Exhausted on a Monday night

The weekend finally caught up with me and I am exhausted tonight. The races got over at a fairly reasonable hour both nights but I had to do several hours of work when I got home from the races both nights and four more hours Sunday morning. I did manage to get outside yesterday afternoon for a few hours and cut the lawn for the first time. I was thinking about going out there with the bag on the mower to pick up some mulch left over from last fall but I ran out of steam thinking about it.

I'm going to take the night off tonight and get busy with interviews and getting the camera ready for the weekend starting tomorrow night. I have to check my camera sensor to see if it needs cleaning and I should get my solution out and clean all of the lenses. I've got a sensor scope kit with a lighted magnifying scope and some special swabs and solution for sensor cleaning. The kit comes with a little battery or USB operated mini vacuum that works great for cleaning the dust out of the little impossible to reach places. So far it has been a dusty season which makes cleaning on a regular basis very important.

I'm going to comment on some of the feedback I have been getting recently.

Email: "Is it really true that you haven't sold any pictures this season? I don't get it, your pictures are awesome."

Stan: Yes, it is true, I haven't sold anything. I had three requests for drivers cards that I deferred to another photographer because I don't have time to do the artwork. I had one inquiry about an 8x10 and another about a couple 4x6's and a 5x7. 8x10's cost me $3 each for processing and the going rate is $10 so I make $7 each so I might make $7 this weekend for my first sale. I say "might" because sometimes people ask me to have pics made up and never hear back from them so I don't count any sales in advance. The person that inquired about the 4x6's and 5x7 never replied back to me so they must have gone to somebody else. So the answer to your question is that I haven't made a cent this year but I might make $7. One photo is hardly worth the trouble of having to drive over and pick it up. At this time last season I was already getting multiple orders so I am not doing well at all. Matter of fact, every photographer I have talked to is doing well so far this spring so I don't know what has gone wrong. The publications have been contacting me and requesting more of my photos each week, they love my work and are keeping me very busy after the races.

I have a theory on my lack of sales. The other photographers that put their emphasis on selling take mostly single car standard shots whereas I do a lot of multi car stuff at a variety of non-standard angles specifically intended for the publications. That and the fact that I decided to forgo the post race celebrating and get online as soon as possible after the races to send to a rapidly growing distribution list. Whatever the reason for my lack of success at sales it is what it is so I had to make some adjustments. I convened an emergency MDTR chairman of the board meeting and made some budget cuts just like the big companies have had to do. I cut out the motel and all but possibly one of the camping weekends and will be coming home after all the events to save on expenses. Of course I will hang onto the old truck for another year and I shuffled things around to free up some more money out of my savings. I'm not complaining but just telling it like it is and saying that money appears to be tight for everyone compared to last year. Bottom line, the racers need to spend every last cent on their cars and I can understand what it's like to have to do that. No complaints here, we'll keep plugging away and do our best.

Here's a few samples from Saturday night.









Someone else asked this question:

Email: Why do you only do your interviews at ##### #### and how come you don't interview at some of the ####### tracks?

Answer: See above, it takes gas money to travel around to other tracks that are a further distance from home. Also, I don't have one of those ####### passes so I can't get into most of their tracks. The interviews take time and preparation during the week to do properly. I do my best to give back to the sport and make a contribution but I'm maxed out in both time and budget so I'm forced to stay close to home most of the time. Also, as I mentioned above, I can't afford motel rooms and even if I could the wife is attached to her laptop computer and has all her work on it so I can't take it with me to do my work in the motel after the races even if I could afford to travel. I'm giving 110% of what I have back to the sport but it's never enough for some people. If they don't like what I'm doing and think they can do a better job by all means go ahead. This kind of feedback is discouraging but I have to pick my chin up and let it roll off my back.

On the up side I have been getting some positive feedback from the interviews that I have done. That is encouraging and makes it worth while to take on this new task. I'm doing it to give the racers around our local area some exposure and not for my own personal interests. It's time consuming and nerve wracking to do the cold calls and approach people about this so it's a work in progress for me. I'll just keep going by the feedback and I do accept constructive criticism but I won't take a beating for things that I am not able to do.

I hope this helps to answer these two most asked questions.

Well, that's going to about do it for tonight.

Later!