DaSilva Racing Track day today!

Good Morning Everyone!  It's official RACE season has started! Darwin Kent will be off to Cayuga today to capture DaSilva Racing track day!

DaSilva is well known in drag racing and their friends and customers from their Mustang Toystore will be out today running their cars at the drag strip.  If you are out there stop by and say 

Hi to Darwin!

Watch thePhotoGuys.ca for the pics from this event!!

Karen Hope - Fridays Female in Racing

Karen Hope

This Vision of loveliness is Karen Hope, she is 35 and married to Randy Hope with 2 beautiful daughters. They all share there love of competition.  Karen will pretty much race anything I think.  

She daily drives her 04 Subaru WRX  which is fast as heck but when she race she ditches the cage and races her bikes  her 2001 Kawasaki ZX-12R  and 2006 Kawasaki ZX-14. Karen is involved in and races the CANCUP series.

Her race Highlights are -9.99 champ, beating all the 14s (Mike Lalande Dan Kline, Dan Storms, Randy Hope) at the breakout nationals, winning the dash for cash R&L street class and the day she earned the nickname Bam Bam!  She is living her Dream!

She has a few sponsors she wanted to thank,  A Better plumbing Company,
A.P.E, Sonic cycle,ThePhotoguys.ca, Nerd Pickle and Lil Hope Racing.

 Karen racing Randy for the win!

 I would love to have put a pic of Karen not in gear up but she is very shy and hates me to take her picture.  This is one fast lady who loves to Race the big boys and show them Woman rock the Race world! 

We are excited to be part of another Race shirt!

Pete Baxted and his Frankenstein

This Designer shirt was made for Canadian Promod racer Pete Baxted and his Frankenstein ("71 Cuda).  

The shirt was designed by Tyler Clark of Wicked Grafixx, if you are looking to order one of these shirts contact Pete Braun,  they will not last long get yours now!!  We are so excited to be part of another race shirt.  If you are needing pictures for your new shirt design please feel free to contact ThePhotoGuys.ca about pictures. We will even come out and do a full photoshoot of your baby, If you are wanting something different for your shirts, or are you looking for HERO card we can also help you out with that! Lets get you ready for 2015 race season.  See you trackside!!

Fridays Females of Racing - Nikki Annison

Nikki Annison

Hello all this is Nikki Annison, She is a fierce competitor and fun to know and race.  She was just married last summer to her Co-pilot Paul Annison.  She is mother of 3 wonderful children not all have taken on her love of the races but I believe there is one that loves the scene and that his mother races!

Nikki is 36 years old and lives in Windsor, ON

She races a killer 1996 Chevy S10 with a 383 SBC. I am a Ford girl myself but I would drive this baby! This is her  second year racing PRO in the messenger freight super series at St Thomas raceway. She has always had a love for fast cars and a need for speed. In the summer of 2012 was her first time down the track, they had an all girls trophy class that weekend, she decided why not lets give it a try!  Not knowing what to expect she lined up for her first light, the lights dropped and she did not do very good with a .716 light... Next time up it was better and every round after that just kept getting better lights. Nikki ended up winning that day against an experienced driver with a .024 light. From that day on she was hooked and look forward to many more years of racing ahead. 

Nikki would love to have a pro mod one day!!

Nikki also stated she always loves putting John Green on the trailer!! lol

We look forward to seeing what your new motor will do for you this year Nikki!

Thoughts on Mini Sessions

 It's time Photographers Start to value their Photography, if you want to do it for a living stop treating it like a hobby.

I am not trying make anyone mad with my opinions, but the price war has to stop .To each their own.  In the end, I’m simply trying to educate photographers so that together we can build the industry instead of killing it if we don't value what we do customers sure won't.
 
When everyone is scrambling to get their family photos taken like Spring,Easter,Christmas,Valentines Day why do we all feel the need to discount our services and offer mini session specials during the busiest times of the year?

Really.  It’s like gas stations charging less for gas over Labor Day weekend.  Or stores charging less for Chocolate before Easter  It always baffles me and so I thought I’d take some time to address the issue of mini sessions, how they can damage your business + brand.

Today I witnessed a gentlemen use the BS line that he wants to give back to his community so he is offering free 15 min mini sessions (sorry about being blunt but I call BS) I've seen it time and time again he is trying to get his name out and thinks he will find gold at the end of the rainbow, but the truth of the matter he is only hurting himself and others doing this.

I'm not saying mini sessions are all bad for example a quick mini session at a local fundraiser take a  quick picture and print free is giving back to the community with all proceeds going to the cause is great..

Let me break it down for you. If you're a professional photographer you know as well as I do you can't do a proper photo shoot in 15 min.

1.  Meeting the Mini session clients and introducing yourself (properly) 5 min.
2. getting the kids or family settled and placed for the first pose 5 min.
3. doing at least 3 poses another 5-10 min unless you don't care about closed eyes and your just going to hold the trigger down and hope for the best.
4. getting the clients information as in Email and documenting the file numbers so you remember the clients 5 min.
5. downloading the images of the camera and burning them to a DVD or CD 10 min that's without editing and if your offering professional Photos should they not be re touched? 

              So the best possible time is 30 min and in my opinion your offering less then a client deserves when you claim to be a professional photographer (Give them a professional Job if you claim to be a professional).

 If you want  to be known as a high-end professional photographer, the bottom line is that you're attracting the wrong type of clients with a mini session  like this.  you're  attracting bargain hunters that will not convert into regular clients.  Your mini sessions have to align with your business + brand or else they will kill your business.  At the end of the day, in this example, you spent all that time + effort on mini sessions to walk away with roughly $20 per client after expenses   And they aren’t going to come back and spend hundreds on products in the future.  Or become a cheerleader for your business.  In the end, is this worth it?  I think not.

I guess what I'm saying is if you offer mini sessions all the time when are you going to make real money customers are just going to wait for the 20 buck mini session and you will never be able to survive off of 20 dollar mini's, Add Value to your photography offer something nobody else is offering so your customers keep coming back.

Gopher Dunes, Tilsonburg, ON

Click the pic for more event photo's

Gopher Dunes

This past Sunday Darwin and myself went out to check the action out at Gopher Dunes in Tilsonburg, ON.  We met the Owners Barb & Frank Schuster, super nice people and they take no monkey business out there! They run a very safe park.  Way to keep your riders and spectators safe!  This park was an awesome site, families every where fathers, daughters, mothers and sons all racing together! The little people were absolutely adorable! I am so excited we have been invited out to shoot MUDFEST in a few weeks, this is a event you will want to come out and check out!  If this is maybe something you are interested in They also have a huge showroom out there that you can get you gear! They not only have a large track but they also have a smaller one for beginners.  Everyone was so nice out there come on out to Gopher Dunes talk to people check it all out!

See you mudside!

Cheers Mike

See you at the DUNES!

Wow! What a sensational day out! Welcome spring finally! Darwin & I are off to shoot at Gopher Dunes today! We are so excited to be going out to play in the dirt, with the great people at Gopher Dunes! Thephotoguys.ca will be out capturing all those killer moves!  See you trackside!

The Photoguys Team up with RPM Magazine

 Attention in the Pits

The Photoguys.ca are revved.

We’ll be shooting the War of the North Event for RPM Magazine and we couldn’t be happier if you havent see the magazine yet it's a must Chris and his team does an amazing job check them out at rpm-mag.com and Support the guys that have passion for racing like you do.

Expanding Into commercial photography has been one of our goals for 2015 and working with Magazine as great as RPM we couldn't be more excited.

The Photoguys.ca have supported Matthew Tamburro and the SSTS since its inception and we  look forward to supporting this event as Matthew and RPM Magazine kick it up 2 notches.

This event takes place on July 3-5 at the House of Hook St Thomas Raceway Park.
Featuring the Sparta Small Tire Shootout, Challenge  the Real Street Outlaw, the St. Thomas Nitrous Nationals and more this is an event not to be missed.

ThePhotoguys.ca, capturing the split second action that you’ve come to expect.

See Ya Track Side

Females in Racing Friday!

Denise Atherton

Welcome to week one of Fridays Females In Racing!  This sexy car and Lady Is Back In Black and Denise! Here is Denises story!

 

I am by no means out there to “put the men on their trailers”. Not really into the whole girl power thing when it comes to racing…. lol….I am just out there to have some fun with these guys and gals. I absolutely and totally respect all these guys and gals alike that are out there racing….I have learned so much from so many of them.

If it wasn’t for my man (Paul), who made all this happen for me, I would not be doing this at all. He has taught me everything I know about cars and racing. He is the one who kept pushing me to do this….even when I thought I could not. (I was absolutely terrified at first lol) Of course now he will tell you he created a monster…. Hopelessly Addicted I am!

Anyway with that being said….About me:

Name: Denise Atherton

Age: 47

Hometown: Windsor

Car info: 1972 Plymouth Scamp

Engine: V8 -  Small Block 360 (approx. 400hp)

Race Series: None at this time…..just out to have fun….I bracket at a few special invents (Mopar Weekend, Windsor Weekend, Turkey Nats) Maybe later in life when I have more time and $$$ I will get into a series. Right now just content with practicing :)

Highlights of my race car: My car runs awesome. Runs clean and straight pretty much all the time… My motor was built by Leitch Performance….This is going to be the third season on this motor with no issues.  (As always thanks to Gary Leitch).

The Name on my Car: Back In Black, most people don’t know, it actually has a double meaning., obviously Paul and I are huge AC DC fans but also 12 years ago I had  a 71 Dodge Dart that I drove on the street and drag raced….  it was bright yellow (see last pic attached). Back then my daughter was young and after a couple of seasons with the car I decided at that point I needed to be a mom / wife more than I need to be a racer. I sold my car and put a roof on our house and took my daughter to Disneyland. (tough move for me, but the right thing to do for sure – no regrets) Anyway so here I am it was almost exactly 10 years to the day “I am back, with almost the same identical car……in black! J

My Dream Drag Car: Of course is Back in Black….. this is a dream come true for me so this car is my dream car!

Sponsors:  since I only do this for fun….I don’t really have sponsors per say…..Of course always thankful to Leitch Performance for building me this awesome motor….the rest of the stickers on my car are good friends of ours who have helped us in one way or another…..I just fly their colors for free…..(so if photoguys have a sticker feel free to bring one to me…..you guys do awesome picture work and I would put one on my car for ya!)

Thank you Denise! What an amazing story, and a very sexy car! I would love to drop you by a Photoguys.ca Sticker and be proud to be on your amazing machine!

Cheers Veronica