Taking pictures

[Sherry]

Do you take a lot of pictures at your parties and events?  I have a question on my booking form asking permission to take photos and I also promise to email or send any pictures I take after the party.  I also ask each parent and their child for permission to take the photo before I snap the picture.  I find that most people want you to take their picture.

There is a bit of a herd mentality at times.  If one person says no, then it can start off a chain effect where each person behind them declines.  I'll usually put away my camera for a while when that happens.  There's only so much rejection a person can take!   

Anyway, I feel like this is starting to not be as enjoyable as it used to be.  I used to love going over all my pictures after the event.  It was sort of like reliving the event.  It's now turned into a hassle at times emailing the pictures.  They take forever to load!  Maybe I need a new computer.     I do think it adds value to my service.  It gives me a reason to contact them after the event to see if they were pleased with our service and it seems to really make them happy to see the pics.


I'm wondering what others are doing with the picture taking aspect?

[Alison]

Yes - I take photos.

For me, it would be such a big job to send the photos after each event.
I frequently work more than one event in a day.
And I frequently have a downpouring of job after job -
Sometimes working afternoons, sometimes nights -
Sometimes near my house, sometimes far away.
And I always snap photos so quickly that most of them
come out too blurry, anyway.

Especially during Busy-Season, I might not take the pictures off my camera
until I have OVER 500 photos.  To match them up with the party it goes to,
upload them onto an email and send - this is a big job.

Sometimes people do ask me to send them, and since I am taking pictures of them,
I figure it's only fair for me to do that.  So I do.  But it's a lot of work which I wouldn't
want expected as an automatic part of my package.  It means that, no matter what
other responsibilities I'll be coming home to, no matter if it's 2:00 a.m., I still MUST
take the pictures right off the camera and mail them before I forget or can't find them.

If it's the client, I'll have to upload and send several emails so they can all get through.
If it's an individual person, I'd have to remember which 'little dinosaur' is hers - Oh yes -
the one with the brown hair and the blue shirt!

[mrsito]

i do take pictures and send them to the one who booked the gig, or in the case of school events, i send them to the coordinator, i can't really manage to match individual photos.

sherry, if you have a digital camera that has high resolution (like a 10-12 megapixel one) try lowering it so you can transfer them to your computer much faster and not take up all that space...or maybe an external hard drive...

[Sherry]

I don't send the pictures out to each individual, only to the person who hired me.

I think since I bought a new camera, the size of the files has made it a chore.  I'll have to break out the instruction book and try lowering the resolution.  Thanks for the tip. 

[Shannon Fennell]

Mostly I do not take photos "on the job."  I'm usually too busy, have paint on my hands and don't want to get glitter IN the camera.

The only times we get photos is when I have someone with me as line manager, assistant or brush washer (my mom's newjob!)

There is one large festival I do every year and it is my assistant's job to get permission forms signed and then take photos.  She only takes photos of the people we have signed permission to take photos of, that way if there is a photo I KNOW I can use it later.  She scouts the line for cute kids with parents with them in advance, gets the parents to sign the form, then sets up to take photos while I paint and when it is done.

My permission forms have space to include details of the person's physical description and clothing, etc. so I can match the forms with the photos later.

I upload to my computer pretty much after every painting session - I do a lot of studio work specifically to take photos so I am working on them all the time.  And after an event I would upload as well...

I don't take photos at private parties. 

At workshops I will set-up an album on flickr and send the link to the participants who provided email addresses.   You could do that with the photos from your bookings too to save emailing them.

[Sherry]

I might try that.  I already have an account on Photobucket, where I load my photos from each event.  This is linked from my website.  Why hadn't I thought of this already!  I can just share them through Photobucket.  Thanks, Shannon.   

[Shannon Fennell]

No prob!!