Nobody loves to be photographed. Ok, I’ll change that a bit. Most people don’t love to be photographed. It generally isn’t that fun, and most of the time, it’s just downright awkward. Remember back in high school...yearbook photos? Or at a wedding, the wonderful family photos? “Stand here, tilt your head there, smile like you really mean it.” "Like I mean it? Like I want to be doing this right now?” Yeah not really. Nobody really loves to be photographed.
Unless…
It’s doing something you love.
I remember my friends and I growing up on Red Mountain in Rossland, BC, using disposable film Kodak cameras to photograph each other snowboarding. We couldn't wait to get the photos back to see the “sweet method” or “rad backflip” that we would take turns throwing on the jumps (was a 'tindy' ever cool?). The same thing in the summer, when we would be skateboarding in the Safeway parking lot on makeshift ramps and rails that we fashioned from stolen plywood in our neighbors yards. We always got excited about seeing the photos and who got the best shot on that roll. These are still some of my favorite photos I have to this day and the memories they hold for me are priceless.
Like I did growing up skating and snowboarding, people coming to Whistler today love to bike... live to bike. They count the runs they do when they are in the park and count the days and hours until they can ride again. A few years ago, we decided to bring that concept to the Whistler Bike Park.
Our early days of shooting in the park were a bit of trial and error, using natural light and creeping in the bush pretty much scaring people as they rode by. But over the course of the last few seasons we have grown, and are now using signs, speedlights, radio triggers and fast lenses to get the best possible shots of you in this amazing place.
We have gone from one shooter in the park on weekends, to multiple shooters 7 days a week. We have begun working with bike camps, such as SGC, DFX and the Dirt Series, to promo shoots for companies like Zenith bikes and Fly Racing. We have also started offering private shoots for riders that want to go off the general trails that we shoot.
We have come a long way over the past few years, but ultimately, our ideals haven’t changed at all. We want to capture images of people, regular people like you and me, doing some of the things we love most in the world. Riding bikes.
And the best part? Nobody will ever ask you to ‘smile”. Look for the "Photo Location" signs in the Whistler Bike Park then find your hero shots online at
www.bikeparkphotos.com.
You say you would've spent a few hundred bucks? But you didn't? You still could have spent a few hundred bucks at 25$ a photo but instead you chose to blame the price of the photo and that is a B.S excuse.
Sure it's (kinda) shitty for prints, but good enough to make me look dope on social media and my flickr account. HAHA.
Hhhmm, wait... maybe I should charge $15 to remove the word proof from other peoples 'proof' pics. HAHAHA.
Hmm (stroking my chin).
The central fact is that sure, it's a nice photo they've taken, but their market to purchase that photo is 1. One person in the whole world gives a crap about it (and maybe that person's Mom, but we won't get into that). Therefore you have to price where the market dictates. Sure, you'll sell a few at $25, hell, you'd probably sell the odd one at $100, but simple economics dictate that you'll sell more the lower your price.
Add that to the fact that once you've taken the shot, your costs are basically $0 with digital delivery. So what you've got is a product that is 100% profit on every sale once you factor out the fixed cost of operation (no printing costs on digital delivery).
Coast Mountain has caught me on film literally hundreds of times, and I've liked most of them, but I've only bought 1 (it was a gift). This is because even though they're nice shots, it's not worth $25 to pet my ego. however, if it was $5 or $10, I imagine I'd have bought 20 or so in that time. So in riding career, Coast Mountain could have made $100 to $200 off of me instead of $25, at absolutely no additional cost to them.
Not to mention the fact that if you get everyone buying shots and talking about them, more people would be looking for them and buying them as well (I'm sure that getting people to remember looking up their shots at the end of the day is a major business issue).
A $5 for low-res (facebook/instagram) and $10-$15 for high res (printable) pricing model would conservatively triple their revenue. Value added of high-quality printing & delivery could also help the bottom line.
Coast Mountain, PM me when you're manager's position is vacant
A lot of people in this thread don't understand the core principle at play here: This has nothing to do with photography, it's a business issue. The fact that sending out the same people, with the same gear, doing the same job could result in significantly higher returns with a different pricing structure.
People can claim the service is worth sooo much and it's soooo hard to take photos and soooo hard to work the gear that's soooo expensive to buy. That may all be true, but In the end, that doesn't matter to anyone but the photographers. What matters is that the finished product has to be priced at a point where the consumer feels like there's value. Reading through this thread (and speaking to many many others), the majority don't. It's awesome that they can make the business work with the minority who are willing to fork out $25 at a time, but why the hell would anyone want to stop there?
It still costs you time (you need to pay yourself) to take photos, your cameras still get wear and tear and need servicing/calibration, your memory cards wear out and need to be replaced eventually, your lenses get dirty and covered in dust and need servicing/calibration every year, ETC..... You clearly know nothing about taking photos. The cost of film and developing might be gone but all the other costs remain and the gear is more expensive then in the film days.
And selling 5$ photos... Pfffff you guys make me laugh... you're in a sport that costs thousands and thousands of dollars in gear and you complain about a 25$ photo.
It's like saying, Whistler bike park lift tickets shouldn't be as expensive as they are because it only costs them the wages of 3 lifties to operate the lift. Initial cost, maintenance costs, land taxes and so on all cost money and they have to turn a profit on top of paying all the overhead. It is a business after all, not a charity. this might sound harsh but it's the truth.
Bikeparkphotos.com, you guys are doing a great job! I've bought a few photos already from you guys and I think 25$ is a fair price.
Cheers!
I'm sure people visiting Whistler on holiday wouldn't even blink at $25 for the memory.
The cost that goes into gear, software, maintenance, bikes to get around, the time that we take out of our day to take photos of people and then just the years of learning to get to where we are.
At $25/picture that's so much more than fair. In my mind it's too low.
I bought an email file on another occasion and got it blown up huge on canvas and it still looks dope.
Although I do agree there should be a cheaper version. For internet quality. People will still buy the higher resolution if they want quality prints.
25$ Dollars is small price to pay.. Especially if your on vacation.
I got snapped randomly in the bike park on closing day last year and is still one of my favorite photos from my years in Whistler so far. Had one of the best days riding goofing around in my monkey onsie, with a huge train of buddie and having some solid runs too. My last run of that season was by far one of the most enjoyable. Every time i look at that photo I remember all this and smile. 25$ is nothing for great memories.
Alternatively you can spend 3000+ dollars on similar camera equipment.Spend the next 2 years learning Digital Photography. Then spend a day in paranoia, carting you equipment around in a dusty/rainy bike park. Watch people hikabike for 8 hours and have pins and needles in you limbs from awkward shooting positions. Only to get shots, not quite as good as these and not any of yourself or one unfocused one that you clueless buddy took too late. Only to get home and realize you lens cap is missing.
As Justa25 mentioned we do offer deals when you come into our shop in the Carleton Lodge at the base of the mountain ($10off each image after the first one on the high res files). As for shooting times, we have played with them in the past and will continue to do so. We are generally shooting from 10:30am until 4pm daily, and when we have a second photographer in they stay up an extra hour later. We have chosen these times as they tend to be the busiest for us on the mountain. We appreciate the props for the photo quality as it is always something we are trying to improve. Our man James has pushed it in a big way this year! We also try to vary our shooting locations more than last year. We are still shooting the usual CrankitUP and Heart of Darkness of course as they are always busy, but doing more spots like Fade2Black, Dwayne Johnson, Funshine etc as well. This keeps us entertained as we are always looking for a new, cool shot, as well as mixes it up for some of the riders that get to ride this amazing place on a regular basis. Sorry if that flash has messed people up, but we do have a sign before the feature to let you know its coming at least! Cheers everyone and we will see you in the park!