20 : Andrew & Stacy Ryback – Hunter/Jumper show photography & portraits – PODCAST

One big family It is interesting interviewing show photographers and finding that one thing they love about what they do is getting to know the riders as friends over time. Andrew and Stacy do this to the nth degree and hire people who will continue with their sales philosophy and the feeling of family in their business. It sounds like they have a blast shooting and selling their photography at these shows. I would love to spend the day with them and just watch how the customer experience works. The camera came first for Andrew Andrew grew up around professional and avid amateur photographers so for him photography came first before the horse. He was very active with photography through college but lost interest for a while as he learned his new career after college.  For several years he worked at Disney World, a perfect place to learn about customer experience and customer satisfaction. For Stacy the horse came first as long as she can remember Stacy grew up with horses and in competition and still competes with her own horse. She knows the joy of owning her horse and the excitement of hunter/jumper competition first hand. She participates in upper level competition in the sport and has connections both as a participant for many years and now as a part of Andrew Ryback Photography. For Andrew, dating a young lady with a horse (Stacy, that is) led to photographing her in her hunter/jumper activities. As her boyfriend and then as her husband Andrew followed her to her shows and brought his digital camera to fill the time and photograph her events. Continuing to photograph his wife and sometimes other friends at the shows Andrew was invited to take some pictures by show managers. He did two shows for two years before things started to grow quite quickly. He started as a weekend part-time business in show photography, but it soon became apparent that he could go full-time with this. Both Andrew and Stacy find this entrepreneurial adventure to be fun as a couple. Now he is full-time photography and is doing about 50-60 shows each year. Understanding customer experience and customer service Stacy’s family background included some entrepreneurs so she understands customer experience and she does a lot at the sales end of the business. She maintains her corporate job and helps out with management of the business and the employees as well as running the sales office at the shows when she can. Her vacation time is spent either participating in hunter/jumper competition and/or making the sales end of the business run smooth as silk. Join me now in my interview with Andrew and Stacy of Andrew Ryback Photography SHOW NOTES Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andrewrybackphotography Website: http://www.andrewryback.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Andrew-Ryback-Photography-158188154858/ We started out asking about which came first, as I do with each of these podcasts. Andrew shared his story and Stacy shared her’s. He started with the camera from way back and Stacy started with horses from way back. As we start talking about the business they discussed finding the right kids to hire who love photography and horses. Andrew has a team of photographers that make it possible to take on the shows that have multiple arenas. His wife, his dad and other teens and college students make up their team. It sounds like perhaps it is a lot of work to keep things organized for each show. Camera Settings and exposure Click on video button on this photo: