Many of you will be receiving a letter in the mail in the next few days. I know I am missing some mailing addresses though so please feel free to let you clients and barn mates know. Here is a copy of that letter.
Happy Spring,
I hope you are well. I know the winter was long and hard on everyone. It robbed me of the opportunity to send out my holiday card and I was sad not to be able to send these out this year.
As we come into the heavy part of show season, I am making some changes and wanted to make sure you knew about them.
Sign-Up Costs
As of June 1st I am going to a paid sign-up for photos.
I fought hard against doing this, but it feels like the right thing to do now. I realize this will make it harder for some to purchase pictures in these tough economic times. I have to live in them as well.
Often, there is a misconception that digital photography is free or at least cheaper than film. While it is true that I can just delete bad photos and, with film, you don’t have that luxury, digital is in fact more expensive. The technology is always changing, resulting in frequent equipment upgrades. Software for editing photos is costly and is also regularly upgraded. There is considerable time required in just putting images online. It’s not as simple as shoot, then upload. It is shoot, sort, cull, quick crop and color adjust, convert to Jpeg, then compress to create a second smaller Jpeg, and finally upload. When a photo is purchased, I go back to the raw file and re-crop and color correct/edit for optimum output at that time.
Storage of the files is a huge problem; for example the 2008 Championship show was over 60 Gigabytes of memory – it is stored on two sets of 15 DVDs, with each set taking nine hours to burn and occupying a large chunk of an external drive as an extra backup resource. I spend hundreds of dollars a year just backing up the photo files. It also costs quite a bit to keep these files online. While I really want to help everyone out and genuinely enjoy capturing great images, I can’t keep incurring the costs of hosting your training tools, sales images, stallion promos and family galleries for free. It’s not just the overhead cost. My wonderful contract staff and I work very hard trying to take pictures of everyone and we really do deserve something for our time. While we have tried to capture pictures of all horses at a show, only a portion of those riders really want photos. The sign-up fee will allow us to be much more efficient in our use of time and be able to concentrate on and serve those who do want photos.
I still will not be showing photos in my booth. It is a great way for disaster to happen because of rushing and is how great pictures get lost - forever.
I will have an online “gallery” for sign-ups and have purchased a locked drop box to have sign-ups and payments left in my booth. For those who drop off forms after Thursday or Friday for two day shows, I will post my cell number so that you can call or text me to let me know to add you to the schedule. My sign-up fee is going to be $15 a horse per weekend, Friday to Sunday. For those events that include two shows in one weekend, there is only one $15 fee needed per horse. If you sign-up online before midnight the Wednesday before the show, I will email you a 10% off coupon to use on your order. This coupon can be combined with an early bird special, when offered. Additional information can be found on my website and on the sign-up sheet.
Digital Files
For those of you who buy digital files – as a reminder, once I send a file, it is non-returnable. Also my logo or photo credit does need to remain with that photo when you are using it for advertising. Flying Changes is great about doing this, but it is your responsibility when you submit a photo to let the publication know that credit/logo must be included with the final photo.
A last bit of housekeeping, it is not permissible to buy a small print and then scan it or have it reproduced in any form. If you want to use a photo for advertising or for selling a horse, you need to purchase the digital file. This includes making multiple copies for yourself. If a year or more after you bought print(s) you need an advertising photo, I will sell the digital file of the same print(s) at a reduced cost. Please also remember it is a copyright violation to remove or copy pictures from my website in any manner, even for Facebook or MySpace use. If you wish to have a web-only sized jpeg (i.e., Facebook, MySpace) you will have the option to add that feature for $10 (a print) when you buy the same photo as a print.
Updates
I’ve again found some new products that I think you will love and hope to have samples at the June Benefit WEC show.
If you are on Twitter or Facebook you can find me and follow along – I try to update both as I’m editing proofs and getting them online. You never know, I might let you know a tidbit such as the Tully’s at the top of the hill just past the Muckleshoot casino being gone. There is an independent coffee place in there now, so at least there is coffee on the way to Donida J.
As I have known a great many of you since I was in my early teens (and in some cases younger), it has been hard to sit down and write this letter as I consider you all extended family. But I do have to remember that this is a business and hope that none of you take this personally.
I look forward to seeing you this season and best of luck,
Carolynn
Here is the 1st baby photos of the year.
