Get the Job Done: First Car Show Photo Booth of the Season!

I'm blogging to you live today from the Citywide Car Show in Broomfield where I and a colleague are hosting our first photo booth of the season. I am editing and printing today and our guest photographer is Jason Peckovitch of Illusive Dreams Photography. Our featured models are Tina and Brittany.

We are selling 5x7s for $10 ($15 with a model) and 8x10s for $15 ($20 with a model) .

The music is old school and jamming. The weather is gorgeous, hot with blue skies. Good luck to everyone in the show hoping to take home a coveted title and trophy.

Here's our first seller of the day shot with Tina:



And here are a few of my favorites from the day:









Jason did an excellent job yesterday. His shots were creative, amazingly light and clean making the editing process for me quick and easy. Tina and Brittany rocked it despite the heat of the day and I appreciated their willingness to hit the ground running, passing out cards and really working the crowd so we could get paid prints. Can't wait to work with you guys again! The show was a good practice run to work out all the kinks in running a photo booth. We got two more assignments for upcoming shows, and it looks like this summer will be busy.

On Location: Blogging Live from a Car Show Photo Booth

Photo by Jason Peckovitch, Editing by Sheba Wheeler

It's barely 11 a.m. and I'm already drenched with sweat. Photographer and colleague Jason Peckovitch of Illusive Dreams and I are on location at the 5150 Rise and Shine Car Show at Red and Jerry's shooting photos of models with cars, editing them and printing them on site for a minimal fee. A few weeks ago, a rainstorm and fierce winds buckled Jason's canopy, snapping the metal frame beyond use. So Jason ponied up the $200 we needed to buy a new extreme Sports Authority canopy that took four people to put together. But man was it worth the effort! The Quik Shade Summit S233 canopy is strong and sturdy with two let down thick frame walls for more shade. The aluminex-backed wall might work well for portraits too if we get anyone interested in those today.

Photo by Jason Peckovitch. Editing by Sheba Wheeler

But the main attraction will definitely be getting models to pose with vehicles in the show. We have numerous models for our clients to choose from thanks to Brody Hall and Kylea Killeen from Tempting Images who offered their own models for us to borrow in shoots today.

Here are some sample shots from previous car shows Jason and I have covered. A 5x7 costs $10 and an 8x10 is $15, plus $5 extra for a model.

Photo by Jason Peckovitch, Edited by Sheba Wheeler

Stop by and say hello! Bring water! :)

Get the Job Done: Sunday's car show most successful yet!

Photo by Jason Peckovitch

Sunday's "Hot August Nights" car show in Fort Collins was by far the most successful one yet for myself and partner Jason Peckovitch of Illusive Dreams photography. Our photo booth was one of the most popular at this inaugural event, and I certainly hope Jason and I can be apart of it for years to come.



Jason was able to secure three lovely ladies to be our models for the day. Their presence at the show was undeniable. They spent the first hour or so walking the show talking to car owners and asking them if they would like a photo of one of the models showcased near their vehicles. Having that one-to-one contact with the models got the ball rolling for us, but our exposure skyrocketed even more when the ladies participated in a bikini contest at the show. One of them even won a portion of the first place prize money! Plus, having printed and framed examples of shots Jason took at the last show available helped give people an idea of what to expect, as well as offered another potential revenue stream because several people wanted to make offers to purchase those framed images too.





Before long, we were overwhelmed with people coming up to the booth asking if they could get a shot with Steph, Mandy or Chastity. We had orders from 20 people with everyone spending on average $15 to $20. That's a heck of a lot more than the six orders we had at the last car show! I was editing right up until folks started taking their tents down. One of the keys to our success was Jason's ability to take extremely clean images from the get-go. That meant all I had to do was bump up the clarity and vibrance in Camera Raw, do some sharpening and quick curve adjustments, save and print. Plus, Jason always shot at least three different poses for each car and model combo, making it difficult for clients to just pick one image to print. It was far easier to say, "I'll just take one of each," which quickly boosted our sales.



If it weren't for one of the model's boyfriend's helping us take orders while I did the editing, we may not have made it! As a matter of fact, we may need to get assistance from another shooter too. Of course being at a car show makes it easier to find out about others that are happening around the metro area, so we are busy trying to fill up our schedules with more events to come. I was sitting and editing and staring at my laptop for so long that my eyes and my butt ached. But these photo booths are a ton of fun and I love being able to interact with our clients, shaking hands and handing out cards.

This Weekend: Booked a senior session, hosting another photo booth

ON SATURDAY:

Today, I booked my first senior portrait of the season! I met my client, Monique, last year when I took senior portraits for her friend Christine's daughter. Monique attended the session and hung out with Christine while I shot her daughter. Monique enjoyed the photo shoot and loved the photos so much that choose me to shoot her son's session. That's one of the best referrals you can ask for, and because of it, Christine's daughter will receive $25 worth of free prints!

I am extremely excited about this session because it will be the first one I've shot with a senior male and a prop. Jordan, 17, plays the violin and he wants several shots with his instrument in them. Jordan said he wanted his photos to be edgy, urban and abstract. We decided to start shooting along the 16th Street Mall in Denver, and specifically near a sculptural garden that captured Jordan's eye.

Here are some examples of the kind of poses he's looking for:





ON SUNDAY

On Sunday, Jason Peckovitch and I will set up our photo booth and sell prints at the first annual "Hot August Nights Car Show" in Fort Collins. We met the client who hired us to shoot this event at our last car show coverage where we discovered that beautiful models and fast cars meant lots of print sales. If these events keep being profitable for us, I think Jason and I should start coordinating our schedules so we can be prepared to have booths available at various events throughout the car show season next year!

Get the Job Done: Car show photo booth profitable!

Photo by Jason Peckovitch


I think Picture Your World Photography may have unearthed a business goldmine! I had no idea that holding a photo booth at a car show would be so profitable, but photographer Jason Peckovitch were even more successful at the Red and Jerry's car show last weekend than we did at the fair at Walmart the weekend before.

Maybe since it was our second time hosting the photo booth, Jason and I were just more experienced and better prepared. But we actually didn't take a portrait of anyone in our makeshift studio under a 10x10 tent. All the equipment we rented, including backgrounds and stands went unused, to my initial surprise.

Everyone at the car show was more interested in having their treasured and well-loved vehicles photographed with a bikini-clad model. Jason and I quickly adapted our plan of business, adding $5 extra to our prints to have a model pose with the vehicles. Jason worked the show, shooting and brought his CF cards over to me so I could upload images, edit them in Photo Shop and print them. We sold so many prints and I was so busy editing shots that Jason took that my fingers hurt by the end of the day. And the best thing about it for me: the job was done when we left...ie, no more post-processing to do and the clients took their items with them immediately.

If you ever do something like this, make sure to hit up Model Mayhem or something similar to have some models at your booth. Just having them stationed near our table caused a flurry of interest, making folks come over to see what we were up too. And it goes to show you how important it is to know your audience and understand what those clients might be interested in spending their hard earned money on.