major customers. One main customer is the competitor and the other is event management. You will have to have a good working relationship with all your customers to be successful in the event photography business.
Competitors are the ones who will be buying your prints and products and their motivations are fairly easy to understand. Generally competitors are purchasing photography for personal use. Personal use includes things like scrapbooks, prints to display in the home or tack room and digital files to be used on their personal website.
Event management has different motivations which may vary according to the size and type of event. Management often needs images for their sponsors. For example, if a sponsor presents an award at the show then management may want to thank them with a photo. Management often needs images for editorial uses like newsletters. For example, a breed show may need a photo of the show champion for the registry newsletter. Another common need for show management is photos for their print collateral like show programs, prizelists and posters. Your agreement with show management may include these or other obligations. We will get into the details of agreements with management in Lesson 2.
Customer service really is the cornerstone of any type of event photography. You have to be willing and able to provide excellent customer service and deal with problems when they arise. This is perhaps the most challenging and critical aspect of event photography. It is very tempting to minimize the importance of customer service but don't do it because it won't matter how fantastic your photos are if you fail at customer service you won't succeed in event photography.
Event photography will also require you to do some marketing. You will have to be willing to make your pitch to prospective events to get jobs and you will have to market your photos to your customers. Being a successful event photographer is much more than taking photos and handing out business cards. That is the old way but with the explosion of digital cameras on the sidelines of every event you will have to do more to succeed. We'll cover more about marketing in Lesson 4.
