PrintThe author explains why many equine photographers are packing up their cameras.
Was there a show photographer at your last event? Was there someone at every ring taking photos of you and your horse? If you’re an eventer, did you get cross-country, show jumping and dressage photos?
If you’re one of the few and the lucky, you can answer yes to these questions. However I suspect you’re part of the majority, who is asking, “Where did the show photographer go?”
The full-coverage equestrian event photographer is becoming a dinosaur. We all know about the expenses professional photographers incur—the cameras, the insurance, the employees, the hotels, the gas, the fees, etc. To be a photographer (and do it right) on a grand scale (at multi-ring and multi-week shows) costs a ton.
My company, Shawn McMillen Photography, is doing 28 fewer events this year than last year. That’s right, I walked away from 28 weeks of guaranteed work.
Several years ago, we could go to a show and break even as a worst-case scenario. We don’t have an advertising budget like a traditional business. I figured that if we were out there getting our photos in front of the customers and exposing them to our brand name and our customer service, even if we weren’t putting money in the bank, we were winning. But in recent years, we’ve been losing money at show after show.
Why? There are several issues. The biggest—and the one people don’t fully comprehend—is that of copyright theft.
The word “theft” should signify that this is wrong. We have disclaimers on our website that tell in vivid detail which laws are being broken when our photos are taken. Yet, we (photographers) are the bad guys for confronting someone when such offenses occur.
I know that the theft exists. I would be an idiot if I didn’t; all I have to do is look at Facebook and find thousands of my and my fellow photographers’ proofs stolen. So far, I’ve chosen to concentrate on the paying customers and not worry about what can’t be stopped.
The only way that Internet theft will stop is if the equestrian community polices itself. I’ve tried limited posting of proofs, pay for posting, no posting, etc., and everything that I do only punishes the good customers. The photo thieves just work quicker, smarter and faster.
They Just Don’t Realize
When we snap a photo, it’s usually of a horse or rider or some combination thereof because equestrian event coverage is all we do. When we take photos, they’re technically “our photos,” but they’re also “their photos” because it’s them or their horses in the images. But the rights to use those photos remain with the photographer.
The problem is education. I don’t think the majority of photo thieves really understand what they’re doing. I don’t think that when they download a proof off of our website, they’re taking into account that we stand there for hours on sore feet and knees waiting for that one moment, often in extreme conditions—cold, wet and heat for upwards of 10 hours plus a day.
I don’t think they take into account how many employees we pay, how much our gear costs, how much we drive, how late I stay up manually alphabetizing thousands of photos, how much of a normal life I don’t have, how many family outings, anniversaries, weddings, holidays, reunions and homecomings I have missed to be ringside to make sure they have photos.
