Track Day Pics - Would you pay?
Discussion
Hi all,
Thought i'd make a little enquiry with you all towards some research for a potential venture - photos of your car on track days. I do car photographer/videos and the likes, and i'm toying with the idea of taking photos of cars at track days/concourse events/car shows and the like, and providing them via my site for a price.
Would you guys be interested in paying for high quality images of you and your car out on track, at events and so on... wouldnt be a silly amount, i'm thinking a "go to the website, pick your image, pay a few quid" with a few different options available.
So yeah - would you be interested in such a prospect after you did track days, and if so, what would you like when it comes to resolutions, prices etc - would you pay 2 or 3 pounds more for the full ress over say a wallpaper resolution?
Cheers all!
Thought i'd make a little enquiry with you all towards some research for a potential venture - photos of your car on track days. I do car photographer/videos and the likes, and i'm toying with the idea of taking photos of cars at track days/concourse events/car shows and the like, and providing them via my site for a price.
Would you guys be interested in paying for high quality images of you and your car out on track, at events and so on... wouldnt be a silly amount, i'm thinking a "go to the website, pick your image, pay a few quid" with a few different options available.
So yeah - would you be interested in such a prospect after you did track days, and if so, what would you like when it comes to resolutions, prices etc - would you pay 2 or 3 pounds more for the full ress over say a wallpaper resolution?
Cheers all!
HustleRussell said:
I regularly buy photos taken by photographers of my on-track efforts. As far as I can tell, quite a few folks have had the same idea as you!
I pay about a fiver for a high res copy delivered by e-mail, by the way.
Ok Cheers! Just doing my research at the moment, see if its viable, check out the competition etc!I pay about a fiver for a high res copy delivered by e-mail, by the way.
HustleRussell said:
Much appreciated! Im thinking of taking opportunities such as concourse events and car meets too, was at a pretty big essex one the other day and people are naturally very proud of their cars! Just need to get my foot in the door...
I usually buy a few photos of my car the first time I visit a new circuit, but not so much on subsequent visits, as you'll always end up with a load of duplicates of near-identical images.
So, as you may have gleaned from the few answers so far, many trackday organisers already have arrangements with professional photographers for their days. You can't just expext to turn up, snap away, then start selling the pictures without ruffling a few feathers if there is another professional outfit there. It's probably a good idea to contact a few TDOs first to see if you would be welcome soliciting your services to their customers at their trackdays. Good luck.
So, as you may have gleaned from the few answers so far, many trackday organisers already have arrangements with professional photographers for their days. You can't just expext to turn up, snap away, then start selling the pictures without ruffling a few feathers if there is another professional outfit there. It's probably a good idea to contact a few TDOs first to see if you would be welcome soliciting your services to their customers at their trackdays. Good luck.
Thanks Russell!
I'm also wondering whats the best way of direcing people to the site - small flyers can work if they are dotted around and so on but, maybe it can be arrnged for them to be stuck up in the registration area and so on if pre-organised? Not much good having the photos but not directing people there!
thegreenhell said:
I usually buy a few photos of my car the first time I visit a new circuit, but not so much on subsequent visits, as you'll always end up with a load of duplicates of near-identical images.
So, as you may have gleaned from the few answers so far, many trackday organisers already have arrangements with professional photographers for their days. You can't just expext to turn up, snap away, then start selling the pictures without ruffling a few feathers if there is another professional outfit there. It's probably a good idea to contact a few TDOs first to see if you would be welcome soliciting your services to their customers at their trackdays. Good luck.
Thats an excellent point there, I know at experience days there are usually 2 or 3 photog's that have clearly been brought in. So, as you may have gleaned from the few answers so far, many trackday organisers already have arrangements with professional photographers for their days. You can't just expext to turn up, snap away, then start selling the pictures without ruffling a few feathers if there is another professional outfit there. It's probably a good idea to contact a few TDOs first to see if you would be welcome soliciting your services to their customers at their trackdays. Good luck.
I'm also wondering whats the best way of direcing people to the site - small flyers can work if they are dotted around and so on but, maybe it can be arrnged for them to be stuck up in the registration area and so on if pre-organised? Not much good having the photos but not directing people there!
Jmorgan93 said:
Thats an excellent point there, I know at experience days there are usually 2 or 3 photog's that have clearly been brought in.
I'm also wondering whats the best way of direcing people to the site - small flyers can work if they are dotted around and so on but, maybe it can be arrnged for them to be stuck up in the registration area and so on if pre-organised? Not much good having the photos but not directing people there!
With the bigger TDOs the photographers website name has either been included on the TDO website, or the regristration email, or mentioned in the briefing, or all three. They also usually have a booth or pit garage at the track where you can preview images before handing over the cash, and often a CD-burning service on site so you can take the images straight home with you. Some of them are very slick operations, sometimes with multiple photographers working together. Other times it's just been a guy handing out a flyer or business card with a website you can check out in the days after the event. HTH.I'm also wondering whats the best way of direcing people to the site - small flyers can work if they are dotted around and so on but, maybe it can be arrnged for them to be stuck up in the registration area and so on if pre-organised? Not much good having the photos but not directing people there!
There are also good photographers and bad ones. As mentioned above once you,ve got a few photos at trackdays they generally look very similar...unless the photographer puts a bit of thought into it. I know there are many shots of my car with, my car , a track , a bit of grass , some armco , and most of the time they all look the same and you wouldnt know one track from another. The best shots I,ve had were actually from a track evening I did at Brands a few weeks back, some really good photos, plenty of mixing it up with other cars, decent action shots not just car ,track, grass, armco. They even got one of my mate ( this made his day ) three wheeling around clearways with obvious air between the ground and his rear right wheel.
As well as having the consent/approval of the TDO, in most cases you'd also need to sign in with the circuit to be able to get access to the best areas for taking photos from. This means you'd need appropriate liability insurance and some circuits will charge you a day rate for trading on their site.
As mentioned above, plenty of TDOs / circuits already operate photographers so expect a tough time finding an opportunity.
The other thing is that for maximum revenue opportunity and best customer experience you need to be able to give the customers the images there and then. If you can let people see / buy images on the day you will get them "when they're hot", give them a good experience and likely make them buy more than they would when they are on their own at home looking at a website. Waiting days before seeing images on a website is a poorer customer experience and IME people buy fewer images than on the day.
The other thing is that for maximum revenue opportunity and best customer experience you need to be able to give the customers the images there and then. If you can let people see / buy images on the day you will get them "when they're hot", give them a good experience and likely make them buy more than they would when they are on their own at home looking at a website. Waiting days before seeing images on a website is a poorer customer experience and IME people buy fewer images than on the day.
When I get a new car and take it out for the 1st time I will buy a cd of all the photos taken of it that day. Normally £20 With a minimum of 25 photos. So that means I've bought about 6 CD's worth in the last decade.
I won't normally buy any at any other time though. It has to be said they are usually not great photos, the photographers seem to be very lazy and it tends to be maybe two corners with the camera on repeat so its groups of about 5 photos all looking more or less identical.
I won't normally buy any at any other time though. It has to be said they are usually not great photos, the photographers seem to be very lazy and it tends to be maybe two corners with the camera on repeat so its groups of about 5 photos all looking more or less identical.
thegreenhell said:
Jmorgan93 said:
Thats an excellent point there, I know at experience days there are usually 2 or 3 photog's that have clearly been brought in.
I'm also wondering whats the best way of direcing people to the site - small flyers can work if they are dotted around and so on but, maybe it can be arrnged for them to be stuck up in the registration area and so on if pre-organised? Not much good having the photos but not directing people there!
With the bigger TDOs the photographers website name has either been included on the TDO website, or the regristration email, or mentioned in the briefing, or all three. They also usually have a booth or pit garage at the track where you can preview images before handing over the cash, and often a CD-burning service on site so you can take the images straight home with you. Some of them are very slick operations, sometimes with multiple photographers working together. Other times it's just been a guy handing out a flyer or business card with a website you can check out in the days after the event. HTH.I'm also wondering whats the best way of direcing people to the site - small flyers can work if they are dotted around and so on but, maybe it can be arrnged for them to be stuck up in the registration area and so on if pre-organised? Not much good having the photos but not directing people there!
I tend to buy pics each time I go because with me always being in the car I never get to see it 'at pace' from the outside!
To the OP; I suggest you get in touch with some TDO's and see what they have to say. Like others have said, many operators have this sewn up at the min. List of UK TDO's:
http://www.atdo.co.uk/atdo.php?pg=members&ls=a...
(You'll note there's not many of them!)
In my experience it's not really a sustainable/viable business for car track days. It relies heavily on volume (number of cars on the day) and weather (very rarely sell pics on a wet/bleak day). We have a hit rate of around 20% but average less than 50 cars per event. If you had 200+ cars at each event then maybe you could earn a living from it.
HTH
Jonny
BaT
HTH
Jonny
BaT
Thanks everyone for your responses - very helpful!
Public liability insurance is something I forgot about, something to look into for the cost of that...
As for "is it worth it", at the moment I do general filming of pretty much anything and most of the bigger, more successful car pictures i've done are generally statics of cars in nice locations (also a pretty saturated market as it is!). I really enjoy doing it and am actually studying at uni to go into TV and whatnot, so all this is kind of what I do, and instead of spending money travelling to events all the time and just whacking out the photos for free, I really want to go down more of a business route and be able to start making some money! Getting started with it is just the hardest part..
Public liability insurance is something I forgot about, something to look into for the cost of that...
As for "is it worth it", at the moment I do general filming of pretty much anything and most of the bigger, more successful car pictures i've done are generally statics of cars in nice locations (also a pretty saturated market as it is!). I really enjoy doing it and am actually studying at uni to go into TV and whatnot, so all this is kind of what I do, and instead of spending money travelling to events all the time and just whacking out the photos for free, I really want to go down more of a business route and be able to start making some money! Getting started with it is just the hardest part..
So what about classic car meets, organised drives, conourse events etc etc- are these already pretty well attended by photographers?
What about classic car rallies? You could secrete yourself in a bush near an interesting corner with a nice backdrop and snap the nice competition prepared classics as they go by, and then retire to some nice hotel and ply your trade in the bar showing your snaps on a laptop or something...
What about classic car rallies? You could secrete yourself in a bush near an interesting corner with a nice backdrop and snap the nice competition prepared classics as they go by, and then retire to some nice hotel and ply your trade in the bar showing your snaps on a laptop or something...
HustleRussell said:
So what about classic car meets, organised drives, conourse events etc etc- are these already pretty well attended by photographers?
What about classic car rallies? You could secrete yourself in a bush near an interesting corner with a nice backdrop and snap the nice competition prepared classics as they go by, and then retire to some nice hotel and ply your trade in the bar showing your snaps on a laptop or something...
I've thought about the same thing myself - I've been to an increasing amount of breakfast meets and a few drives recently, there's very rarely "professional" photographers at some of the more casual events so if I can do it right could provide something for that - statics then departures and whatnot, hand out some fliers while im there. I should be attending another car show this coming weekend which will be another chance to have a scout around at what other people do for it!What about classic car rallies? You could secrete yourself in a bush near an interesting corner with a nice backdrop and snap the nice competition prepared classics as they go by, and then retire to some nice hotel and ply your trade in the bar showing your snaps on a laptop or something...
I was considering just going for fliers etc directing people to where they can see the photos the same evening/next day (i'm pretty hot on going through the photos, love sitting down and working on them!), but there is that element of catching people for purchases on the day while theres that atmosphere, but that means stopping to take photos to set up/transfer/showcase them....
Jmorgan93 said:
there is that element of catching people for purchases on the day while theres that atmosphere, but that means stopping to take photos to set up/transfer/showcase them....
You've mentionned the 'atmosphere' thing a couple of times now, and I think your bang on. For a lot of the participants in these events, taking their pride and joy out for an organised run or rally, UK or overseas, might be the highlight of their year and the opportunity for them is to get a unique keepsake of them driving their car in a totally different setting.Having a screen set up at the checkpoints and overnight accommodation would probably interest a lot of people.
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