08/26/2026
📸 PLEASE SUPPORT OUR RACE PHOTOGRAPHERS & VIDEOGRAPHERS! 🐴❤️
We wanted to share this because it’s something we feel is really important for our barrel racing community to understand.
When you see a photographer or videographer at one of our races, there is SO much more that goes into their work than just standing on the fence and taking pictures. There are cameras, lenses, memory cards, batteries, editing programs, insurance, gas, travel, hours spent at the race, and then HOURS of editing and uploading afterward.
So when you find that perfect picture or video of your run, please consider purchasing it from the photographer! 📸
We truly appreciate the photographers and videographers who take the time to come out to our races and capture these moments for our contestants. Those pictures and videos become memories that we get to keep forever, and they are a huge part of what makes these events so special. ❤️
We know everyone has a budget, and we’re not saying you have to buy every picture — but even purchasing your favorites, sharing their work, commenting, or giving them a follow helps more than you may realize.
Please support the people who support our races. 🫶🏼
Our photographers work hard to be there for YOU, so let’s make sure they know how much we appreciate them! 📸🐎❤️
A couple weekends ago I did two days of back-to-back filming at playdays + jackpots. During one of the events, someone joked to me that they just take videos on their phone now because of the "price gouging" photographers and videographers do at events like this.
I'm a glass half full person, and very big on taking things with a grain of salt. But it did get me thinking and I realize there's probably a misunderstanding about how much some creatives actually make doing this. So let me just break it down, and keep in mind, this is only me speaking for myself, not others.
My Sony a7III doesn't shoot the high frame rate 4K you'd ideally want for events like this, so for that weekend I rented a different body instead to provide the best quality I could. Three days came out to $210, so already in the hole before I filmed a single clip. That's on top of what it costs to run this business every month: $101 in subscriptions for insurance and editing programs, over $7,000 in camera and lens gear I already own, and another $1,600+ in extras like monitors, SD cards, batteries. Then there's the $45 in gas for the weekend.
Transparent math: I had 9 orders from the playday, 6 from the jackpot, and 4 from the sunday race. Grand total paid to me: $415. Take out the rental, the gas, and costs of doing business, and I'm left with $59.
Fifty-nine dollars, for 16 hours in the dirt, before adding in the hours of editing and responding to inquiries that come afterwards.
(Something I do find to be a little funny - my entry fee to actually compete in the barrel race that same weekend was $60 so basically the whole weekend paid for 18 seconds of chaos. Good news: I'm better at video than I am at riding a horse)
I'm not writing this to complain, because I love this work, and I asked to be part of these events! But I know I'm not the only creative who's done this math after a long weekend and felt a little deflated by it, especially when people make comments about your pricing.
I'm still new to barrel racer land, and I've been very very lucky to work with great people so far. My hope is that we see more support for the creatives doing this, even if that just means a share, a comment, a repost, whatever. You're (probably) not funding somebody's yacht when you support your local photographer or videographer. You're supporting someone who's going to reinvest that money right back into the things you love to do.
