Now I see why it takes Rigo so long to get photos, they build up.
Another thing that builds up is sleep loss. I think I've been averaging five to six hours a night thanks to my new photographic habit. "Oh, I can edit a few images before bed," I tell myself. Then, before I know it, it's midnight. My wake up call is 5 a.m.
Well this weeks cause for sleep deprivation was the MS150 Bike Ride. It's a 150-mile ride from Miami to Key Largo to benefit the South Florida Chapter of the Multiple Sclerosis Society. It was a great experience to shoot this event, the riders were very willing to take their pictures. And to purchase them later too. This is the first event I've shot where I actually make money. Woo hoo!
But lets start at the beginning. Rigo approached me with shooting this ride a couple of months ago because he'd done the ride before. I thought it would be a great experience, so he approached the ride's organizing committee. It wasn't a bad experience dealing with them, but they were VERY unorganized. We didn't get confirmation we could shoot the event until two days before. By then we'd already thought we weren't going to shoot it, so we weren't as prepared as we'd have liked to be.
Four in the morning was my wake-up call that morning. The early hours and I have become very well acquainted lately. I drove to Rigo's place and off we went to photograph the start line and everything that followed. I only shot Saturday, too exhausted from a long week to wake up that early on Sunday. Rigo pushed through and woke up Sunday too. In hindsight, I wish I'd gone with him. From his description, the riders were much more relaxed then.
Something else to mention. Near the end of the first day, Rigo and I met another photographer stationed at the end of the bridge on Cardsound road. We went over to talk to him and, according to him, he had exclusive rights to photograph the event and was wondering why we were shooting it. Needless to say Rigo and I were surprised to know that. We continued to talk with this gentleman and found out his name was Kim Morris, an accomplished sports photographer from Missouri.
The more we spoke, the more friendly he became. Kim even offered us some advice as aspiring photographers - don't become one. We laughed, recognizing that photography is definitely something you do because you love it, not because it pays the big bucks.
Here are some pictures I took that day:
To see the full Flickr set, go here.
To purchase photos, go here.
Shooting this event taught me a lot. Knowing from the start we were going to sell photos, I made sure to take lots of pictures of people's faces. I got that, and those photos did sell, but the picky perfectionist in me thought I should have gotten more of the prop. In this case, that prop is the rider's bike. Many times I just caught a handle bar or seat. Lesson learned.
I believe a good technique is to do what Kim did, stake out a spot, pick a good frame and shoot the riders one by one as they pass. Replicating similar shots for each photographer greatly increases the chances of them purchasing a photograph at the end of the event I think. So many of my shots didn't come out because I was moving around. On the other side of the coin, shooting like that makes everyone's picture unique, so maybe it's not such a bad idea...hhhmmm.
Oh, another thing (specifically for cycling events) is to have a sign saying, "hey your picture will be taken soon!" That way photographers know to be aware and put on a nice smile or some other pose.Both hands off the handle bar and a funny face seemed to be the favorite pose that day.
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