10 Tips for Success as an Event Photographer

Written by Allan Browarny, owner of ShowChampions.com
10 Tips for Success

Written by Allan Browarny, owner of ShowChampions.com

Event photography can be very rewarding if taken on properly.

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I’ve been shooting events ever since I can remember. I honestly mean that, even as a young boy I was always hanging around the family business. Assisting my father or shooting at his elbow using one of his old Nikon film cameras.

The family business growing up was Browarny Photographics. A brand that had a solid reputation for quality and service. Browarny Photographics always specialized in livestock events and horse shows, we also shot a number of conventions and some sports events but mainly livestock. We held the status of “official photography company” for the events we covered. I worked in the family business for many years before deciding to start ShowChampions.com.

ShowChampions started off selling prints, since digital images weren’t a thing yet. As we saw times were changing to digital we made a large technology investment with our website revolutionizing the livestock photography industry with instant delivery of digital images. We officially launched in 2008/2009. With the launch we successfully landed contracts with the largest livestock events in the land, Houston Livestock Show, San Antonio, Oklahoma Youth Expo to name a few. Over the next few years we became the official photography company and image platform for 50 events annually in North America and beyond.

I’ve learned a lot in my 30+ year career about the needs of livestock events, both the needs of the event itself and the exhibitors. The most important thing I learned, when you have a contract as the official photography company, your number one client is the event itself. After all it’s the event you are in contract with, not the exhibitors/attendees. It’s critical you have a really solid relationship with event management. I’ve always thought of us as a seamless partner with the event, providing professional photography combined with a high level of service to both the event’s image media needs and their exhibitors.

10 Tips for Success

1. Choose a Photography Team

Event photography regardless of its size typically requires a team approach. Our teams consisted from as small as two to over 30 team members at major events like Houston. Keep a list of potential photographers you can work with, their expertise, what equipment they own, cost, and regions they work in. Creating teams and managing logistics of where team members need to be within the venue takes time.

2. Invest in Professional Equipment

Shooting with professional camera gear is critical for all the photographers on the team. Event photography has become very competitive. Your images must be high quality. Mirrorless cameras are very high quality and quickly taking over the camera industry, they’re definitely worth the investment. Mirrorless cameras offer more image stabilization, less shaky photos, are quieter and easier to carry around. The important pieces in my camera bag - my camera, 24-70mm f2.8 lens, 70-200mm f2.8 lens, flash, extra batteries for both camera and flash, battery chargers, and extra memory cards. I also always carry an extra camera body everywhere as a backup plan. Events are a one-time thing and they won’t stop if you have an equipment malfunction, always have a backup plan. It helps if all photographers on the team are using the same lens platform, this might not be possible but something to think about.

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3. Set up Image Management System

Even long before digital technology and websites, Browarny photographics put a huge emphasis on photo organization. Organization is the KEY to your success. My parents set up a numbering system coding all the photos by event and image making it easy to locate photos many years down the road. Of course things have evolved with image organization making it much less time consuming. It’s still critical to have a consistent image management system in place. There are online programs that can help you with this or you can create your own system. Backup images to the cloud or somewhere.

4. Stick to Your Budget

Creating a budget for an event is critical. Know your costs before going into the event. It’s really easy to blow your budget. Photography is your profession, if you lowball your worth to get an event you may walk away not covering your teams costs. Travel, equipment, online service, etc all need to be considered in your budget.

5. Choose a Reliable E-Commerce Platform

Probably the most important thing of all is having a reliable website e-commerce solution to sell images. We live in a very time sensitive world. Your customers expect to access their images quickly and easily. This is why we invested heavily on the delivery side of the business. Taking the photos is the passion, selling and order fulfillment can feel like a chore. With PhotoServe you can focus more on photography and rely on the platform for automated delivery. You will have the power to make your images available quickly, increasing the opportunity to sell the photos and generate revenue for your work. After all, generating revenue while doing what you love is what it’s all about.

6. Double Up on Memory Cards

After one of our photographers accidentally formatted their memory card without ensuring all the images were backed up, we implemented a no formatting memory card policy. Today’s memory cards have lots of storage, in most cases you can shoot an entire event without formatting a card. And most professional cameras have two memory slots, I strongly encourage you to utilize the second card slot as a backup card. All events can be treated with the importance of a wedding - if the photos aren’t good or they get deleted there’s no recovery opportunity and everyone loses.

7. Be Strict with Yourself

Only try and keep the good shots. This is a tough one and very subjective. We emphasize to our team it’s the photographer’s job to go through their images and delete mediocre, not exposed properly, blurry, and badly composed images. Having 10 photos that are extremely similar is not helpful to customers. Rule of thumb to ask yourself - would you buy this image? Would you buy 10 that are practically identical? While modern cameras can often shoot many images in succession, it’s better to try and time the right shot.

8. Take Candid Photos at Events

Digital technology has opened a whole new world of opportunities with event photography, allowing you to shoot more action shots and behind the scenes. With ShowChampions specializing in livestock events, we have photographers in the show ring at all times capturing the excitement. On our website we call them “hotshots”. We also go around behind the scenes capturing people and families working and having fun together, getting ready to enter the show ring or celebrating after. It’s very common for customers to order more candid photos than the formal backdrop photos. Plus most exhibitors don’t make it into the winners circle, it doesn’t mean they won’t be interested in ordering images of their participation. It also provides images that set the scene which the event’s media department will be grateful for.

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9. Increase Your Image Sales

Event photography has a short window of selling, people will buy at the events or shortly after. Very few photos will be sold a year or even just months later. Encourage your customers to purchase close to events by having a limited time for the photos to be available. My favorite discount option is providing more money off for each image bought. For example; each regular-priced image you add to your order entitles you to an additional 10% discount off the next, all the way up to 50% per image. Buy more, save more! We’ve been in the business long enough to know very few customers will buy 6 images at full price, but add a discount to make it more affordable and they will buy more, increasing your average order value and boosting your overall sales significantly. Very often, if the subject isn’t buying that additional image then no one else will, so maximize the inventory you sell.

10. Know Your Commercial Value

Your skills and services have WORTH! You can do this as a profession. Depending on the show size you may charge different rates. Will the sales from an event cover the costs of travel and a wage for your team? New photographers are the most likely to lack confidence and under-charge for their services as a result, so be aware of this. Know that the service you provide is valuable to the event and is key to their exhibitors, and attendees. Promote yourself with pride.