08/01/2020
At long last, some good news.
After what feels like an excruciatingly long time, I not only have a new laptop, but as we speak am installing my photo editing software!
So where does this leave PonyPrints Photography?
WARNING: What follows is a tedious read but I would appreciate it if you did. However, you can get the gist of the story by skipping to the end :)
That question isn't easily answered. Though I miss getting out and about with my camera, there are a few factors to consider. Foremost are the terrible two, time and money. Photography is a very time consuming project, and there is a very delicate balance between what your time is worth, and what people are willing to pay.
Beyond that are work commitments, and commitments to my own competitive endeavours. As some (perhaps many) of you know, in the last couple of years I have made my entrance into the show ring, team penning arena, and endurance circuit with my trusty steed and all horse people can attest to how time-consuming these things (and horses in general) can be.
And then there's the fact that my camera is getting on in years, meaning the quality straight out of camera is getting lower so the amount of editing needed is getting higher.
As such, the return of PonyPrints very much depends upon supply and demand. It is not enough for it to be a passion of mine; it needs to have some monetary return. To "break even" each month with my expenditure purely of editing and hosting the website, I need to be making $35 a month. Doesn't seem like much, right? At my current rate of $7 per photo, that's only 5 photos a month. But that does not take into account travel to and from events, time spent taking the actual photographs, time spent uploading, time spent editing...
To be worthwhile, I would need to be regularly attending events AND regularly selling photographs. In my experience, each purchase buys on average 3 photographs per event, with some events having in excess of 10 purchases and others having none.
I hate mentioning a price rise, but at the moment it may be needed. With the sheer number of photographers out there, it is an extremely competitive market.
That is why, for the moment, my decision is pending.
For the short term, the store will be reopening for orders from galleries for late-2018 to early-2019. This means that anyone who didn't get a chance to order before the abrupt shut down will be able to do so! Prices will remain the same for now, but there will be NO CD orders, only digital.
From there, I will assess over the next couple of months as horse events start to pick up again just what time I have to invest into photography and whether there is enough demand to be worthwhile.
I apologise for the very, very lengthy read!
