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| The Christmas shopping rush begins... |
The Annual Christmas Discount Sale ! All prices held at 2011 prices until year end...
A bit about Christmas Discount prices, some stuff about the busy year, and Christmas order deadline dates. And some happy pictures (as usual).
Christmas Discount
Everyone knows that photographs get more valuable as time goes by, which is why we don't offer any crazy discounts on your pictures as they get older, and because we're nice we don't put the prices up either (but that's a thought!) - also you're not cheap and the images always get better value over time.
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| There was Snow last year just before Christmas |
We work hard to keep our prices realistic and good honest value all through the year and now is no different - so get to the gallery to get hold of your precious memories today whilst they are still there (there's a big list of races still live at the bottom of this blog).
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| Fun at the Bexhill 5k this year. |
From personal experience I know photos get more valuable because the ones I have of my parents and family I cherish more every day. Once they are gone, they are gone. In a recent survey the family photo album was top of the list of things people would grab in a house fire on the way out, although I'm not sure how that works with digital computing and the advent of "the cloud". Anyhow - just ask any ex-runner if they regret not having a photo from a particular race and I'll bet you'll get a long breakdown of their best performance in a race ever - a thousand words that cold have been said with one picture !
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| We make you look cool. It's our job. |
I've never heard anyone yet complain that they have too many photos of themselves playing sport especially once they have stopped playing the sport - they are a guaranteed risk free purchase as presents for friends and club mates!
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| You can even buy a picture for your Mum if you like James... |
Some might complain that they don't look "model perfect" in a particular race photo, however I can attest to this now - nobody looks perfect in a race - you're not supposed to. Actually the better and harder and more effort a runner puts into a race, the less model perfect they look, and the more human and real it becomes, and hence a better memory.
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| The legend that is Jacko. He retired from Sussex, but came back because it was too boring up north. Definitely not an Ex-runner. |
The bad news is we all become ex-runners at some point, I broke my foot for example, and I'll never do a PB again after that (18mins for 5k allegedly), for others, it's the knees, or for some, it's the family - and then how do you prove that you were once a runner to your youngest and dearest when they ask for proof ? Get that photo now before it's too late. Frame it and put it up in the small room with your other certificates where they will one day see it and doubt it really is you with hair.
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| The 10 legged Tempest 10 - time for a team Tshirt |
Still not too late
The good news is it's still not to late to get some of the pictures we hold from 2011, and so below at the bottom is a list of events and race photos that are still currently available on the gallery.
Whilst the economy continues to trudge along the blunt edge of a EU butter knife trying to cut a garlic filled sauerkraut, and with 2012 not looking much brighter so far unless you're an administrator in Brussels, you can guarantee yourself a small ray of sunshine by looking at your 2011 race photos, getting the best one for yourself and perhaps your best friend from *that race* and make sure you keep it safe for when you need it.
There is a full list of races below at the bottom of this blog that are currently still on line on the gallery. Go and have a look now and get your best friend a picture as a secret Santa for the office party.
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| Christmas post and snow = give it plenty of time |
Christmas Last Order deadlines: UK Mainland Only
- Digital downloads - instant delivery - no deadline, even Christmas day at 9pm - they're yours.
- Medium and High resolution files by email - Wednesday the 21st December
- Prints by post - Thursday 15th December
- Mugs and Mouse mats - Monday 12th of December
- All Images@event collections
- By Server Download - Tuesday the 20th December
- By Post on a CD - Saturday the 17th December
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| There is no greater happiness than self fulfilment |
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| The joy of ordering your images on time for Christmas feels a bit like this |
The hard data for 2012
Some people seem to think that photography is a magical process that doesn't take much time and effort, fuel or involve anything like server hosting costs (strangely this frequently seems to be freelance writers on paid jobs asking for free images for their magazine article. Words are cheap, but not free apparently), but having been a spreadsheet guru in my previous line of work (still available for consultant work...), I thought I'd share what we get up to using some of the numbers. With over 15 professional photographers now on our team it takes a fair bit to make sure they all get their commissions correctly at the end of the month. With over 23 new events this year it's been quite busy with my last free Sunday not attending an event having being Easter Sunday back in April. I will be seeing my daughter this Christmas.
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| It's teamwork wot gets your images on line innit. |
This year (up to the end of November for 2011) we saw over 75,251 performances, across 135 events putting over 970,846 images for sale on line. That's 19% more people at 12% more events than last year with 50% more images making it onto the gallery than last year. That worked out at 26% more images per runner at an average of 12.9 each, of which on average there were 614 runners per race.
Still with it ?
Additionally in 2011, we covered 24 events where over 120,845 images were put on line for free download (worth £5.45 each !) with over 6368 runners getting almost 19 images free each - good value for the event organisers and the competitors, with free download rates in the ~80% range for most events.
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| Caged like Monkeys in the office we work long into the night (2am mostly) to get images online for your delight the next day. |
And now there is over 7600 of you on the blog subscribers list (it would be many more but they didn't click on the email anti-spam sign-up confirmation when they got it), I have to watch what I say here. Allegedly.
It's not all free !
Work wise we have put in over 941 hours attending events, and more than 1600 hours in the office to bring you the images, that's up a total of 29% on last year - and I'm not including travel time, preparation time or other general office admin, marketing and blog writing in that total time - it's just time spent getting and putting images on line for you !
Also we now have a team of three image hardened individuals who work on Sundays and Mondays going through all the pictures we take to make sure only the finest quality images get shown to you - none of your out of focus blurry stuff on a small preview that you can't really tell anything with, but I won't mention those other companies...
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| Hurry now to get those photos from this years races so you have something to show your friends at Christmas when they ask what on earth you've been doing and why haven't you seen them all year. |
Next Weekend is mostly -
Saturday - The Brutal 10 - race 3 -
http://www.brutalrun.co.uk/ simple but brilliant off road racing
Sunday - Mince Pie 10 at Seaford http://www.seafordstriders.org.uk/mincepie.html you win a mincepie and a sense of self worth.
So until next time,
Anthony
The current gallery list, in reverse order - the July events will be leaving us very soon.
