We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Erin Fay a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Erin, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard.
Well… within the industry of local photographers I’ve found everything is pretty much done the same way.. packages are pre purchased for each event and the photographers then shoot looking for the consumers who paid for “slots” to get some guaranteed photos….. Now this leaves a whole track of riders that don’t get guaranteed images…. I myself do not accept prepaid packages or slots, when I shoot I do my very best to get at least a couple images of every rider and I then post them to my website where the riders are usually more than happy to comb through the day to find their photos…. Another reason for not accepting prepaid is that I do have an extensive health history, if I was to accept a prepaid package and not be able to deliver because my health decided to flare, I would have to return that money, if I shoot for the whole track when I’m able, no one gets disappointed if I am unable to fulfill the promise of guaranteed photos!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I started my photography business by accident,… my children both participate in Motorcross and Flat Track motorcycle racing… a few years ago. I had to have some surgery and I was unable to work….. in fact, that was the last time I was able to “work” so I was at the track which my kids were practicing and I was taking pictures of them jumping over these crazy high hills when one of the parents came up to me and asked me if I would also photograph their child, I jokingly said for 20 bucks, and they happily paid me… it became a thing after that, people would text me to see if I was going to be at a track, people were texting me to invite me to be at tracks, and after the weekend they would text me to see if I had photographed at tracks, so my little hobby became my livelihood…. And the absolute coolest thing about it is it put me directly in the path of my children! I get to make money watching my kids do something that they love and I can’t think of a better job than that!
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
So about 10 years before I started actually shooting I was gifted a digital camera that I ultimately put away and forgot about…. This happened to be the same digital camera that I dug out when I was unable to work, I needed a hobby, so I didn’t go crazy and this happened to be some thing I had that I always wanted to put some time into….. when the people at the track started paying me to take pictures of their children, I decided I would save all of that money to buy myself an updated piece of equipment and that’s exactly what I did….. my old dinosaur of a camera paid for my semi professional unit that I currently shoot with….. I made myself the same plan for the next season. The money that I earned that didn’t go into my children would be saved for a decent computer and again that’s exactly what I did and continue to do….. all of my photography equipment has been paid for by my photography, it was a very slow process to accumulate enough quality pieces of hardware, something I am still working on but over the last few years I have been able to purchase some nice pieces that have been major assets to my collection!
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
I think I had an advantage building a reputation within the niche that I work in because before I started taking pictures of Motocross my children were already at the track riding every week… I was not a new face putting a camera in somebody’s business, I know the Track rules, and etiquette of being around an active riding zone, and I’ve always made a point of saying hi to everyone because they’re usually as happy as we are to be there! The people we have been spending our summers with, are the people that buy my pictures from my Market was half set up when I started and the community of people around us, strongly supported and encouraged what I was doing! My biggest hurdle was turning out the best work that I could possibly turn out for the people that we call our track family!
Contact Info:
- Website: Madcap.shootproof.com
- Instagram: Madcap.imaging
- Facebook: Madcap Imaging
- Youtube: Madcap Imaging
Image Credits
First photo of me shooting is by Shutterworks Photography All other images are by Madcap Imaging