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This private forum is boring, but comes in handy sometimes. I HAVE A QUESTION!

Speeding

Speeding

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I've put off doing a new watermark for like 5 months, ever since I designed my logo. With the recent whining on PBB I've reconsidered my procrastination. Probably gonna update for my next shoot. My question to you is... in the four years that I've had my current watermark, why now do people care so much!? Is it somehow killing polar bears in the artic? What's so bad? Does it really "ruin" a picture? Yes, anybody can go out with a camera and get good shots, and post up without "ugly" watermarks, so what makes mine different? Well, I don't sit in the jeep and shoot out the window with my phone because I don't want to get in the mud, I'm stomping through it for hours getting what I think are good angles. I drive 3+ hours solo just to bum rides to watch and take photos for free most of the time to share online for others to see cool action and bring knowledge of our kind of wheelin' to the world. Yes, I try to make money doing this, but it's no career! I'm not putting food on the table with photo money. I'm barely covering the costs to go take your picture. So whats the big deal that I put my name on my photo to make sure no one steals it to make a logo, or claims it as their own, or just so people know I took that picture and maybe just appreciate it?

Lastly, something people don't understand when it comes to buying photos. You're not just buying the pic that snapped out of some expensive camera, you're paying for the labor to stand in the cold, rain, mud, snow, you're paying for someone to hike all day, you're paying for someone to dodge getting killed by rocks or rolling rigs, you're paying for the time it took to drive to a ride, you're paying for the skill and creativity to produce that image at that angle, with that lighting.




So, thoughts? Feel free to whine if thats really how you feel.
 
Congratulations, I see your growing up. I think the biggest problem your going to face, is to most your going to always be the 15yr old kid walking around Grey Rock snapping pictures. Your going to have to stop whoring out your pics to the public. You show too many pictures. You work hard at taking pictures and you should be rewarded for what you do. I'm always seeing your pictures with the watermark on the internet. If someone uses your picture without your permission, email and ask them to take it down or buy it. You've got to show that this is what you do for money, or your just going to be the rigless guy taking pictures.
 
**** those guys that dont like it... you do it for the right reasons because there is alot of plagiarism out there... and besides, EVERYONE knows who ricky b is... negative attention is not always bad attention... look at TC, everyone gives him ****, me included, but everyone knows who he is... although he is not doing this for the money like you, he certainly gets the attention and i think if he started a thread on pirate about wanting sponsors to build a KOH rig, he would have a mad outpouring of people wanting to get on board and he's probably never driven in the desert, but he has name recognition and w/ that comes the attention that sponsors want to see... obviously i think you would like to work in the "industry" one day and i say you keep promoting yourself like you are because name recognition is everything...
 
PREACH ON Ricky..........you are 100% CORRECT , I have noted some BITCHING about your,e watermark in the past , of BADDASS PICS of folks rigs non the less !

If they got they cash to go wheel a BADDASS RIG in the first place , then why do they have a problem with $30.00-$50.00 bucks for some WALL HANGIN SHOTS of it in ACTION :dunno:

And yes , getting a GOOD SHOT can sometimes be a REAL PAIN IN THE ASS , and not ALL the shots taken are "WALL HANGERS" , and all the work is,nt all done after the shutter clicks either !

I was EXTREMELY PROUD of the pics you took of me jumpin at Morris mtn. and had NO PROBLEM trading some dough for them :dblthumb:

I am also gonna stop postin ALL of the good shots I get online , thinkin about just makin some picture DISCS to sell to folks in the future , all THRILLER no FILLER pics of course..... :dunno:

ANYWAY........YADDA YADDA YADDA ............ I HEAR YOU MAN ;D
 
****'em and feed 'em fish heads... I say make it bigger and darker... But that is my dirt leg redneck coming out...
 
The people and rigs you care most about taking pictures of care nothing about buying the pictures you take. You don't work for a mag or newspaper, you are a freelance photographer. If you want to spend money and gas to travel around and basically take pictures for free and say it is for the love of the sport that is fine. Just don't get upset when you don't make any money off of said free photos or even cover the costs of your trips. If you want to take photos of rigs and have people buy them, approach people that want their rig professionally photographed and will pay for your time and pictures. Take photos of the John's 38 or Mike George's Camaro and I bet you will sing a different tune. Bottom line is that doing favors for your "buddies" usually ends up in you getting screwed. Conduct it like a business and you may see diferent results or just take photos for fun and don't worry about it.
 
CheapJ7 said:
****'em and feed 'em fish heads... I say make it bigger and darker... But that is my dirt leg redneck coming out...
Click to expand...

Well the resident Jew has spoken, and I tend to agree.


You're going to have to keep pics out there in the public eye to keep word out you are still in the pic business.
How to collect money.
Either offer 'em cheap and make up for it on volume (WalMart approach), or keep prices high and only sell a few every now and then (Gucci approach)


Just my opinion. Always show a handful online with your current big watermark. Those are the teasers. Then offer them for sale to who ever as a download for $1 a shot with a very discreet watermark in a corner (still advertising and taking credit). Frameable w/o logo, only do those in hard format printed only. Not an e-version, price the sizes from the printer and markup as necessary.

I bet if you would sell quite a few downloads or links for $1 a shot.


Now the one thing I wish you showed more of.....people. Sure I'll flip through 300 pics of the same couple buggies on your Media shoot to see carnage. But show the people. Show them sitting in there rig before, after, show everyone BS'ing around talking before hitting an obstacle. Get some candid shots of the people. I bet you would sell a fair bit of those.

Example, Brian congratulating Levi on winning XRRA Hannibal 2008. I'd guarantee Brian would like a copy of that pic it captures a "father/son moment", there are lots of those opportunities. Maybe its just making fun of a guy as he rolls, wrecks, gets rolled back over, whatever.

561019432_6fFoP-M.jpg



You have actions shots on lock, no denying that. You're DAMN good!
 
Matt O. said:
Bottom line is that doing favors for your "buddies" usually ends up in you getting screwed.
Click to expand...

There it is, Trust me.. I am captain screw myself ! :****: Its easy to distinguish whos a business man and passionate and whos just passionate. I tend to fall into the later unfortunately :wtflol:

Your name is out there, everyone knows you produce top notch product, you just gotta figure out how to make all your hard work pay you now. :dblthumb: You dont need to do favor's, you've done it to the point were its almost expected of you.
 
as far as impulse buying, i STILL think you should just sell CDs of said persons rig... this would involve you downloading to a laptop and burning a disk, and just selling someone all the pics you took of there rig, good or bad... i know i would buy that, and even if it was $20, people are syked up at the ride and want something to take home and look at right away, not hunt you down, send paypal, then wait on the mail... get them while in the heat of the moment... make money and move on... maybe on every disk you put a "commercial" at the beginning of the slideshow so that if they want a print, they can get it... put smaller file sizes, for the internet on the disk forcing them to come back for the larger "print size" photo's... i say take the walmart approach.... everybody has $20 on them... and everyone impulse buys when there buddies are getting something...
 
On shoots like the Aetna shoot I had no intension of making any money. That was mostly publicity, and the fact that I love wheelin' and that is awesome to watch in person. I intend for that to be freebies. I want the world to see them!

I've done very well lately with private shoots, they justify me still going out there with a camera and trying. I'm leaving for a private shoot right now actually.

I want to do the print on site idea bad, but it's hard to do it right now because it requires a computer, and a printer. Neither of which I can afford to bring out in the woods right now. Maybe in the future i can find a $300 set up to do that but for now, it's just too risky.

Basically the issue is not making money or losing money... it's people whining about getting something for free, but the only catch is it has a watermark! Especially Toby (MrTwstr) on PBB, he works with magazine guys every day and still complaining that I don't work for free so he can enjoy watermark-less photos. wtf.
 
Ricky I have been watching you take pictures for about as long as anybody. You have a gift. You are the only person in the world that can put a price tag on your work. If you want to put the Statue of Liberty as your watermark it is your choice. I have paid for pictures from you and they are hanging on my office wall right now, and I was happy to pay the price. You keep doing what you do and do not worry yourself about the people looking for something for free.
 
I have got to agree 1000% with everything said. You have a God given talent and ENJOY using it without question. There are very few of us that can say that what we do during the day is what we have wanted to do since we were young. You are passionate of what you do and are doing everything right in my opinion. DON'T think anything different. My only thought might be how to get ahold of you other than on the internet. You need to be accessible by phone as well as the internet, so give out your phone number. Spend $40.00 and get some business cards with your logo and information and leave them on windshields in parking lots during the rides and such. Leave your watermark alone, it's cool and if people want it off, tell let them buy the picture or disc. Keep up the good work Ricky B. :dblthumb:
 
The water mark in the middle makes your pictures look bad. Your logo in the action corner would achomplish the same thing. You get hasled on places like Pirate because it takes away from the picture. This is the very reason I chose another photographer to shoot the 38.
 
I would be worried about the watermark being cropped out if I put it in a corner, but many photogs do that, corner. I don't find it distracting ??? but maybe my eye for quality is askew.
Were they saying print on the trail or burn a cd from a laptop on the trail? I was saying go through, find the pics of one guy you took that day and burn them to a disk and sell that. Printer is another deal altogether, but a disc is much cheaper I'd think
 
Your current watermark doesn't take away from my personal photo experience, but like Kelly, I may not have a refined eye.

I have my poster size, the biggest one you offer, of the taco on the wall right now :dblthumb:
 
At the first Morris mtn. rock ralley , the one where I FLEW my **** through the air , I bought the pics from Ricky that he took of it :dblthumb:

But also, there was a couple there taking photos of the event as well, and they had a BLINGED OUT computer setup in their motorhome, looked REAL expensive :dunno:

And they sold me a photo DISC of JUST my zuki, bout 8 pictures, from the race for $20.00

and I also got them to print me out 2 posters, bout 15 x 20 ,of my two favorite shots, for $20.00 EACH , complete with custom NEON GREEN BORDERS :****:

They got $60.00 from me in about 20 minutes :****:

BUT ..........they had the CRAP to make it happen,......... in the motorhome ;D
 
i was saying to just sell disks on the trail, small files for the internet and then get them for the bigger files down the road... make $20 and hope for repeat customers... blinged out buggies look cool, but do they make you money... rigs like bens CUCV and steves cab truck are no beauty queens, but they want pics of there rigs to show off too... and i would bet that is your customer base honestly...

so heres what i would do, hustle for the small business that pays your bills and pimp your cool **** on the net that builds your name... best of both worlds...
 


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