I am pretty excited about being invited back once again as one of the official photographers for Denver's National Western Stock Show (Casey McBride Photography has the honor of the Jumping, Draft & Mule Shows). This event has become pretty special to me. Years ago when I first moved to Colorado, I was sitting in the only seats left while attending the Freestyle, in the very top row. Friends invited me to attend and I took my 600mm lens with me "just in case." Freestyle Reining has always been one of my favorite events and I sat there thinking to myself that I wondered what it would be like to be the photographer for this amazing event, the thought never crossed my mind that I'd know a couple years later! Dreams do come true and because of things like these I always encourage people never to give up and to hold on to their dreams. Each day you work for them, you are one day closer.
Knowing that there are so many out there wanting to live their dreams it's really important to keep things in mind. Ethics is one of them. I attend many events often times just to practice. Practice makes perfect right! This year I attended the hunter/jumper show not only to practice but because I have some special art projects that I'm working on right now and I need images from different events. If I post those images they are simply to expand my portofolio to show that I can shoot those events as well. You will notice that the images aren't offered for sale or if I do, I also advise those looking at images that on another day, the official photographer photographed the event and direct you to view their images as well.
There are many people these days attending the more prestigious events using "media" credentials and/or practicing, sadly a few weeks later I notice competitors posting images that were purchased from these photographers not aware that there were official photographers or how that hurts those of us that were asked to shoot these events. Those photographers don't mention that they were not the official photographers for the show and technically shouldn't be selling those images. In my eyes, it's not any different than the "borrowing without permission." This causes those of us that do work so hard at these events to have to raise our prices which impacts our customers down the line. I understand the passion to learn more, but there really are ethical ways to do it. We spend a lot of time at these shows, late night hours, at rehearsals and more to know where we need to be, where our lighting should go and we are there long before others stroll on in.
This year I invited a couple friends of mine to shoot with me; we've known each other for years and we are always wanting to challenge our skills more and learn more. I enjoyed talking with and even assisting visitors/photographers to the shows when they would come up and ask questions about the lighting, the different events and more. And I've happily referred many to Casey for their show photos and others for images from the parade or other events held at National Western. Just a little something for some to keep in mind.