How can photography help your ski resort make money? It is surprising how many ski resorts forget that simple point. If you don’t have any pictures on file, you have lost money. If you don’t have good pictures on file, you have lost money. If you don’t have color and black and white on file, you have lost money. If you do not have them filed correctly, you have lost money. If you do not use what you have on file, you have lost money. If you don’t have a variety of pictures you have lost money. If you don’t know what to do with the photographs, you have lost money.
This series of articles will attempt to show you how to make money with photographs. There are many ways to use photographs: as publicity photographs to mail out; as pick-up photographs for various media, which are available on request; as a news release to the local papers; as a wire release; as background material for a feature article some writer may produce; as stock material for covers of all sorts of magazines; as a poster; as display transparencies to be used at ski shows by ski manufacturers, in the local airport or at the bank; as large color enlargements to use as decoration in your lodge or in condominiums; as prints sold to ski-weekers; as material for postcards and brochures, and not necessarily your own; as the raw material for an audio-visual presentation or for advertising illustration. The list is endless and some of the material will make you money through promotion and advertising while other of the material can give you a direct return, such as color enlargements or ski week photographs sold to customers who use your resort.
There are several points to consider before setting up a photographic file. The first one is “What do I want in the file?” and “Do I need color or black and white, or should I have both,” and “How do I file them?” These questions should be answered before the photographs are produced.
A medium sized or large resort will have need for a black and white and color file as many of the photographs could be requested for use as illustration for magazine articles, for covers, as posters and for your own brochures. Some smaller areas will have a primary need for black and white photography which would be used primarily in the local newspapers.
Black and white prints can be made from color transparencies and you might ask, “Why not only shoot in color and then convert?” The reason is that conversion takes time and money and the quality, particularly of conversions of pictures taken on snow, is often too contrasty to run in magazines and newspapers. It is better to have a separate black and white file.
What goes in it? Head shots of key personnel. Pictures of the ski school, of the interior and exterior of the lodge and of the mountain, far shots that are aerial or taken in such a fashion that the entire area is recognized. Also needed are pictures of the lifts. These are your meat and potato shots, and are mandatory to have in your file and there should be prints always available to send out immediately or to give to a visiting journalist.
Feature shots should be in your files also, to illustrate articles that you or journalists may generate: children skiing and being instructed, pretty young guys and gals, instruction skiing and sunning scenes, a family group out skiing or being instructed, older people on the slopes. Pictures that show how easy it is to learn with short skis should also be in the files. Apres ski shots should be included—having a drink, dancing, a party, a picnic, dining. There should also be some racing shots, some of the ski patrol, and a number of pretty shots that show the terrain, skiers and the view.
If those are in your file, you will cover just about every request you may need. Now, they need to be filed, and if the filing system is no good, the money expended will be no good. Every black and white roll of film should be contacted (an 8×10 print is made showing each frame that is exposed). On back of the sheet is taped a glassine envelope containing the negatives. On the envelope is written the date, subject matter and number of the roll. The contact sheet is read by using an optic loop. Each frame on the print is scrutinized and those that look good are circled with an orange grease pencil, and then printed. The contact is filed with the negatives by the number and/or the date and subject. Sometimes one roll might have various subjects on it and cannot be filed by the subject. Then the date and roll number are adequate (I used to number the rolls from 1 on up with date and subject matter, and have a separate file for each month of the ski season, then the next year start all over with a new file.)
I prefer filing in 8×10 hung file folders using a standard office metal file cabinet. The negatives are filed in front and the prints are filed by subject matter (buildings, personnel, instruction, ski lifts, aerials, children, boy/girl, racing, ski action, apres ski, etc).
Color can be handled the same way. All color should be in transparency form, as they are preferred by magazine editors, advertising agencies and is needed for any audio visual use. I file the color in the same fashion, only I use 8×10 clear plastic sheets that have 20 slots in them. The selected slides are put into the slots and remain there until used. The sheet is then filed the same way as the black and white prints. The slides are not taken out unless requested by some reporter or magazine. With this system you never are fumbling through boxes and you can read 20 slides at a glance. Besides, prints are not ruined by fingerprints.
These plastic sheets are also available for other size transparencies and cost about 25 cents apiece when bought in quantities of 100 or more. One supplier is 20th Century Plastics, 3628 Crenshaw Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90016 or PO Box 15715, Philadelphia, Pa 19103.
Black and white negatives from a roll of 36 exposures are cut are cut into strips of 6 frames and then filed in one envelope made to hold that size. They are available from most camera stores and are very inexpensive.
Once you have answered the question, “What am I going to have in my files?” the next question is, “Who is going to take the pictures?”
Some areas have photographers on their staff. Just about every young skier,it seems and non-skier too, wants to be a photographer because, they think, it is glamourous, easy, creative, fun, and a lazy way to make a buck (boy are they wrong!) However, many are graduating from college with courses in photography and they do know something about taking pictures.
You should have a photographer on tap to take pictures. You could hire some young photographer for the minimum wage, or you can utilize someone on your staff. Years ago I produced photographs for Fred Pabst while I was on salary as a ski patrolman. I liked it because I learned to take pictures while Fred paid the cost of having them printed (I provided my own camera).
If there isn’t someone on your staff who can double up in photography, find someone with a knowledge of photography and trade them a season’s pass for so much photography. If they are to produce the prints in their darkroom, you should pay for the cost, as you should for all film, developing and prints. What you are buying is their time shooting pictures. Don’t be too chintzy with them.
Many times, these people can take a technically good picture, but don’t take a publishable picture because of poor composition, bad lighting or poses. Sometimes it is the reverse. Before hiring or making an arrangement, look at a portfolio to see if the pictures look as good as you see in newspapers, magazines, or ski brochures. Don’t fool with them if the final product—the print or the transparency—is no good. They can have $10,000 worth of equipment and still turn out junk.
A good photographer, one who is professional, knows skiing, and has a reputation, can be expensive. Usually they charge no less than $200 a day (in my case I charge ski areas $350 a day). They can be worth it if you have use for top notch color to be used in advertising programs, brochures, or as posters. Hire them if you have the budget, but make arrangements to have them on call when the weather looks good for a few days (it is practically useless to shoot color outside on a grey day). Also make a schedule for them of what to shoot hour by hour. Have models available. Tell him what he will be shooting so that he will come equipped with the necessary equipment (lights and even backgrounds may be needed). For heaven’s sake hire someone who knows skiing and knows how to ski. You can transport a non-skiing photographer in a snowmobile or other conveyance but they can’t really catch the spirit of skiing or find the right location on the mountain for the right picture by scouting all the trails.
Before you hire one of the hot shots, ask to see his portfolio and make sure you work out the arrangement of expenses. It would behoove both you and the photographer to sign a contract.
A shooting by a professional can last for several years before it has to be updated and is well worth it if you want an image that shows class and excitement. A professional in the ski field is not only knowledgeable about equipment, he knows what will make a good picture, what could be a cover for a magazine, how to shoot horizontals and verticals of the same subject so they can be correctly used in layout. These professionals, though, should not be asked to do your daily, run-of-the-mill shots. Have your local photographer, or the one you traded a lift ticket with, do that.
Remember that no photographer is any good unless you tell him what pictures you need taken, what mood you are trying to convey, and what the pictures are going to be used for. Once you decide that in your own mind, and set up a filing system, and find a photographer, you are on your way.
Peter Miller is a professional photographer and a contributing editor of Ski Magazine. He is also part owner of Imagemakers, a professional color laboratory located in Stowe, Vermont. This is the first of a series of articles he is writing for SAM.
