focused events photos
 

having used focused for trackdays a number of time previous to last mon at brands, before they used picture management to do the track photography, and pic were viewable after the event from the picman website. however focused seem to provide their own similar buy a cd service at trackside now.

question is can you view tyhe photos anywhere on the web after the event, as i left promptly assuming i could view them at focused website, as it appears i can not.

i have emailed focused but not receieved a response and wondered if any one here knew any more??

You cannot view them, if you can manage to contact the lady that takes the pictures, she can email them to you, but it would be nice to view and pick before buy!

Same here,

Used them a couple of times this year and last Saturday they said you cannot get pics after the event (maybe selling tip). On a day earlier in the year I emailed them about the pics after the event and they emailed me back some to buy but it took at least a week...

Andy

ps The on-bike video is really good to watch after the event...

Well...I think they have had a change of policy here...I used them for the FE event at Silverstone with Andy B above earlier this month...and at the time, they were very busy on the day, with only one person operating the PC at any time...massive queue...I don't thnk so.

So I asked the girl if I could download them at some point in the furture off the web, and she said yes...but I needed to call them and give them my details etc...they then phoned me back and said they had a big backlog and it would take about 2 weeks to hear from them, and that from then on they were NOT taking any more orders over the web...only on the day...4 weeks on...no phone call!

I'm going to be calling them sometime soon to see what has happened....but definately NOT as organised as picman who always seemed quick and efficient in sorting out piccies on the day.

[Edited on 1-7-2005 by Harv748]

I'm having the same problem - emailed but no response !

yes unfortunately they are guilty of trying to get a bigger slice of the pie and we the consumers are getting a crap service as a result.

Had the same when I did a trackday earlier this year *but* on going on another one with FE at Snetterton, they did have all their pictures on the system, so they did me a disk with both sets of pictures on it at a reduced price.

Not that £45 for a 5p CD should be classed as reduced price...

[Edited on 1-7-2005 by antonye]

I agree with Antonye, if youve used them more than once, its an opportunity to put all the events prior to your date on to one cd, as they do keep them on file.

They emailed me sample pics after the trackday and spoke to Dan or Daz I think?

Very helpful to me but as the year goes on and peeps are chasing old material i suppose it willl get harder to cope with em all.

Hope you guys get sorted as good as i did!

Good luck.

well after a follow up email i finaly got a reply:o

"i have passed on your email to our photography dept and they will get back to you,but they are very busy taking photos":yawn:

is this a good move for focused to do their own photograpy,

picman had it sorted, i dont think they should try to fix what aint broke:)

One lost customer:flame:

I got that email too, then they never turned up.

my ones from Brands on the 4th from Picman haven't come through
How long do they take to come in the post?

you may want to give em a call to chase it up , i had it once where i was waiting patiently, yet it had been lost in the post, they sent another straight away FOC

Last lot I got from Picman took 11 days...

Darren

chears I was startin to worry. I don't know why I am going on holliday tomorow.
:lol:

To me it seems strange that they won't do email/web based orders. Not everyone (i.e me) is in the positoin to have an artic' truck with a bank of PC's in the back that can be used to show images to 4 or 5 people at a time. You then need the staff to operate them proficiently (which Gary @ Picman also seems to have).

If I could offer the same sort of service at my club racing meetings I reckon I'd wipe the floor with the other photographers there in terms of getting interest and orders etc. It just looks so much better and as such gets the queues.

Sadly Picman is the only one I've seen with that sort of a setup which makes you wonder why a smaller operation would refuse to do web or email based orders. They must be confident on their track based operation, but as has been said above, that doesn't appear up to scratch either...

Obviously don't need the business........ :puzzled:

[Edited on 12-7-2005 by Guido]

I reckon you could do a 3 or 4 machine setup very cheaply - they don't need to be real fast PCs and you just need one fast central file store to download the pics to.

3x folding tables, 6x folding chairs, 3x cheap PCs, 1x server, 1x hub, 1x genny and the back of a tranny to put it all in. I reckon you could squeeze all that in under 1500 quid.

At £30 a CD that's not long before it pays for itself.

Obviously, I'll put this together for you for a very reasonable fee :D

I ordered the full set of pictures on disc from Picman at Snetterton. They took a week to arrive but I was failry pleased with them. At Brands, though, there was just too long a wait and probably pictures that were pretty similar so I didn't bother. It's the first time I haven't bought pictures from a track day and whilst I'm disappointed not to get a couple at least, the selection process is too arduous and £25 for a CD containing several pictures I don't particularly want is a bit extravagant for me.

That's my two-penneth. Just need to organise someone into setting up my Avatar of one of these pics cos I can't do it. :D

Can I just rescind a comment about the £25 being pricey. I've just put the CD in to look at a picture to send to Dibs or Ali to set up as my Avatar, and I've realised that all the DD racing pics are on there.

Fantastic Value - cheers picman :D:D

Picman were quoting 7-10 days after Brands, so some time midweek should see them arriving.

I got 19 pics on my CD for £30, which works out at £1.60 each, I have to say that's top value compared to some TD photographers I've experienced.

Picman definitely sets the standard for TD photography from a customer service point of view, although I'm surprised it can't be linked in with an online printing lab like pixology to provide online ordering of prints. One for Guido then???

From an inside line angle,

I'd say Picman sets the standard from a photographic quality point of view too. I don't think I've seen quality like theirs from other TD snappers (and of course I have a vested interest in such work)..

As for me doing online ordering and buying £1500 of kit from Antonye etc....I'd love to do such things but it has to be put into context for me......

Since Feb.....I've earnt £700 from my photography. Don't get me wrong.. I'm ecstatic with that to say it's from all intents and purposes a hobby still....but that's turnover not profit...that's from back to back weekends away, 5 hour drives each way etc....4 hours per night for 4 nights editing pics/uploading after BSB events etc...£5k on equipment etc

As an ex-business person I know you have to speculate to accumulate, but earning £5 per hour in a furniture factory 5 days a week and working my weekends trackside means my wings are somewhat clipped in terms of branching out...

Watch this space tho'..I'll get there one day, but in year one, I'm pretty happy how things are 'panning' out so far.

Cheers for the thoughts folks.

Guy

[Edited on 12-7-2005 by Guido]

Guy,

Just wanted to point out that someone like Picman's (very professional) setup may not have been as expensive as you thought.

For less than £400 you could easily have a single machine which would be capable of displaying photos on the day and burning CDs too. This you could grow over time into 2, 3, 4 machines as the money starts coming in.

I appreciate completely what you're saying, so good luck with everything and well done for having the commitment to stick at it.

Antonye,

Cheers matey.

Believe me, I am looking at this option as I see it as he only way to maximise the output of shots from Race and trackday events.

From my own experience I see it that pics are more of an impulse buy (unless they're absolute stunners), and tend to be bought after you've had a great day and the adrenaline is still pumping.

I think I would sell 60-80% more images if I could have a trackside sales pitch. I have use of a laptop, tables and use of a genny. My main problem is getting someone to sit there all day with the combined ability to deal with human beings and edit, crop, sort, display and sell pictures.

Still searching, so watch this space...

See you all at Cadwell...(with bike, video and camera/s)

Guy

I'm pretty sure that Gary (picman) has to pay to be there though. Not sure how much, but its a few hundred quid I think??

Can anyone who has a press pass (no offence intended) turn up, take pics and covertly try to sell these to punters, without the need to pay for the pitch (as it were) - not sure how true this is, but seems logical to me. This is without any great overheads or "fees" - maybe?

Guy - if you were to setup with PC on site, would you have to pay this "fee" too? If you're adding a couple of hundred quid (estimated) to your day's expenses, its gonna require a lot more pics to be sold I reckon.

I'm not sure if my thoughts stack up, but there must be a lot more costs (and investments) to a set up like Gary's in order to make some money in the long term.

Tim

Yes you indeed do normaly have to pay if you are commercially selling at the circuits. As with anything nowadays, if there's a buck to be made, somebody wants their share of it.

I believe £150 is the norm'. You could also be required to have public liability insurance.

I could get a press pass for the day probably via my contacts but as it's not for a bonefide race event I would no doubt be asked what I need it for and when I say it's a trackday, then the cost/payment issue would undoubtedly come up.

I have looked at all the costs for doing this type of thing. If you look at it from the point of view that if you sell 10 CD's @ £20 then you've covered your pitch fee. I would assume that the likes of Gary @ Picman (with his good quality images) sells a helluva lot more CD's than that to the 100 or so riders you get at the average trackday. Yes he has a big rig and upto 3 photographers plus PC staff to pay for, but it must stack up if he's doing it, especially if he's doing it 5 days a week.

I just don't have the startup funds yet to a) get a van/etc, b) pay the pitch costs or c) pay for someone to help me with displaying/selling images whilst I'm out on track taking them.

Gc

Well when you do Guy, there's plenty enough nerds on here to help you set it all up for maybe the price of a beer (or seven thousand) and a curry.

If I can I'll help.

Curry menu on it's way to you Tony.........would you want the mandatory pickle tray and bum-burning green stuff in it too:D

well despite responding to one of the focused events advertising emails recently telling them why i WONT be booking and since being promised a few more times the "someone in photography dept" will get back to me............................................i am still waiting.

actually ive now given up................ they can stuff the photos

probably best mate....yer piccies were crap anyway..........:lol::P

fills me with great confidence i was looking forward to getting some photos of me at silverstone in 2weeks time

Of course!

Better order an extra Kingfisher though ...

hey im not saying this experiance will effect you unless you think you can look at or order photos after the event.

sort it out while your there!!

and ask them what happened to mine???:lol:

yeah i know:roll: