If you have your standards set high, then of course you are going to pay the price of updating frequently. If you expect to compete at certain levels, you cannot expect to get by with less. As with traditional 35 or other formats, the new lines of digital equipment is ever advancing and the latest and greatest model will be sure to catch your eye and be a strain on the wallet. However, if you are willing to consider last year’s model, it may cost considerably less and serve your needs admirably well. The only real price break you’re ever going to get as a photographer will be on the older models of cameras and lenses. In today’s high tech, highly competitive group of photographic professionals, can you really do without the latest advancement? At times yes and often quite well!

Storage media is necessary and although more is better, it is starting to see a decline in pricing: Compact Flash cards aren’t nearly as expensive as they were a year ago. It is true that these are costly but what you pay out may also save in storage costs for the traditional films, binders and general filing systems. Additionally, there’s a great deal of time and storage space spent handling this medium while, with digital, you simply pop those images in the computer or the small storage medium and they can be retrieved in a moments notice; no dust, no cleaning, no digging into binders to find that one elusive piece of film. How much is your time worth?

If you print the digital files in the conventional manner using a lab then you pretty much have the same time and handling problems as if you shoot on negative. However, One advantage is that your proofs can be printed and mailed immediately on conventional paper which are not scanable but give sufficient quality for the competitor to decide whether they want to order a print or not. Many photogs shooting digital prefer proofs online, with good record-taking this may be a benefit to those who work alone at the event. Downloading to a lab online can be time consuming if you have a lot of prints so the alternative for that would be to write the files you require printed to CD and deliver the CD to a lab that will print from digital files. If your client decides they want their picture on a different background, you can charge for your time accordingly and turn a profit without having to print a photo to scan.

Software, is a necessary expense that comes with the world of digital imaging. You can count on the latest version to be expensive but you don’t always need that most recent version. There are also trial programs available to download and even full versions of some at little or no cost off the internet. Once you’ve mastered skill on the computer, a basic software package will serve a large portion of your needs. Getting the latest software may be necessary if you wish to be competitive in today’s market, but it is not necessary to simply create and manipulate images.

A lot of the downloading and processing can be set up to be done in batch form by the computer with certain graphic programs. After you set up the process, the computer may be left to run at it’s own pace. Unless there were technical problems you neglected to compensate for when making the image, the tweaking, manipulating and retouching will be minimal. You can also add your copyright and logo easily and professionally as opposed to hand signing, stamping or stickering manually which sometimes get messy and time-consuming. If the pictures are being bought and printed on site at the show, your work may be considerably less because you don’t have the proof printing, referencing, matching pictures to competitors, mailing, reprint orders, copyrighting problems that are inevitable when shooting negative.

Learning about new software, formats and resolutions expands our knowledge and makes us more valuable to our clients and profession. So many of today's photographers have access to computers, the basic ground knowledge needed to "Go Digital" is already there. There is a wealth of assistance online, in books, local community classes, and with supportive discussion groups (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EquinePhotographers, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digital-photography/) and virtually unlimited web sites. Just enter digital photography in a search engine to see how digital is merging and complimenting traditional processes. Even some of the photographers shooting negative for years have recognized the value of using at least some of the many digital processes in their work.

As cameras get bigger and better, that doesn’t necessarily mean the quality of the prints will be any less acceptable than current digital capabilities. I have noticed that is becoming gratifyingly difficult to tell the difference between a traditional print and one that has been digitally captured. Photographers may do well to note that we happen to be involved in a profession where marketers constantly tell us that we have “outgrown” the equipment we have. This of course makes us yearn and strive for better results and to want better equipment that allows us to improve our product and services. As digital imaging improves and becomes more manageable both in price and handling, I find it both comforting and exciting that more photographers are becoming supporters of the pixel and the technology that supports it.

Lori Schmidt
Equine Prophoto

Answer:
Maybe, maybe not. In general it should be binding if used in a normal way although if it were a "boilerplate" requirement incorporated a court would be less likely to consider it binding depending on the use. For example, if the photos were only used to advertise the horse show in the following year, a court would likely find such a release acceptable. If a photo of a 10-year old jumping her pony over a fence was used to illustrate an article about horse thieves in a crime story magazine, the legal position would be weaker.

Bert P. Krages
Attorney at Law
6665 S.W. Hampton Street, Suite 200
Portland, Oregon 97223
http://www.krages.com/lvaserv.htm

Editor's Note: Bert Krages is an attorney practicing environmental and intellectual property law in Portland, Oregon.
He is also the author of the Legal Handbook for Photographers: The Rights and Liabilities of Making Images
More information on his book may be found at http://www.krages.com/lhp.htm

Spotlight:
Behind the Camera
Suzanne Fischer

Photography has always been at my core, as has my love for horses. It was not until 2001, with encouragement of family and friends, that I formed a business from the two things I hold so dear. "Blind Eye Photography" was born from my love of photography and appreciation of our equine friends. It had been with me all the time. I just had not seen it.

My first pony was named Silver. A fuzzy little Shetland that used to play with me in the back yard sandbox. Since then, there have been many horses and ponies in my life, along with a lot of horse shows, tack, feed and vet bills. My husband and I have two horses on our place in Sardinia, Ohio. When asked what kind of horses we have he replies "We have two show horses.... we can show you where they stand in the field". (ha!) Both are ex-race horses, one Standardbred gelding named Mighty Sum, a.k.a. "Puppy", and one Thoroughbred mare named Blue Belle, a.k.a. "Bell". They are happy being mostly lawn ornaments and that is just fine with us.

Getting great reining shots is a matter of timing, of course the most popular are of the "slides" either from the side or 3/4 coming at you---work at getting your timing down so that you are at the very end of the slide, the horse and the rider will be at their "softest" and your images will be most appreciated! Spin or turning pictures are great for sales as well, look for the front legs to be crossed or about to cross (outside leg in front of inside leg) it takes some practice but is a lot of fun.
Barb Parker
photobarb@msn.com