Emily Hancock Talks About...

The business of equestrian photography.

When I saw that the RPS's Thames Valley Region was hosting Emily Hancock for one of their Sunday sessions, I was immediately interested.

Her talk was advertised as covering three areas, all of which were of interest:
* Photographing horses
* Running her business
* Gaining her qualifications
So the very reasonable charge of £10, and 3 hours driving, seemed likely to be time and money well spent, and so it proved.

Emily is an engaging speaker, very frank and open.  She ran each section of the day precisely to time, yet still allowing questions from the floor throughout her presentation, unfazed by the regular interruptions.

Emily is one of those fortunate people who discovers their passion in life early - in her case at just 16.  She 'chased an opportunity' early on, although it was partly luck that the photographer she approached to do some work with turned out to be covering royalty at a polo match!  After seeing her work, she was taken on as an assistant, a job she held for two years before setting out alone doing events photography relating to horses. 

Eager to continue learning, she did a year of specialist training, which taught her about business as well as photography.  It changed her game plan, influencing how she prices her work and the level at which she pitches it.  Much of what she was taught related to portrait and wedding photography, so she took these skills and adapted them to her work with horses, establishing a highly successful business with a very recognisable style, being relaxed and informal looking.  The horses typically wear little (but ultra-clean!) tack, and their owners wear clothes which are not 'horsey gear', ranging from jeans to very glamorous dresses, with three changes of clothes often taking place during a shoot.  Some of her equestrian subjects have been well trained enough to be worked entirely free of any tack at all.  Some lovely beach shots of a film-trained horse performing the Spanish Walk gave an impressive example of this.

After talking about her path into the field of equestrian photography, Emily then moved on to talk about how she carries out a shoot.  This covered the very detailed preparation which she carries out on each shoot, and a lot of detail about the actual shooting on the day, including positioning, posing, locations, safety - and suggestions for dealing with tricky/awkward horses! 

The day then moved to talking about the sales process.  For Emily, on-line selling is a no-no.  All her viewings (well, most) take place in her own studio, using a projector and a big screen, with the pictures being presented as a slide show to music.  This means that her clients get the full impact of hi-res images presented large, rather than scrolling through a selection of small images on a PC screen. 

Once again, preparation plays a big part in the process.  For each viewing her studio is clean, smells nice, has flowers on display, and good coffee on the go.  Emily herself dresses smartly rather than casually.  All these things make a difference to her buy rate.  She always gives her price outline up front, prior to the shoot, so her clients are well aware of the costs of her packages, and therefore arrive with an understanding of what they're likely to be spending.  The cost of the shoot itself (rather than the albums, prints or CDs) is paid up front.

The section of the day devoted to marketing was particularly interesting, and Emily stressed that she is marketing all the time!  Her biggest area for marketing are equestrian events such as The National Dressage Championships, where she usually has a display stand and a 'show offer'.  She pays attention to maintaining her websites Emily Hancock and The Training Barn.  Networking is key, and involves talking to as many people in her area of interest/specialisation as possible.  She uses social media, maintains a database, exhibits her work, and sometimes works in collaboration with others.  She also does some charity work, which can be something like offering a shoot and a single frame as a prize.  Finally, she also does 'roadshows' from time to time, where she may spend a day in a forest or beach location, and offer 1 hours slots to owners and their horses.  Emily talked through all these things in detail, and I made quite a few notes, even though I work in sales and marketing myself!

After over a decade of working in a very established style, Emily is now looking for new challenges.  She is reducing her client commission work, and starting to do more fine art work.  It was this style in which she shot the panel used to obtain her BIPP Fellowship, the first time anyone has gone from no BIPP qualification to Fellowship in one jump, a huge achievement.  Some of these very beautiful images can be seen on the equestrian section of her website.  Prior to the BIPP award, Emily had achieved her RPS Associateship with work from her commission range. It was encouraging that she went through the process of seeking help from mentors during her distinctions work.  She also said that she'd taken time to understand the respective distinctions processes and work out exactly what would be required of her. Something which anyone working towards their distinctions can usefully be reminded to do!

In all, it was a fascinating day, with lots of beautiful photography to illustrate Emily's points.  As someone who worries, I appreciated her comment "If you let your fears get the better of you, you'd never do anything."

When I had a brief chat with her during the lunch break, her advice was to look for opportunities, take advantage of them when they come up, and don't let them disappear.  A mantra she has obviously pursued herself, highly successfully.


'Marketing' slide used with the kind permission of Emily Hancock

Review: Op/Tech Rainsleeve

As foul weather photography is sometimes unavoidable and is anyway often interesting despite the challenges, over time I have acquired three different protective rain covers for my camera gear.  The Op/Tech one is the most basic, but also the most compact, and the cheapest.  (By a VERY large margin.)  Plus it does exactly what it says it will - keeps my camera dry! 

It is made of thin plastic, in a sort of 'almost L' shape - there's the flash version shown left, but I use the non-flash version.  It has a drawstring at one end, and a hole about half way along through which you can fit your viewfinder.  This means you can compose your shots without struggling to see through the plastic.  

The thin plastic means you can use the camera controls from outside or inside the Rainsleeve, but I didn't feel the camera was very secure when I was holding it through the plastic, so kept my arm and hand inside, as Op/Tech in fact appear to recommend.  

This worked especially well for me since I hate neckstraps and usually use wriststraps instead (also from Op/Tech!).  So my camera was secure and I could reach all I needed very easily.  You need to use a lens hood with the Rainsleeve as otherwise the drawstring doesn't sit comfortably at the end of the lens.  The hood also helped keep the rain off the front element of the lens!  I found that I had to loosen the drawstring a little as otherwise zooming the lens was awkward, but it was easy to still keep it tight enough to keep the lens protected.

The thin nature of this cover means that it folds up very small indeed, and can be packed into even the smallest camera bag.  Just be careful to ensure it has no opportunity to get snagged.  With care, they last well.  I have been using one of mine for a couple of years with no nicks or tears in it yet.

Rainsleeves come in pairs.  You can carry a spare, or keep one in each camera bag, as I do.  I had used one of mine previously, but last year it really came into its own when I was photographing a Lancaster from close quarters - in torrential rain.  Other visitors scattered far and wide, but I pulled the Rainsleeve over my camera and kept on shooting.  I finished the day with plenty of photographs, and a dry camera.  (There were a few comments about 'the person with the camera in a plastic bag', but handsome is as handsome does, eh!)


Taxying in Torrential Rain

Sunshine and (Heavy) Showers

You Can See The Rain On The Turret

For the price, around £6 a pack as I write, these are unbeatable value and could save the day.  I can't recommend them highly enough.  Just make sure that the 'viewfinder hole' is actually over the viewfinder, and not above the camera, otherwise you might find water where you don't want it!

You can buy them in the UK from WEX Photographic, or several other photographic retailers.
They're readily available despite being an American product.


(The Lancaster is 'Just Jane', and can be seen taxying on a regular basis at the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre at East Kirkby.  Very, VERY well worth a visit.)

Product images used by kind permission of Op/Tech USA.

Aiming for an ‘A’ – Part 6. Another Advisory Day.

This ‘path to a distinction’ is turning out to be extremely twisty, and pretty steep.  After two false starts (for the gory details read my earlier Aiming for an 'A' posts!) I hope that it is now ‘third time lucky’. 

 

I have long been interested in history, and my current (version 3) focus for my panel has come from this interest.  In some ways, my interest in bell ringing demonstrates this, as one of the reasons I ring is to carry forward a 400-year-old tradition and keep it alive. 

I’ve been photographing history through shooting our buildings, countryside, vehicles and traditions for years.  So it seemed to be a natural progression to take ‘heritage’ as the theme for my new panel. 

I re-wrote my statement of intent, keeping it short and to the point – just 60 words - and started to put together my pictures.  Although I have lots of photos of heritage items, activities and sites, most of them aren’t good enough for an ‘A’ panel.  After a while I signed up for another Advisory Day, this time at Amersham, on 19 January.  I came to this venue for my 'L' Advisory Day, and I like it.  It's easy to find, easy to park, and open and airy thus avoiding the claustrophobic crush of the RPS HQ at Bath.  And you get proper tea in real cups!  (Thank you, local RPS ladies!)

A few days prior to the Advisory Day I ran into two problems.  One of the prints which I had ordered arrived damaged and I didn’t have time to have it re-done., and I the mounts for two of the images I’d planned to use were the wrong size.  I should have known better than to discover this at this late stage:

Put everything together well before the date, so there is time for corrections or changes!

As always, the Advisory Day itself was interesting because it is fascinating to view other photographers’ work and hear some very knowledgeable comments on it. 

There were quite a few panels reviewed during the day, with an average of 10 minutes per panel.  Several were work in progress panels, so mine was not alone.  Each panel was assessed, and then commented on.  I have learned a lot from listening to what has been said about other people’s panels at the various Advisory and Assessment Days I’ve attended.

There were two panels being assessed for the LRPS which were considered to be at a level for the photographers concerned to submit for the ‘A’.  These were both mono panels, one a very gritty travel panel which was left up for a while to enable everyone to take a good look at it.

The other was a very strong set of street images.

 

As well as many natural history images (there seemed to be quite a few owls photographed!), there were some out of the ordinary panels.  The one which provoked the most ‘rustling’ in the audience was an extremely striking set of HDR processed images taken at steam railways.  I love steam trains, and my dad was a signalman when you still had to pull levers, so I have a connection with the subject and loved the approach, but it certainly created a lot of conversation!

When we finally got to my offering I was relieved to hear my statement of intent seemed to receive a favourable response.  My idea also met with some positive comments, which was encouraging after my earlier abandoned attempts.

Of the 15 images I put up, one was referred to as a ‘so what’ picture, and one was seen as something it wasn’t.   I thought it was obvious what the picture depicted, but clearly I was wrong.  Each image within a panel must stand up for itself and not require explanation, so that was another image which will have to come out.  

I was reminded again, through comments made about my own panel and others, that when submitting for RPS distinctions, you have to think differently than when you are looking at individual images for other purposes.  Some of these images had done very well in other channels, but were dismissed as potential panellists!

Of my 15, there were two pointed out as being my strongest, with another three or four as possibles.  It was useful to see which ones were picked, as it shows the kind of work which was catching the eye of the assessors, and just as importantly, which work wasn’t.  However, it means I have at best about a third of a panel, and a lot of work still to do.  

On Location: Hay Winter Festival 2013

Why go to Hay in the winter?  Well, even without a festival going on, Hay on Wye is definitely worth a visit. Known for its Literature Festival every summer, you might not realise that this small border town also hosts a Winter Festival.  As well as offering a number of seminars and workshops relating to books, as you would expect from this world renowned 'book town' the Winter Festival 2013 included a Food Festival on Saturday, and 'Hay Does Vintage' on Sunday.  So with masses to see and do I packed up 'Tonks', my tiny camper van, and set off for a festival weekend.

A camper van is ideal for attending this festival.  Powys Council is one of those much appreciated authorities which permit motorhomes to park overnight in their car parks, provided you only stay 1 night in any 7.  As the main car park in Hay is less than 10 minutes walk from the centre of the festival activities, it is a perfect location. You do however need to arrive early if you want to find any space at all!

My plan to was do some street photography, as well as attend some seminars and buy some books.  I did some of that on the Saturday.  A seminar on women in business was interesting and informative, and the food festival provided a bag of tasty looking provisions… but an increasingly bad headache and a very crowded town meant I retreated back to the van for pain relief and a couple of hours sleep.

Feeling a bit better in the early evening, but not up to hauling my DSLR kit about, I picked up my 'van cam' - the light and excellent quality Panasonic Lumix  LX5 which is always in my van - and set off to do some low light shooting.  

Not far from the van is the Hay Cinema Bookshop.  The floodlighting was illuminating more of the trees than the shop!  

Lots of the Hay shopkeepers had made their windows striking, but I think this display was my favourite.  

'7 swans a swimming, 

6 geese a laying, 

5 go-o-ld rinnnngs' 

All lovingly knitted!  

Aren't they great?

And yes, the entire knitted cast was on display!

Sunday meant an early start to beat some of the crowds up to the 'Hay Does Vintage' stalls. Once again I had the LX5, as I was Christmas shopping as well as photographing, which meant juggling hands and gear!

On the way I noticed this 'stairway'.

The first stall was nearly ready, and looked very inviting - despite the back-to-front Union Jack…

Both on the stalls and in Hay's own shops, there were all sorts of treasures to be found!  

Rocking tractor, anyone?

What a great address!

In short, Hay's Winter Festival is an absolute delight of a weekend.  Lots to see and hear, interesting shops to visit, wonderful second hand book shops, and quirky streets, details and shops for the photographic eye.  Put it in the diary for next year.  I'll definitely be back!

(There's lots of information about Hay's Festivals on their very comprehensive website.)

And I can definitely recommend the Oxford Road car park as a great place to stop for the night for anyone with a camper van - and it isn't often you can recommend a car park!

On Location: Sark 2013

Those who read my blog (or follow me on Twitter, or who have looked at my website) will know that I love Sark.  Many of us have a few of those special places where our souls feel at home, and Sark is one of those places for me.

I was once asked what on earth I find to do on Sark for a week.  So I thought I'd post about a few of the fantastic photographic opportunities this small and friendly island offers.

A week on Sark is often one of mixed weather, and that was certainly the case on my recent visit. An advantage of Sark's small size is that you can always get to the lee side of the island, or the area with the best light at a given time of day.

In the case of the picture below, I went to the viewpoint at the Pilcher Monument, right in the teeth of a gale! Not the best conditions for photographing in as there was nowhere sheltered from the wind, and water was splattering on to my lens, but very exhilarating.  Given that I was on a cliff path, I did take care to ensure the wind was blowing me away from the edge...

A few days later, the weather was much calmer, and one evening the sea mist came rolling in.  I grabbed my camera bag and went rolling out to see if I could capture any atmospheric images.  These vines caught my eye as the mist made the lighting soft, and I liked the ghostly trees at the ends of the rows.

The speed at which the mist changed to fog was surprising!  Within half an hour, what had started out as wispy and atmospheric became dense and spooky.  I took this photograph from above La Coupée, and although I could hear the sea I couldn't see it.  I posted the image on Twitter, and it became the most responded to image of the trip.

A misty evening was followed by a brilliantly sunny day.  Below, the ferry 'Sark Belle' is heading towards Guernsey on a flat calm sea.

Although Sark is small, there are miles of coastal walks.  Some of them are steep, but the views are always worth it.  This was taken from the cliff path above Maseline Harbour, and shows the ferry arriving from Guernsey.

Heading north takes you across Eperquerie Common, towards Bec du Nez.  I'd heard about a Buddhist stone there, and I wanted to see if I could find it so I set out to hunt.  After a considerable amount of 'sheepdog' walking (casting back and forth and hence covering a lot of extra ground!) I found it!  

Also known as the 'Monk's Stone', it was carved in 1999 to celebrate the Millennium.  

There are lots of other rocks, big and small, for geologists and those who like looking at closer detail, shapes and patterns!  

There are also lots of plants and trees, and I enjoyed seeing them in gardens like the beautiful 

La Seigneurie Gardens, as well as along the footpaths and roadsides of the island.

Day to day life on Sark is full of interesting opportunities for a photograph:

Tractor Crossing La Coupée at Dawn

It's often worth getting up early, or waiting around late, for sunrises and sunsets...  

...and in my case, there is always the pleasure of being welcomed and spoiled by the folk at the fabulous Stocks Hotel.  After several hours out tramping with my camera gear, it's lovely to return to a little luxury - a hot bath and a (very) good meal! 

So as you can see, there is plenty to do on Sark!  

Review: Lowepro Photo Sport 200 AW

I bought this ahead of a week long photo holiday and it worked out perfectly.

It is very comfortable to wear. The hip straps are well positioned and make a big difference to the comfort when they are fastened. The sternum strap is also comfortable and adjustable. The fact that it's not a huge bag works well for me as it means it doesn't get too heavy. (I'm 5'4", in case that's relevant to anyone!)

The interior compression section works brilliantly with my D7000 & 16-85mm lens. I can carry a flash or second lens alongside the main camera, or often my smaller flash plus a loupe.

The compression section leaves a space behind it which can be accessed through the main bag. I've found that a Think Tank Cable Management 10 case fits this space perfectly. In it, I keep spare batteries, small torch, lens hood, cables, and I know that I can pull that one little bag out and all those bitty things are held together, saving much rummaging about at the bottom of the main bag. In the front open pocket I keep another Think Tank bag. This time the small and thin Think Tank Cable Management 20 case. This bag holds an Op/Tech rain cover and a couple of other thin things! In the various pockets on the Lowepro bag I keep filters, spare memory cards, cable releases and a spirit level. In this way, I can easily access any of the elements of my camera gear with no wasted time trying to find things.

Even with the above stuff loaded, there is plenty of space for a jumper or jacket, purse, lunch, snack etc. There's a drinks bottle holder on the side, but I usually use this to hold two legs of my tripod, which then straps securely to the main bag.

There's a pocket for a water reservoir.  I never carry water in this way, but the pocket holds my iPad perfectly when I occasionally need to carry it.  (As that pocket isn't padded, I make sure my iPad is in a sturdy case and the screen is facing away from the support struts built into the Photo Sport, but I've had no problems with the iPad after carrying it there, even on flights when the bag has been stuffed into tight spaces.  However, this isn't a designated iPad pocket, so if you're going to put your iPad there, be careful!)

In theory, because of the side loading, you can access the camera without putting down the bag. In practice I find this a bit of a fiddle. Because it's a backpack (2 straps) it feels insecure on my shoulder when I'm trying to use this 'sling' approach. So I often end up putting it down, but it's nice to have the option not too when the ground is a bog! I have the sling version too (Lowepro Photo Sport Sling 100AW), which is great for short-medium walks and local use, but the 200 is FAR more comfortable for long day use with more gear.

So, would I recommend this bag? Yes, absolutely. It is the first backpack I've ever bought which I use regularly.  I've had it for 18 months and it still has no rips, tears, holes, broken zips or any structural failures.  Apart from a little mud, it's a good as new, despite being my main bag and the one which gets the most use.  If it got damaged, I'd buy another one immediately.

Will My Kit Fit In It?

Three weeks ago I made a very significant addition to my camera kit. Most photographers acknowledge that it is easy to spend a lot of money on their kit, but I think I REALLY went for it this time. Here is my new bit of photography support equipment:

Yes, after much consideration and a couple of false starts, I have bought a camper van!  The van is a Romahome R10 Solo, the smallest of Romahome's range.  As the name implies, it is strictly a one person vehicle.  It is also (for a camper van) very small.  A fact which caused me quite a few concerns as I was worried about whether I'd be able to fit my gear in it, both for camping and for photography.  I was able to contact some R10 owners, who gave me some useful advice about using the van.  So I took the plunge, brought the van home, and then laid out the kit which needed to go in it. 

Considering the fact that the stuff above had pretty much filled my kitchen for a week prior to collecting the van, the pile actually looks quite restrained!  It doesn't look like it, but there are about 40 items on that rug.  Everything from bedding and cutlery to a heavy duty tow rope in case of needing a tug from a muddy field.  As well as the gear above, there are a couple of water containers - fresh and 'grey', silver insulation screens for the cab windows (which come in a huge-for-an-R10 bag), and my 'van cam' (my vehicles always carry a compact camera because you never know when you'll want one). An advantage of kitting the van out from scratch is that I know exactly what is in it, and I plan to keep it that way. 

When I was reviewing what I would need prior to collecting the van, I found two very helpful sources of information. One was Freeborn Motorhomes'Ready to Roll' list, geared up especially for Romahomes, and another was a blog post titled What Do You Take in Your Camper Van? These two lists gave me a lot of very useful information and helped me to create my van's inventory list.  Two other factors were in the front of my mind all the time: 'Is it essential?' and 'Is it small and/or collapsible?' Given the size of the R10, these are key questions, but even when/if I move to a bigger van, who wants to haul lots of clutter around if they don't have to?

I'll find out how right/wrong I got it with my choices when we take our first camping trip together shortly.

You'll notice that there is a conspicuous absence of camera gear, food, or clothing in the above picture, and that's because all of those things will be moved in and out of the van on a trip by trip basis.  No camera gear or other high value stuff will be left in the van between trips.

So, did the kit fit in it?

Yes!  The tiny R10 swallowed everything up, and I also found space for food, clothes and camera kit although you do have to be a careful packer, and ruthless about leaving behind unnecessary stuff.  

A quiet afternoon on my mum's drive organising things and relocating various items mean that the van is now fully prepped for our first photographic foray.  I'll let you know how we get on.