First major event

Bill_Dewey · #8 08-09-2001, 12:08 AM

Hey, Nick, good work! Coincidentally, I have been working up to this the past two agility seasons here in the US, Pacific Northwest. I have only been shooting the actual event, and folks are VERY thrilled when I catch a good jump on a championship run. My website is www.deweydrive.com and if you follow the link to "Scooter's Agility Club" you will see links in the Trials section to a couple of the last meets I shot. Scooter, by the way, is our Miniature Schnauzer. I'd quite enjoy critique from any of you folks who have opinions, on both the photos and the site.

Now, to my question. I generally shoot with either a Nikon 80-200 f2.8 zoom or a Tamron 300mm f2.8 on a Fuji S1, in order to stay well away and to not be a distraction. As has been pointed out, and is obvious, fill flash would really help. I have been very concerned about this due to my desire to not disturb either the dog or the handler. Has anyone had any experience with this? I would imagine this would also be the case at events such as horse shows. I agree that in general 3-5 shots of each dog on a run is more than enough. I have had a few folks who have asked for more, and I will try to accomodate if possible. I'll also put a plug in for Jasc Media Center, it enables me to put up all the pages for 300 or so photos in under 15 minutes. I still have to tweak the HTML templates, I don't quite like how it all works and I want to remove the slide-show, but in general, a great time saver.

Thanks in advance, glad I found this place.

Dixon_Zalit · #9 08-09-2001, 08:40 AM

I have often thought of setting up outside the ring, but the action is not quite as authentic. The shooting is harder during the trials, but the results are rewarding. See what I mean here.

The best adivce I have heard about using flash is to have one person stationed at the ring entry to ask owners if flash is OK. She can then signal the phtographer with the answer.

[ August 09, 2001: Message edited by: Dixon ]

Paul_Payne · #10 08-09-2001, 09:59 PM

Bill,

Most dog shows have a Booth Chairperson and you should check with the club about what the fee is to set up. Some clubs have from only a few to hundreds of vendors and if others vendors see you selling your wares and not paying for a space the Booth Chairperson will be contacted and they would ask you to leave. As a photographer who shoots many shows a year if I was paying a $1,000 for a space (and thats not uncommon) and you just set up outside a ring I would be totally torqued. Now there are shows that do not sell booth space and Im sure they would be glad to have photographers attend. Every show has a Show Chairman and most have a booth chairman also. With just a little checking in your area you would soon know which shows charge and which do not.

Paul

Bill_Dewey · #11 08-09-2001, 10:40 PM

Thanks, Paul. One of my planned tasks for this winter is to contact all of the folks who have sent my wife premium lists for the shows in our area. The last thing I intend to do is to horn in on someones established business, both on an ethical and business level. Most of the shows I have attended do not seem to have any "official" photo service, so I plan to target those first. I know of one show where a photographer shows up regularly and this guy has been a tremendous help to me with advice, and he has told me that he does not mind my shooting at the same event. Even so, my belief is he was there and established first, so I defer to him. My other reason for contacting these folks is to try to set-up shoots at individual club functions. This would give me the ability to work with people who would like shots on a particular piece of equipment, in a non-competitive atmosphere. It would also enable me to have more control over lighting and background.

Thanks to you all for the good advice, it is much appreciated. Should any of you get to the Seatlle area, give me a yell and I'll buy you a cup of whatever. I secured a buyer today for my Fuji S1, so now my upgrade to a D1H will become reality. I'm looking forward to 5fps :-).

petehalsted · #12 08-09-2001, 11:34 PM

Dixon,

The one thing I've learned about using flash is, if you ask they will say no. If you don't ask they won't even know you are using it. People have had Point and Shoots shoved in thier faces and blinded by the flash that is right there next to the lens thier suppose to look at and they think all flash is like that.

Your only doing fill flash and its such a small pop its not that noticable and when people on concenttrating on what thier doing they notice even less. We use flash at rodeo's all the time with 0 complaints. We have used flash at motocross when it is really overcast or at night with 0 complaints.

We had a team captain at a dive meet throw a fit about us not using flash for her team (said it was very dangerout). The other team wanted it so I had the captain for the other team stand behind me and tell me when to use flash and when not to. Before long have the other team's parents came up and asked me to do thier kids also. We polled the kids and not one of them said they even noticed the flash. BTW, I also waited until the had started thier dive so they were in action thats the key.

I know all this babble didn't help you much, but thought I would warn you to expect to be told no 90% of the time if you ask.

Nick_Ridley · #13 08-10-2001, 12:16 AM

The question of whether to set up outside of the ring was one that I struggled with and Dixon's pictures show that ringside images can be first class...however from a buisness point of view I considered the following:

1) There were over 500 dogs entered and the action was taking place in five rings. I was shooting on my own so I decided that to shoot the maximum number of dogs for the maximum number of sales I had to set up outside of the ring in a controlled situation. Result 100% of the clients that had their pictures done bought 1 or more pictures. The question is would I have sold more images by taking pictures ringside ? Does anyone have any percentage figures that might suggest I would.

2) The question of fill in flash is a good one and I agree that if you ask you will probally get a NO. But also bear this in mind, I photographed a working gun-dog trial last year and although I did not use flash I stayed with one group all day. At the end of the day there were grumbles from some people that my presence had put their dogs off and as I had not covered the other group this was unfair advantge to them !! I must add that I field trialed spainels for many years and I made sure that I had not impinged the dogs in any way.....by the way I was asked back by the club and am covering this years test this coming weekend.So be aware that you could be used as an excuse the dog or horse (?) not performing well....on the other hand this could just be a "Brit" thing [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

Nick

Bill_Dewey · #14 08-10-2001, 12:35 AM

That is a very good suggestion on the fill flash issue, thanks. One thing I plan to do is to test using fill at one of the training sessions my wife attends, to get an idea if it is even feasible. I like your site, the only real difference I see between the horses and dogs is that with the dogs the people are running along side :-).

One other question, do you folks contract with the event organizers, or do you just set-up as a completely independent entity?