Episode 34: Shooting Millions of Photos with Olie Moss.
In today’s podcast episode, we talked with Olie Moss, the founder of Olie’s Images and Equine Photo School. Olie is a veteran equine event photographer, covering mainly roping competitions and barrel races. He’s shot events all over the West, including The Patriot and Wrangler Team Roping Championships. We’re so excited to share this conversation with you—listen close, he shares a huge announcement about his company during our talk. And don’t miss his educational blog post from our Event Photographer Series from earlier this month. Olie, welcome to the show!
What event have you been working most recently?
Olie: We recently finished Oklahoma’s Richest Breakaway and Calf Roping.
What made you decide to become an event photographer, and how did you get to where you are today?
O: I started with a camera that was a birthday gift from my parents. I was working in the coal industry as a landman—that’s what one of my three degrees is in. I was in Peabody, Wyoming, using my iPhone to scan documents. I saw other people using a DSLR for the same thing. It was killing my back to do it with an iPhone so I thought I’d save up for a DSLR. But my parents gifted me a Canon 70D with a kit lens. It came with a printer. Didn’t have much use for the printer, but I started using the camera. But my boss wanted me to keep using the iPhone because it could do other things, and the DSLR was old school.
But the next week, my parents had a big annual roping and barrel race to promote their newspaper. They had a photographer for the team roping, but no photographer for the barrel race, and they asked me to shoot it. I had my printer so I could print photos right there, they hooked me up with an assistant, and I decided to see how much money I could make as a photographer as a side gig.
I had been thinking about returning the camera because I had no way to justify the expense of it. But there was no way to return it because I’d been using it. So I hired an assistant to show the photos and do a little editing. We printed them, used the equipment i had—a laptop and a TV—printing there on site, and basically I’ve been doing a version of this basic system ever since.
The first day we didn’t sell anything, and that was a drag. But then I learned that that’s how a lot of events are. Some photographers quit after the first day because nobody is buying anything. They don’t show up for the next day. I said I was committed to the whole thing, so I stuck it out. That second day, I made more money than I had at my previous 40 hours at my regular job. So I was hooked. I figured if I could work two days and make more than I did at 5 days at a job, that was a pretty good deal.
You told us you’ve taken 2.6 million photos and posted them for sale. That is CRAZY! How do you think that volume of clicks has affected the photos you produce?
O: It’s had a huge affect. In the early days I would take three photos to get the right shot. But then pretty soon, you figure out the photography side and start working on the system. At 2.6 million photos, your timing is really good. And you have a lot of sales data, you know if you click those three shots, you figure out what people are actually buying. And you can sit in your booth and see which of those frames do people like to buy? When you’re outside in the sunlight and can click a bunch of shots, that’s great, you can get a bunch of data on what people like to buy. Then when you’re inside and shooting with strobes—even less expensive strobes that recycle more slowly—you can time the shots that sell the best and don’t worry about the rest.
2.6 million sounds like a lot, but it could be a lot more if I stuck with the spray-and-pray method. It could easily be 3 or 4 times that. The data really helps. Because you’re taking less pictures, people take less time in your booth, and it requires a smaller crew to manage everything. With more people going through your booth, you can make more money. That drives you to get better at your timing and take fewer photos that people don’t want to buy.
I always throw in a few experimental shots from different points or different angles in addition to the classics. It’s kind of like a scientific method.
Can you give us a peek into your camera bag? How long has it taken you to get to your perfect set up, and what is your go-to set up?
O: It depends on the event you’re shooting, the shot you’re going for, the size and shape of the arena. I shoot a lot of team roping, breakaway and barrel racing. For the last four years or so I’ve been shooting with a Canon 1D body, and a Canon 70-200 lens is really good for low number team ropings because they like a wider shot with the header, heeler and steer in the shot. Higher level team ropers like to have a photo of just them and their horse, so that’s where I’ll use the long end of the 120-300mm lens, sometimes even a 1.4x teleconverter on it, to make sure I have that reach on them. Which gives you 168-400mm, which is good for like this Lazy E arena that I am in. You need that reach, but you need to be able to zoom. With a 400mm, you’d get the far away shot but then you wouldn’t get the rest of the shots you need.
With the 70-200, people get used to that shot, not so much the longer glass. But when I shoot with the longer lens and a teleconverter at a barrel race, I can scoot back and be further away, and I’m safer. I’ve had way too many close calls, even set way back. i have zero trust in some of these horses. So if I’m going to sit in arena, I’m going sit way back, with a lens I can get close to the action.
What’s one of your favorite events to photograph, and why?
O: I like team roping the best. It’s because i can sit outside the arena, or in a cage so I’m “safe” all the time. I can get a lot of other things done. I do a lot of things while I shoot: I listen to podcasts, I listen to audiobooks, I take notes on what I’m listening to, I text communicate with my crew in the booth, I have to eat. You don’t get to leave that spot. And there’s a lot of time in between runs. At a team roping, even if there’s 120 teams, I can still do all those things in between a run and i can spread out. I have a nice setup with a C-stand to hold my camera. I can sit up in my chair and be comfortable. It’s just a better environment. I can focus on getting the shots Is need to sell. And there’s a lot more different entries and combinations of riders. And I grew up in the team roping industry, so I think that’s why I like it the best.
Can you share a cool experience you’ve had in this job?
O: I shoot with the Team Roping Journal a lot. We got to go to Trevor Brazile’s house and we did a photo shoot there with him and a couple of other pros. It was fun to do something different and meet some different people. It was fun to step back—shoot the same thing, but for a different purpose. That was really cool.
What are some challenges you’ve faced in this industry?
O: I don’t really see challenges as a negative—it’s best to have a positive mindset. The way I look at a challenge is, a lot of my peers and competition are going to run into the same challenges I’m going to run into, but they’ll let it hold them back. Rather then climb over the wall, they’ll sit there and bang their heads on the wall. So every time I can step over a challenge and overcome it, I’ve left some competition in the dust. So that motivates me to figure out how to get it done.
One of the challenges I’ve had recently was doing the Patriot earlier this year. I took on the role of doing all the arenas. I was the only photography company, so I had to hire five other photographers and 9 or 10 other booth crew. I had three different booths, so I had to basically triple the size of my company’s assets to handle it. We probably spent about $40,000 to meet that. We had a short turnaround to get all of that together in just three months, in addition to finding photographers on short notice. It was hard to find people to work with me for the event. It was a lot of moving parts and pieces. Originally I thought i was going to shoot the team roping and have everyone in other spots, but by the time we got to the team roping, I realized I was just going to need to manage everything and had to fly in another photographer at the last minute.
So now you can do some more big events?
O: Yeah, I could. But actually, I am about to announce, but I am going to retire on December 14, 2020. So I am going to be done with event photography. Olie’s Images is going to become Olie’s Images and Design. We’re going to transition to making cool stuff for people instead of just photos. I’ve been preparing for that transition.
And I’m going to do a lot with Equine Photo School. Making content. Making course. Making workshops all over the country—in person and online. Equine Photo School will be my main focus.
Instead of trying to hire somebody else to do what I do under my name—if I hadn’t named it after myself, maybe it would be different—I’d rather train 100 people to do what I do, and help a whole bunch of people be successful in their own businesses, instead of successful under my umbrella.
Tell us about Equine Photo School, and what made you decide to start this program?
O: In early 2019, my friends at Zenfolio told me I should start a blog to help drive traffic and SEO. But that got boring, always talking about going to another event. So I started answering questions about gear, lights and how I shoot. That led to more questions from people slowly dipping their toe in. What they really wanted to say was “I want to be a photographer just like you, how do I do that?” But they were hesitant to ask me that. I get it—professional photographers can be intimidating to approach to ask basic questions. So I thought, instead of having people being willing to risk their neck and reach out, I decided to make Equine Photo School a thing. Anyone can come in and ask questions. A lot of it is free. We started a podcast—launched January 2020. I started courses, which has been great during covid. All of that has just built and built.
At the same time, Olie’s Images has had its best year ever—so much that I have needed to hire people, and it’s been hard training people in my methods. It has evolved into something much bigger.
You’ve talked a lot about this in our recent blog post, but can you share some advice for someone thinking about breaking into equine event photography?
O: If you’re thinking about getting into this, I would start out with a local arena. Ask them about events coming up. Contact those producers, and ask if they have a photographer and if you can shoot the event. When I started out, I didn’t charge the producer. I did it for free. I asked for a booth space. And I would give them the photos they wanted, free advertising for me. And sold my photos. You really want to start at a smaller event, there’s less of a risk of failure. Maybe a tiny Wednesday-night or multi-day jackpot. You can figure out your camera settings and gear in a low-stakes situation.
You can pull up your camera metadata in Lightroom later, and you can see where your camera is lacking. You can naturally evolve into getting bigger and better.
You mentioned earlier that you spend a lot of time listening to books and podcasts. Can you share some?
O: I have a blog post with over 100 of the books on my book list. Some of my favorites include the 4-Hour Workweek, The One Thing. I read a lot of business books. You can do those in your ears really easily. Limitless is really good. Currently listening to NAME Free to Focus. He has a lot about scheduling your work and downtime. Scheduling your life. Going back to the new photographer, Pat Flynn has a book called Will it Fly. It’s all about figuring out if what you want to do is going to work, and if not, how to tweak it until it is going to be successful.
Podcasts, shameless plug for Equine Photo School. Social Media Marketing Examiner.
Is there anything else you’d like to share?
O: Thanks for giving me the opportunity and helping me spread the word about Equine Photo School.
How can listeners connect with you online?
Olie’s Images on Facebook
Olie’s Images on Instagram: @oliesimages
Equine Photo School on Facebook
Equine Photo School on Instagram: @equinephotoschool