[ennuipoet]

Question: do people pick up their photos right at the ballpark before leaving, or do they go home, look at them and order on-line? The difference there is important.

If the second, I bet you’ve got a much higher percentage, and thus more likely better sales/shot ratio. If you’re also providing quality images that are more interesting than those flacks who accost people at the front entrance, your shots may also result in more copies sold or even the possibility of secondary sales like mugs and T-shirts and stuff.

If the first, then you are hindered by the fact that the people who are more likely to impulse buy, are also those people less apt to care quite as much about quality.

As for the question of whether or not to tell people they suck, my wife is trying to tell me to do less of that. I keep trying to tell her honesty is the best policy, but she doesn’t want to hear it.

The goal was to get people to buy at the ballpark since the company received more money from that than web buys or digital downloads. I really would like to see the sales numbers rather than the raw shot count to know if I am just imagining my superior sales numbers 😀

The one thing I don’t want to appear as though I am doing is engaging in some sort of recrimination. I didn’t leave the job because of artistic snit or anger, I left because it wasn’t for me. But I know the boss had questions about why things were not doing as well as he hoped.

orionid: yeah, your body language is a tad cold in that shot. Also, have you SEEN my handwriting? I barely remember how to do it.

[ennuipoet]

We have probably all experienced this type of photo sell at one point or another, and my reaction has always been negative. The only time I’ve ever gone along is in the low pressure environment and generally only because some one else in the group wants the photo. The high pressure guys are right out. I’m sure his model is the simplest based on what I’ve read thus far, but there might be other low cost (from his perspective) options.

…

0.02$

/Cujos to you for being willing NOT to sell your soul.

I tried very hard to pick my subjects, looking for people who were dressed enthusiastically, particularly people with kids in full team regalia. I approached with a joke and smile, and always a low key no pressure request to take their photo. I know it worked because 60-70% of the people I approached let me take their pics…and I would bet at least 50% of those I took at least LOOKED at their photos.

Thus the difference between 800 shots and 200 shots. Good for the company, crappy for me.

Even with my methods, I still felt like an asshole. I think a photograph should be something people WANT to do, otherwise you have a snapshot of an unhappy person about as compelling as a cardboard.

But you are right, I felt like my soul was dying the whole time I was there.

orionid what is this “paper” you speak of and this “handwriting” I seem to remember it from long, long ago.

[ennuipoet]

If he’s a good businessman and was sincere in his original question, he’ll appreciate any feedback that’s presented in a non-confrontational manner. If you care enough about him and/or his business to want to take the time to provide your opinion, I’d say go for it.

Having said that, while the photography side of me knows exactly what you’re saying (& feels similarly), the business side of me has a couple of questions: When you say the poor photographers make more money because they take more photos, does that imply that they also sell more of their photos? If so, the public doesn’t seem to care so there’s not really much business reason for him to prefer good photographers over the poor ones; probably even less so because poor photographers likely won’t have a lot of other opportunities to choose from, which would allow him to offer lower wages.

If you sincerely want him to change his practices, you’ll have to approach it with the business side in mind. Do the better photographers sell a higher percentage of the shots they take? Are there upsell packages available that the better photographers have more success selling? (I’d imagine the creativity required to be a good photographer would help a lot there.) Show him where quality will boost profits and that’ll get his attention.

Oh and also, condolences on your job. 🙁 It’s easy for me to say, of course, but it’s probably for the best if it’s truly that bad; in the long run, it’d likely make you grow to despise something that you currently love.

I wish I was privy to the sales numbers, I am sure someone must have them but I never had access. Basically, I assume the guys who took 800 photos a day sold more photos on sheer volume which is what the bosses wanted. If they guy who took 800 shots and made 200 bucks for the day sells ten photos he’s paid for his services, and he probably sells more than ten. Now if I take 200 shots and I sell ten photos, I made 50 bucks but the company still makes 25 bucks a pop on my ten photos. It’s a good deal for the company, shitty deal for me.

So, the company is running an odds game, figuring a high shot count means more LIKELY buyers, it is probably a good bet.

The problem, for me, was they way the big number guys got their shots. They camped on the entrances and basically physically stopped the people and took their shots. Me, I approached the fan, asked for permission, engaged them in a little conversation and took their. The big number guys shoot 5 people in the time it took me to shoot one, they are also shooting a lot (a LOT) of people which will never buy a photo because they really didn’t want one taken in the first place. So, it made the shooter money but never has a chance of making the company money.

I think I am going to write the owner an email and tell him why I think things are not going as well as he hopes. I have left and I pose no threat to any of them. And he deserves to know.

You are so right on the leaving before I started to hate it. I can make money from photography, but not like that.

[ennuipoet]

+1

[ennuipoet]

My first tele lens was the Sigma 70-300 EF Mount. I was cheap and I got what I paid for. It wasn’t that it was a BAD lens, it was just a cheap lens. The colors were flat, the bokeh was terrible and of course it was worse than useless in low light. I thought it was “good enough” until I purchased my 70-200L and the clouds parted, the light reached down from the Heavens and I saw what a good lens was.

Would I buy the Sigma again? If I had no other long options and money was tight, I would at the price quoted. If I had the money coming in within 6 months to buy a better lens, I would wait.

I am in dire need of a new 24-70 to replace my Sigma of the same length, but I won’t do anything until I can afford an L replacement, which could be a LONG time.

[ennuipoet]

These things are just MADE for pervs! What? Looking at the beach? NO! I’, bird watching! 🙂

[ennuipoet]

Another question, could the crappy tourist junk still be for sale? Cuz for all I have endless tons of junk around my apartment, I don’t have a single thing which would fit in the category.* (The last thing I bought was a tshirt like this (http://alienzoneroswellnm.com/catalog.htm?item=15) from Roswell in 1996. I, however, live in a City just vomiting cheap, tacky tasteless souvenir trash all over the place.

*I am just not the tourist type, if I go places I try every hard to look like I belong there. It comes from a decade of going places where I wasn’t wanted and the local folks might very well kill me.

[ennuipoet]

I approve of this! The LF shots are now eagerly awaited!

Working with a professional model is something I truly desire in the future, though I would prefer to be an assistant on a shoot before doing one myself. I’ve no real idea how to pose a model for full body shots. Almost all of my work is head shots, which is an entirely different kind of posing, all together.

(It’s an entirely different kind of posing.)

Though, I doubt I will ever work with nudes. There is a kind of intimacy in them I don’t think I possess. I suspect I would concentrate more on the “OMG naked woman!” I think I will keep my models clothed.

[ennuipoet]

I’m all for simpler themes that offer wide participation. Maybe we should drop some of our stick in the mud processing rules and let the instagrammers come in and compete with the real cameras!

You said that just to get a rise out of me didn’t you? 😯

Well, it did. What I am about to say may shock you…and everyone else…I agree.

I’ve come to feel that good photography will stand out above the kitsch, the crap and trendy. And if my work loses to some Instacrap POS, then one of two things has happened: My photo wasn’t as good as I thought it was, or people have really shiatty taste.

Most likely it will be the latter.

[ennuipoet]

Please don’t take my comments as meaning “Fark will go dark within the next six months!” this is clearly not the case! Fark remains a go to for many people who never step past the Main page for odd news and amusing stories. If they happen to drop into a Farktography thread along the way, so much the better!

My comments were meant toward the long sense of community that characterizes places like Fark is trending downward, people are becoming “Regulars” like they used to. The Internet is fickle and the nerd herd migrates from one watering hole to another. (Just think of me as Marlin Perkins* hovering in a helicopter over a swarm of sweaty, portly men traveling in search of Star Wars action figures and microbrewed beers. My assistant Jim is being thrashed to death by a pack of angry Politics Thread lions, hope he paid his Mutual of Omaha premiums!)

*God, I’m old

[ennuipoet]

There is much wisdom here!

I admit my enthusiasm has waned of late, the themes have not moved me to even dig around in the archives for material. (Not that I think the themes were bad, the submitters provided great themes! It’s not you, it’s me.)

I think there are several things in play. First of Fark, as much I love it and feel like it is my home on the Interwebs, isn’t drawing a lot of new blood in general. The King of Forum based Communities is obviously Reddit, Fark is bit dated. While it still draws a decent number of page views to keep Drew’s bar tabs paid, viewers aren’t participating in the Community side of Fark. Farktography and Photoshop threads have become a closed circle with the same people participating constantly. It’s not that we aren’t welcoming of new people, new people just aren’t coming in.

Second, casual photography contests like Farktography have been supplanted by Facebook and Instagram as places to have your work seen. Prior to the advent of these services, if you wanted to showcase your work for a large group of people to see you needed a Farktography. Now, everyone has a built in audience without the need of competition.

Third, competitive photographers looking to win certainly aren’t participating because winning at Farktography is about a feeling not a concrete prize. Farktography doesn’t land one in a position to capitalize a win into bigger and better things.

Fourth, the current generation of Farktographers are either moving up on on with their photography, seeking a pro or semi-pro career in photography or have job and/or family that requires more and more of their time. In some cases all of the above. In my case, the past three weeks of paid shooting has cut my personal shooting to the bone. Hell, I WANT to get out and shoot, but I am weary and unmotivated by the time I get home.

How do we fix it? I don’t know that we can. I agree broader themes, open to casual submission will bump the numbers in the short term. I believe there is a finite pool of Farktographers and we may be past the Peak Farktography Threshold. We could expand our outreach to social media, but that means someone needs to administrate a Facebook Page, a Twitter Feed and (God help us) an Instagram feed. There is a Pinterest board for Farkotgraphy ( http://pinterest.com/Fark/farktography-masterpieces/ )that someone is pinning too in the vein of what we would need. We need a broader outreach to the world to bring new people not just to us, but Fark in general. I hate to say it, but something like that is a full time job, and might just be more effort than it is worth.

I know I sound like Johnny Doomsday with my incessant killing of the buzz, and I want someone to come along and show me I am wrong!

[ennuipoet]

The whole flash thing is a real turn off. I could stand the fans (whatever the team), the crowded spaces, the noise, shooting wide doesn’t bother me that much. But I suck at using on-camera flash, so I hate it.

Do you get free beer?

I get nothing free, except the game which I don’t want 😛

orionid: I could shoot combat if I were 20 years younger!

[ennuipoet]

I would take you up on it, but I’ve come to realize I barely use my film gear much less any specialty lenses. I’ve become painfully pedestrian, almost business like in my shooting. Not that I am not still enjoying it, but if it takes extra work I am just not going to bother with it. Hit and git is my motto these days.

[ennuipoet]

I’m a beer snob, and although Guiness is good, as far as I’m concerned it’s a starter brew 😉

HERETIC!!!!

Actually, I just don’t have the energy to mess with being a beer snob. I already have so many things I am passionate about, what with my hatred of Instagram, various collectibles, writing snarky internet posts…I have no space left to be snooty about beer. I like Guinness, if the temperature is below 100 I will drink it, if it is above 100 I will drink a couple of glass of water in the air conditioning and THEN I will drink it. It goes well with what I am really there to drink, the Jameson.

[ennuipoet]

There is but one Beer, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one beverage, Guinness, through whom all things came and through whom we live.

[Author]

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