Race Pics

[dreamfinder]

I did a half marathon over the weekend, and they actually included the event photos in the cost of your registration. Pretty cool idea. I'm sure it added like 5 bucks a person to the registration cost, but I was able to dl full sized copies of all my pictures for free. And they were decent photographers to, set up at multiple locations, yadda yadda yadda. Has anyone run into this at other races? I doubt that RunDisney would be able to work out such a deal with ASI, but it would be cool.

 

[joel_maxwell]

I did a half marathon over the weekend, and they actually included the event photos in the cost of your registration. Pretty cool idea. I'm sure it added like 5 bucks a person to the registration cost, but I was able to dl full sized copies of all my pictures for free. And they were decent photographers to, set up at multiple locations, yadda yadda yadda. Has anyone run into this at other races? I doubt that RunDisney would be able to work out such a deal with ASI, but it would be cool.

I agree. Cool idea. I wonder, or at least I would like a controlled case study, to see if in case a) you didnt give any of the runners any free pics and see how many were ordered on the website or b) you gave each runner a free 4x6 of all their pics and told them that if they wanted any printed bigger, there would be free shipping on sizes 5x7, 8x10 and 11x14.

I wonder if it would even out or how the numbers would skew either way. I might be inclined to order one if I saw them in person... but then again, I am the type that wont order those type event photos regardless, so I just contradicted myself. :veryconfu

 

[JillC LI]

I haven't seen anything like this but it would be worth an extra $5 to me.

 

[lukacseven]

I don't know why the prices are so expensive for race photos. Do a lot of people really spend that much on them? I've done races where you end up with 3-4 pictures and they charge you 60+ for a CD. Totally not worth it. FOr a race like Disney, I'd even be willing to pay $30 extra for all the picutres, but not $100. I guess lot of first time/only time runners buy them?

 

[dreamfinder]

I don't know why the prices are so expensive for race photos. Do a lot of people really spend that much on them? I've done races where you end up with 3-4 pictures and they charge you 60+ for a CD. Totally not worth it. For a race like Disney, I'd even be willing to pay $30 extra for all the picutres, but not $100. I guess lot of first time/only time runners buy them?

That is the catch 22. And one of the reasons why I think they experimented with the free pics. The race I did maxed out at 2k runners, so even if it was $5 per, thats 10k. I could see them having done it for 5-6k.
Some dedicated runners won't bother with buying a pic from each half marathon (or full for that matter). Do enough of them, it seems to get to a point where "I want to remember running by the castle, or across the Brooklyn Bridge, but I care less about running through downtown smallsville". And the people who are doing it for the first time, don't seem to have enough numbers to be able to make it affordable. Figure at the WDW there are what, 20-30 photographers? I think that ASI will guarantee them something like 200 bucks minimum for shooting a WDW event. (They took the example pay sheets offline) More if you are shooting on course, on the cherry picker, etc etc. But that would mean a minimum expenditure of at least 6k. Add in whatever costs they have to tag and host the photos. Maybe another 2k? (Thats most likely very high) So at least 8k to shoot the WDW marathon. At their $15 per photo cost, means they have to sell around 550 pics, or one to approx every 36 runners. Out of everyone on this board, how many have bought a pic from ASI? I bought one for my first marathon, but that was it out of 10 or so events. But at that $15 cost, they have most definitely priced them out of my budget. I agree, if they were down at the $5 or so, I might pick up a few more. But especially after dropping $150 or so to run the event, I can't justify another $15+shipping for something unless its a monumental occasion. But heck, if they convinced RunDisney to increase prices another $10 bucks to cover the free downloads for the runners, and even gave $2.50 of that increase directly to Disney, thats still going to net them a cool $150k at a 20,000 person race. That would get them the same result as if they sold 10,000 $15 5x7s. (Which I seriously doubt they do) Seems to me that they could change their business strategy and make a lot more money.

 

[Phonedave]

One of the problems with going the pre-paid route is what happens to people like me, who in a 5K or 10K is lucky if there is more than 1 picture of me.

In a 1/2 or full I may find 3 or 4 - tops.

It must be because I am a middle of the pack runner and also tend to run near the side of the roads (eliminating photographers on the other side)

Most of the pictures that are tagged as me in RunDISNEY events are either of me with someone else in front of me, or me waaayyy in the back ground, or with my legs cut off or some other poor choice.

The only picture I bought from ASI was my finishing the full marathon, and I didn't even like that one, it was just the only one available.

I think you would get a lot of people complaining about their 'included' pictures.

-dave