Lest anyone think I take no advice, here are two of my favorites from the weekend:
I mingle with the exhibitors a lot. I try to base my shooting on what I hear from them, but so far there is really no "pattern" that can be applied to everyone. There are soft patterns that can be applied across a class.
If I get a bit of info on what a specific handler would like, then I try to make it happen as best I can.
Over the last month or so, these are the things I've heard:
"If you need a break, do it during excellent, they don't buy anyway." (I've found that not to be true so far as every time I miss a few dogs in EXC, I get their handlers wanting to see the pics from those particular runs - Murphy lives in my back pocket
).
"I want a shot of my dog on the dog walk with all four paws off the ground." (I managed to get three paws up
)
"Why doesn't anyone shoot Jumpers?" / "Don't bother with Jumpers, we all have enough jump shots." Who has the right answer here?
This is my conclusion (a work in progress):
Novice will buy anything.
Those about to retire will buy anything.
EXC in general want something unique.
Open is a mixed bag.
Shots from the rear really do sell and they don't cost me much of anything to shoot. About the only thing they cost me is a bit of shutter wear and a bit of memory.
Processing time doesn't really figure into the equation since I click the first and last shot of a run regardless of how many are in the middle.
So I've pretty much decided to shoot what I like, how I like and if it sells great, if not, then I'll find something else that does.
The good news is since I sent the "galleries up" notice yesterday afternoon, online sales are about $50 from matching on-site sales already, so maybe it really was the weather that kept things down at the event.
