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LOOKING TO BOOK US? PLEASE READ OUR PHILOSOPHYIf you don't agree with our philosphy then we're not the photographers for you. My husband and I, are nice, professional people and the mainstay of Fred. We have 4 trainees, but we’re very happy to go and do things ourselves which keeps things simple. Paul is Senior Management in a very large American Corporation during the week and does this gratis to help me with FTC. We work EXTREMELY hard to cover as much and as many classes as we can, often running from ring to ring, rarely getting a break. I have been showing, at county level, bred, ridden, trained Connemara ponies for 40 years. I am now a qualified CPBS Connemara Judge. I fell into the equestrian photography by demand because of my ability to capture them as competitors want them. I also have a 2.1 Honours Law Degree and a Music Degree from the GSMD too. Loyalty is very important to me. We would go to great lengths to accommodate people and do anything for someone or a society if treated correctly and with respect. Anything less and it just isn't worth my while stepping out of my front door. I do this more for the love of it, than the money; if we don't enjoy it then we don't want to go. We like to build good relationships with show committees based on mutual respect. There are a lot of commercial event photographers out there that can afford to pay money for a ‘job’; I’m not one of them as I just don’t have those resources, I like to work with societies and committees that want a personal service with great equestrian photos for themselves and their exhibitors, that consider me as an equal equestrian, given the same respect on ‘show days’ as anyone else and to enjoy our day with everyone. We will, on special request, to people that we have built up a loyal relationship with, print/view on site, HOWEVER, we have always found this to be a loss-making venture due to extra staff fees, travel, overnight costs, therefore we prefer to rely on our website for internet sales which we have always found very successful. For the not so internet savvy customers, we have order/pay by telephone facilities and I will send out proofs in the post on request. If you would like photographers with this philosophy who are going to work very hard for you and your exhibitors to get those perfect shots, that you’d be willing to give a snack for lunch, offered a drink on blazing hot days like everyone else, not to be abused by stewards for not being in three rings at once then we would be very happy to be considered. I consider ourselves to be there at the request of a show/society/committee and to take fabulous photos for them, BUT principally for the benefit of the exhibitors, to take photos that they can be proud of. FTC Champions £200 of prizes at
Despite the rain, judge Pam Cox ended up with two beautiful ponies for her Supreme and Reserve Mountain and Moorland Champions. The Supreme Champion received £100 plus £20 Baileys vouchers and the Reserve, £50 plus £10 Baileys vouchers along with beautiful rosettes and sashes kindly made by Pat Slade. Pam Clingan GGSM, LLB(Hons) The Dangers of Equestrian PhotographyI don’t think Exhibitors realise how dangerous being in the ring taking photos can be. I am thankful, every time I go in the ring, that I have the competitors show experience that I do, knowing roughly where horses should be at any one time. Even then it’s a question of, which show are they going to do? Is it a set show? Are the going to trot down the long side first or go straight across the diagonal? Or is someone going to be bold and do a serpentine, or halt and do a walk to canter transition? Will they be against the light when they stand in front of the judge and do their run out in-hand? It’s all about predicting where to stand for the best shots, sometimes you don’t have a choice. It always amazes me how, when crossing the diagonal in the go round, riders seem to aim for me, I start off in one place and to avoid being run over I end up in a very different place to where I started. My husband avoids this one by ensuring he’s behind the judge, no rider wants to be told off for mowing the judge over.
All we want is to get the best pictures for you; So please, exhibitors, spare a thought for your 'friends' who stand in the ring from first thing in the morning till last thing at night taking photos,often with no breaks and remember that we do approx 44hrs of work before you see the photos on the website and don’t earn a penny until you buy a photo. You buying a photo means the world to us! January 16, 2011 |
One of my rules is always look before stepping backwards. When I’m training someone I always tell them that horses can run backwards just as fast as they can forwards and always to leave at least a horses length between you and a horse especially if i
t is agitated. Even then, with all the training and experience in the world one can still be caught out. Recently, my husband had a horse walk past him in a car park and quite unexpectedly the horse lashed out and kicked the lens, it was shod, very lucky that the camera was between Paul and the horse. The metal lens hood (photo) was destroyed, the bayonet on the camera body was broken, my favourite lens is a complete write-off as the inner sheath was competely distorted and Nikon cannot repair it, this takes the total damage and replacement value to £2,100. The owner is aware of the damage and could at least have offered to pay the excess of £150 - they haven't. I would have been mortified if one of our ponies had done that. Most importantly, it could have been a child that was stood there.