Questions & Answers for New Horse Photographers

Are you a new horse photographer with questions? Then the following Questions & Answers for New Horse Photographers is for you.

If you need help figuring out what your next steps are?

Have questions about marketing a horse photography business?

Read on…

Note: This post contains affiliate links.

what’s your biggest tip for someone starting out as a horse photographer?

There are so many things I could put in this but I think first and foremost, my answer would be, “Get Legal”.

If you are accepting money, no matter how small, you need to be a legal business.

If you are portraying yourself as a business on a social media platform, you need to be a legal business.

Have a contract, have insurance, and pay taxes. These are the cornerstone of any business.

Additionally, being legal protects not only you but also your client.

what camera equipment do you use?

what do you use for photo storage?

Well, as a professional photographer, photo storage is a requirement! 

I personally err on the side of caution so I have mirrored external hard drives and I also have BackBlaze.

Carbonite is another cloud service I have used in the past. 

And, Crashplan is another that several photographers use but I don’t personally have experience with it.

Backblaze offered the most protection for my money.

i use social media for my equine photography business. do i really need a website?

Ok, so I could talk about this all day.

Marketing is my love language. But, I don’t want to bore you so let me just say this…

I get asked this question a lot, by entrepreneurs and horse photographers alike. Especially since social media has become such a giant.

And here is my answer.

It’s NEVER a good idea to build your business 100% on a platform that you don’t control.

facebook as an example

Think about it for a second. Let’s use Facebook as an example.

And, as I am saying this, remember that Facebook bought Instagram also.

So if you are saying to yourself, “well, that’s only Facebook, it won’t matter to me because I only use Instagram…”, think again.

So, back to our example:

Facebook owns the audience of any Facebook personal page, business page, or group, not you.

Facebook controls who sees your posts and how often they see them.

And right now those numbers are rather dismal.

And, this is not just Facebook. This is ANY social media platform.

Just imagine if you had built your business 100% on MySpace back in the day.

Where would you be now? Starting over from scratch.

Social media plays an important role but should be just one piece of your overall marketing strategy.

how often do you have your gear serviced? and where do you take it?

Well, I’m a Canon girl so I always send my cameras back to Canon for service.

Plus, where I live it’s a minimum 2-hour drive to get to a decent camera store.

I try to send cameras and lenses back once a year for routine maintenance.

But occasionally have to send it back more often if there is an issue or repair.

After all, I do work with big animals and sometimes accidents happen.

Canon has a Professional Services Membership Program that has come in very handy even if you are just starting out. Definitely worth checking out!

should i go to school to get a photography degree?

This question pops up a lot. My thoughts are that if I knew for sure I wanted to be a photographer when I got out of school, I would go to school for business and marketing rather than photography.

Weird, right?

But the fact of the matter is that in a photography business, just like most other businesses, you spent 10-20% of your time taking pictures, and 80-90% of your time building and marketing your business.

Knowing how to run and market a business are key to being successful.

If you look at the world of photography you see absolutely amazing photographers who don’t make any money.

And you see mediocre photographers who are making six-figure incomes and running phenomenal businesses all because they know how to run a business and how to market themselves.

You might want to consider getting a business or marketing degree and working on your photography by working at a photography company or interning with a photographer.

do you shoot raw or jpg?

I shoot RAW.

For the majority of what I do, RAW works better.

Now, if I was an event photographer shooting fast-moving horses, I would shoot mainly jpg.

But, given how I edit, and. as most of what I do ends up in print as either medium to large-scale wall art or large albums, RAW is a better fit.

should i be a sole proprietorship or an llc when i set up a new horse photography business?

what kind of insurance do you recommend for someone who photographs horses?

This is a question best directed to an insurance agent who can best help you with your specific needs.

However, from a general standpoint, new horse photographers need to look at two different types of insurance.

One is General Liability insurance and the other is equipment insurance.  These are in addition to your usual health insurance, of course!

When it comes to equipment insurance, my thought process is that if you can’t afford to go out and replace your gear when a horse kicks it or you drop it, then you definitely want equipment insurance.

As you are dealing with large animals who have a mind of their own, it’s easy for an accident to happen quickly.

And it can cost hundreds, if not thousands of dollars to replace gear.

General Liability Insurance, on the other hand, is a requirement for any equine photographer. 

It may take some shopping around to find a company willing to cover you when you work with horses.

Look for a policy that covers a minimum of $1 million.  $2 million would be better.

Lastly, though not technically, insurance, you need a rock-solid contract specific to equine photography and reviewed by an attorney in your state.

how can i be successful when there are so many other horse photographers?

How does anyone become successful in any industry? It’s not by copying someone else. It’s by being themselves and offering something uniquely them to the world.

don’t follow other local horse photographers

Ok, ok. This one is probably going to have some people shaking their heads but hear me out.

One of the best pieces of advice I can give is to not follow other equine photographers on social media. Particularly if they are in your marketing area. Seriously.

Here’s why:

If they are in the same market as you, you might be tempted to change your marketing strategy or discount your prices because of what another photographer is doing.

But, consider this:

• Do you have the same ideal client?
• Do you have the same cost of business?
• Do you have the same products and services?

Chances are, if you have done a proper business analysis, the answer is no to all of those questions. b

branch out

Now, you could be thinking but I’m inspired by other photographers! And that might be true.

If so, pick one or two horse photographers that inspire you and go with it.

I personally have found that a lot of my best inspiration comes from photographers in other specialties. Not horses.

I follow a few wedding photographers and fine art photographers. So don’t just stick to horse photography, branch out.

But, if you clog up your social media feeds with photographers, you aren’t going to be seeing the posts of the people that you really want to connect with — potential ideal clients.

Never forget that social media is a marketing tool.

From the point of a business owner, its sole purpose is to help you connect with potential ideal clients which in turn helps your bottom line.

it’s a highlight reel

It is easy to believe that the photographers you see on social media are doing wonderful things all the time.

It’s very easy to forget that you are watching their highlight reel.

You are not seeing the blood, sweat, and tears, that they put into their business daily.

My Instagram doesn’t show you that I rarely sleep more than 5 hours a night. It doesn’t show you my frustrations or stress. 

be you

The fact is that there are enough clients for everyone to have a full client base.

By being true to yourself and your brand, you will attract your ideal clients.

The ones you love to work with and the ones that love to work with you. And that’s all you need.

So focus on the aspects of photography that make you happy, and be true to yourself, and your brand.

And if you haven’t done it already, plan time for full business analysis. You might be surprised at what you discover. 

more questions about about equine photography and business?

Rather than post a new Q&A blog post each time I have questions, I just add them to this post. So check back frequently for updates.

If you are a new horse photographer and have a question, send me a message here.

Betsy Bird of Ride the Sky Equine Photography spends her days doing insane things to make horses look at her. Clearly, she’s desperate for attention. Outside of acting like a total weirdo, she invests time and energy into growing her business, hanging with her favorite dog, Nitro, dealing with her teenagers’ angst, and planning her next big wheels-up adventure. Betsy is a Certified Professional Photographer (CPP) with the organization Professional Photographers of America (PPA). The CPP designation is held by fewer than 2,500 photographers nationwide and is a hallmark of consistency, technical skill, artistry, and professionalism. Betsy specializes in creating storytelling magic for horse girls of all ages. In other words, she enjoys working with fun-spirited clients who need horse portrait photography, equestrian senior photography, and equestrian brand photography. She even throws in some dogs for variety because what true horse girl doesn’t love a great pup too? Based in Chattanooga, TN, Ride the Sky Equine Photography works on location in Tennessee, North Georgia, and beyond.