The essential guide to influencer interactions

“What I really need is for someone to share my work –someone everyone knows. Then my business will really make some headway!” Hands up if you’ve had this very thought before – and the other hand up if you’ve dismissed the idea as being impossible to fulfil. Okay, now give us those wrists and let us give them a slap – because you’ve turned your back on chasing down amazing opportunities!

You’re right – working with prominent people does make a big difference for a small business. But if you think it’s impossible to connect with famous people, or if you think you’re too insignificant to matter, that’s where you’re totally and utterly wrong. As a wise man once said, we gonna break this thang down for just few seconds.*

First of all, let’s take a look at the different ways our potential subject might be worth working with. They might be a really famous rider, or they might be a normal person with an abnormal number of social media followers, or they could simply be a well-known industry professional (a trainer, a livery yard owner, or a vet) with an expansive client base. For the sake of simplicity, we’ll refer to them all as influencers, because they all, well, influence people.

Some of these influencers could lead you to new clients because those clients will see your work online. Others will create new leads for you through word-of-mouth. Either way, it’s well worth doing some research on your person of choice, and trying to get an idea of who their target audience is. Does it match up pretty well with your dream client? If so, it’s time to make a plan of action.

Your influencer might be a world-famous rider, festooned with medals and used to appearing on the cover of major magazines. And that’s fine! They might be amazing at what they do and totally in-demand, but they’re still human beings, and you can still pitch to them. There’s nothing to be worried about, and that’s because of the collaboration golden rule:

The worst that can happen is that they say no.

And if that happens, nothing has actually changed for you, has it? You haven’t lost a booking, or any money, or any potential clients – and a no now might not be a no next year. ‘No’ doesn’t mean you’re not any good – most of the time, it just means that there’s no room in their busy schedule. But you won’t know until you ask.

Before you slide into the DMs, though, do some brainstorming. If you had access to this person and free-rein to unleash your creativity, what would you love to set up? Maybe you’ve got a highly stylised concept shoot in mind, or maybe you want to capture some emotive black-and-white portraits. Whatever it is, take notes and start to create a mood board.

Why is your idea so important before you even pitch? Because having an idea with a foundation is exciting – and that excitement will be contagious. When you get in touch with your influencer, you don’t want to be a wet flannel in their inbox, making vague requests to work together – you want to be a confident, talented creative, pitching a solid idea that your subject will be able to visualise and get on board with.

Contacting your influencer isn’t tricky. Most people can be easily contacted through their social media pages, and many will provide details of their representatives on their websites or social pages. We like to start with a sweet and simple direct message (a DM slide if you’re down with the kids!!) introducing ourselves, explaining our idea, and linking to our work.

More of a hands-on person? That’s great! You can find horse people in their natural habitats – at the yard and at competitions. As long as you remember the number one rule of shows (don’t speak to riders until after they’ve competed!), this can be a really great way to make new connections. Just make sure you’ve got your card and a
portfolio to hand.

Whether your target is an industry professional or a social media celeb, they’ll be in need of high-quality images for their business. While we don’t advise offering your work up for free in the long-term, a gifted influencer shoot can be a worthwhile investment early on, which can lead to new clients and further work with that influencer.

That might seem counterintuitive – surely, if someone has already had a free shoot, they won’t be willing to pay for one in the future? This is where it pays to be a bit savvy: your gifted shoot should show off your talent and vision, as well as your subject’s personality, but it should essentially be a normal shoot. That is, it shouldn’t have commercial elements.

If, after your initial shoot, your influencer wants a batch of images showing them tacking up a horse with their saddlery sponsor on full show, or beautiful photos of them modelling some kit or feeding their horses, that’s fine – you can offer to book them in for a follow-up shoot, in which you aim to take a variety of shots for them to use throughout the season on social media. At this point, they’re committed to your style and your work.

If you’re worried about approaching a rider in the first instance, you can play the long game – that is, photograph them competing and tag them in the image on social media so that they start to become familiar with your work. The problem with this? You’ll be one of many doing the same thing – and a photo of a horse jumping a fence is miles removed from a gorgeous portrait.

Another option? Contact the editors of equestrian magazines and pitch your services to them – often, these magazines rely on freelancers, and if they see that you’re fairly local to a rider they want to work with, you could get the gig taking snaps for a magazine. Again, this won’t generally be the same as portrait photography – but it can be a great way to make new connections with both riders and publications.

Whichever way you approach it, there’s no doubt that working with an influencer is a great way to inject some life into your client base. Have you enjoyed a successful collaboration? 

*thanks, Andre 3000.
Let us know if you want an equestrian photoshoot sometime.

How’s this for a dream: your own sprawling studio, dotted with your own beautiful photographs, a wall of inspiration, and plenty of space to store frames, samples, an endless array of lenses, and a viewing space for your clients, too. Some of you might be lucky enough to have just that – but even if your office and studio space has to fit into your home, you can make the most of it.

Let’s be real – being a photographer is busy work. Balancing that work with all the real life stuff – you know, a family, a menagerie of animals, maybe a full-time job, too – means that staying organised is often the lowest factor on the priority list. But taking the time to un-muddle your workspace now can increase your productivity – we promise!

There’s a great Albert Einstein quote that says, “if a cluttered desk is the sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?” Good question, Al – we’re not sure we know. But if you, like us, would like to declutter your mind, leaving room for your ideas to blossom, then try out these great tips for optimising your space.

1. Use cord clips and plastic tubing to hide a tangle of cords.

Let’s face it- there’s no way to make a snaking mass of cables and cords look nice. So, don’t bother – instead, hide them away. Clip cables – from your computer, your desk lamp, and so on – together using cord clips, and then use a piece of tubing to keep them together and out of sight.

2. Install floating shelves to maximise space in a small office.

Floating shelves are a straightforward DIY project, and they’ll help you to make the most of otherwise unused space. Pop them in place above your desk to keep your books and binders – you are keeping your paperwork in binders, right? – accessible but out of the way.

3. Keep an eye out for old card-catalogue or filing cabinets.

They’re not always easy to find, but these handy pieces of furniture offer a multitude of small, easily-labelled drawers, perfect for keeping your marketing materials, filters, and small spare bits and pieces out of sight but at arm’s length. Check out Facebook marketplace for second-hand beauties for sale near you.

4. Install a wall-mounted drop-down table to create a desk that only takes up space when you need it to.

Perfect if you’re trying to fit a makeshift office into another room of your house, drop-down tables are pretty straightforward to install and super-functional if you just need somewhere to set up shop with your laptop. The bonus? You can’t let it get cluttered, because you’ll be putting it away at the end of your working day.

5. Cut down your samples.

It’s so tempting to keep full-sized mounts and frames in your studio to show your clients during a viewing, but these take up a tonne of space. Instead, pick some favourites to display your prints and hang them in a gallery wall, and then cut down the rest into corner segments that you can keep in a storage box or portfolio binder to show off.

6. Pick up a magazine rack.

And make it a classy one that fits your personal aesthetic, too. Magazine racks are an easy way to store mounted prints, which gives you fast access to them when you need to show them off to a client.

7. Curate an inspiration board.

Is your desk disappearing under a stash of magazines and books? Does the sheer number of open tabs on your web browser give you heart palpitations? Then pick yourself up a pinboard and spend an afternoon sifting through the images that inspire you. Pick the very best and pin them up, hanging the board itself by your desk. Easy to refer back to, but no longer in the way.

8. Decorate accordingly.

Okay, so this might not be so easy if your kitchen doubles as your office – but if you can segregate your space a bit, even into an alcove, then you can start to add touches of style and create a sense of the lifestyle your clients are buying into. Pick up some paint samples and see what complements your images – we like dusky, sultry blues, like Farrow and Ball’s Stiffkey Blue – and make sure your furniture and accessories fit the bill, too. It’ll all make an impression on your clients.

The important things to keep in mind while rejigging your studio space are ease of use, lack of clutter, and aesthetics. You need to know exactly where your price lists and welcome packs are, for example, and you don’t want to be shoving piles of paper out of the way to make space for a viewing.

Start by purging. What can go? What needs to stay? Then, if you can, segment your space into working zones – an editing space, with hard drives on hand, a viewing area and, if you do any studio photography, a space set up to accommodate this.  Get some great tunes going – it might seem like a big job, but it’ll be worth it when you want to work in your office space!

• Camera body: £1500
• Lens 1: £1000
• Lens 2: £750
• Spare battery: £50
• Battery grip: £75
• Memory cards: £75
• Computer: £1500
• Camera bag: £50

And so on, and so forth. Next, make a list of all the little necessities you’ve bought to get through shoots – polos, baby wipes, a leather headcollar, all those small expenses. You’ll be surprised at how quickly they add up.

Now, make sure you’ve got all your digital expenses accounted for. These can include Adobe memberships, website costs, marketing expenses, custom emails, CMS, online courses, Canva accounts, and anything else you may use online to further your business.

Finally, tot up the miscellaneous necessities: insurance, your photography education, the utility bills you pay for your studio space, and the cost of keeping your car on the road.

Once you see your own outgoings, you might be slightly horrified – and that’s okay. It’s doubly okay if it makes you rethink that £100 shoot fee you’re charging. Isn’t your time worth more than that? Isn’t your equipment worth more than that?

What many people don’t realise is that when they invest in a photoshoot, they’re not just paying for nice photos – they’re paying for years of experience, a considerable amount of training, and a huge investment, both financially and in time and sacrifice. They’re not buying into someone’s hobby, they’re buying into someone’s passion and drive. That has to come at a cost.

Stop undervaluing yourself. You wouldn’t try to haggle for a professional camera at well below market value, but that camera is only as good as the person using it – so why would you consider yourself less of an investment. With an idea of the initial and ongoing financial investment you’ve made, you can start making some clear decisions about exactly what your time is worth. Then, your business can really soar.