6 : Charles Hilton – Seeing the Light and Honing Your Craft with California Equine Photographer – PODCAST

Charles Hilton and I got to know each other when he was still in Equine Photographers Network and the world was changing to digital cameras. He dove right in and went digital and started learning Photoshop to enhance his beautiful images of people and horses. Always improving his photography and business practices As I mentioned on Facebook, every time that I see an image that Charles shares on his Facebook feed, I think, “Wow, that is better than the ones from last week.” He continues to learn and grow and learn and grow each day in this advection of equine photography. We had a wonderful discussion with Charles about his passion of horses and people and photography. SHOW NOTES: Website : http://www.charleshilton.com Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/Charles-Hilton-Photography Facebook Profile: https://www.facebook.com/charles.hiltonca?fref=ts Podcast Link: Equine Photographers Podcast Took his daughter up to North Texas for her 16th birthday to explore the horse farms. Got run off many of the farms. One had a sign that said welcome and open any time. He took some pictures of a foal and took them some 11×14 prints with new backgrounds. Invited back to do more pictures. Traded photography for a 2-year-old appaloosa. 1992 took early retirement and took it. Debt free. Son killed in an accident. Built a 15 stall barn over a couple of years with his daughter. Daughter was going through John Lyons certification. Did all his shoots for “the Perfect Horse Magazine.” Went through a divorce. Clinton Anderson called and wanted him to do his pictures. Horse Magazine, Horse and Rider Magazine, and others. Lots of editorial work after 2002. More recently moving toward the more emotional captivating horse and rider portraiture. Feels that it is photography with more purpose to it. What horses mean to people. Facebook feed. Telling the story behind the people we are photographing. 15-year-old fighting cancer session. Helping sharing her story and maybe write a her book. My faith is a part of what I do. Work on my photography EVERY DAY!  We all have so much talent, and the effort we put in will determine how far that talent will take us. Wants to do more Photoshop mentoring and classes, but I’m a shooter. Wants to do some larger scale workshops. Day rate for editorial work. Work for individuals is very different. $250 minimum for any work for individuals. The $250 goes toward purchases from his price list. They almost always buy a lot more. Shows the client 30-40 images and does a selection session to make their purchases, then once they have purchased the $250 worth, then it is up to them to keep spending more if there are images they must have. Helps them to eliminate images, but the clients usually push back and say I must have this one and I must have that one. Usually $1000 to $2500 spent. If it’s $250 it’s okay,