# Gambled And Lost: A Cautionary Manifesto...



## Steve5D (Oct 5, 2013)

Wow. I'm not even sure if it's going to be possible for me to convey the absurdity of what happened these last two days.

I was asked, pretty much last minute, to shoot an event in Daytona Beach, about an hour south of here. It was an arm wrestling/body building/hot chicks in bikinis event. I would shoot, provide the promoter with images, and sell photos on-site. Along with a number of local sponsors, Pep Boys, Aaron's and Playboy Energy Drink were on board. My experience has proven to me that testosterone-driven sales; muscle-bound guys posing with chicks in bikinis, always end up well.

Well, _most _of the time.

I got to the venue; a very nice, old hotel right on the beach, around noon on Thursday. There weren't many people there yet, mainly just some vendors and staff. I checked in with the promoter, found my table, set up and grabbed my camera. I figured I'd walk around and get pictures of vendors, along with shots of competitors getting registered and weighing in.

I got a lot of pictures of vendors.

I figured it would pick up later in the afternoon. After all, it was a Thursday, and people have jobs, lives, etc to deal with, so it surely wasn't the end of the world. The promoter approached me and wanted to make sure I was available to get shots when the Playboy Bunnies showed up around 2:30pm, and I assured him I would be . 

He then told me that the local CBS and NBC affiliates would be there around 4:00pm, and asked if I could shoot them interviewing competitors (because a whopping three had signed up by then). "Sure thing" I said. He asked if I was going to hang around for the Chamber of Commerce mixer that evening at 5:00pm. I had, in fact, planned on doing just that. 

Well, 2:30pm came and went. No bunnies. Sadness ensued. No bunny pictures.

4:00pm came and went. No television crews.

I was set up next to the Playboy Energy Drink folks, and the low turnout slowly, but ever so surely, was becoming a bit of a running joke between us. They had come up from Miami (where, coincidentally, I'm headed this afternoon), and had invested a _lot _of time in money in travel and accommodations. Before too long, they were beginning to voice the beginnings of some very real concern.

Discussing it, though, we decided that things would kick off at the mixer. There would be live entertainment, competitors, sponsors and vendors and, damn, wasn't it just gonna' be a big ol' time!

No, it wasn't gonna' be a big ol' time. It was _going _to be an unqualified disaster.

Now, again, this was a _Daytona Beach Chamber of Commerce_ mixer. What no one has been able to explain to me is how one can host a Daytona Beach Chamber of Commerce mixer when the Daytona Beach Chamber of Commerce _doesn't show up_.

The live entertainment was a local guitar player who was actually very good. I'm not sure what he got paid, but I would guess it was somewhere between $500.00 and $1,000.00. That wouldn't be out of line for a performer for a private party, which this essentially was. The guy played in front of a room with roughly 300 chairs, that accommodated (and I counted) seven people.

Here's a shot of the promoter and the entertainment, and a portion of 350 mostly empty chairs:








Not only were there no people, there was no food, no drinks... Nothing. A guy with a guitar.

That wasn't the only thing the promoter had to be pissed off about, though. Apparently, either he took his brand new Dodge Challenger, or his promotion company bought a brand new Dodge Challenger, and had it tricked out with a new paint job and flashy sponsor logos:







Thursday's festivities were, in a word, tragic. Surely, we concluded, Friday would be better.

Right?

I arrived at about 8:50am, as elimination bouts were scheduled to start at 9:00am. I got set up, grabbed my camera, and waited.

And waited.

And then you know what I did?

I waited some more.

Around noon, the folks from Playboy Energy Drink started packing up their samples. When I asked, they said they'd be back later in the afternoon; they were going to the beach. They couldn't see sitting around all day doing nothing. A few of the other vendors followed their lead. I started to consider it, but I decided to stick around for a bit. After all, it was a great old hotel, and it was very cool:







After a little while, I walked back into the venue and saw much of what I'd been looking at for the last day and a half: no competitors and bored vendors who, had they been armed, probably would've just killed themselves.

I walked to the registration table and asked how many competitors had registered to that point. No one could tell me. As someone who had to rely on selling prints for every dime I would make, this concerned me. There was no way for me to even guesstimate how it might all turn out for me.

I walked out the the lobby of the hotel, and saw one of the women from Playboy Energy Drink. I asked her what she thought about the way things were apparently panning out, and she told me that a huge red flag was raised when she was checking into the hotel two days prior. Everyone who was associated with the event got a special room rate at the hotel. She told me that when she asked for that rate, the woman at the desk responded "Oh, I thought that event was cancelled".

Apparently, at some point, the event had been cancelled, and the only people who were aware of that were the promoters and the hotel. No one knows why it was, but it was. Some wrangling back and forth between the promoters and the hotel resulted in the switch being turned back on the day prior to opening, but the damage had been done.

At one point the promoter and his staff took the brand new Dodge Challenger with the new paint job and flashy sponsor logos out onto the beach, trying to get people to attend the event. They were walking up and down Atlantic Avenue trying to persuade people to blow off the beautifully sunny beach weather and come inside to watch an event which had, at 1:00pm yesterday, seven registered competitors. I'm sorry, but when you have to resort to doing stuff like that, it's probably time to pull the plug on your event.

I went back to the venue and opened up my e-mail. Since the promoter was driving down the beach, I had to e-mail him and let him know that I was ghost. I was gone. Outta' here. Within about a minute my phone rang. He apologized for how things were panning out, and said he absolutely understood where I was coming from. I told him I would stay around Daytona for a couple of hours (it's not a bad place to hang out). I told him I would be more than happy to come back and shoot should things start picking up. He never called. Late yesterday afternoon, I sent a Facebook message to an MMA fighter who was there promoting his gym, and he replied that it was every bit as dismal as when I left.

So, it was a complete bust from the photo sales perspective.

I'm a silver lining kinda' guy, though, so I looked at the positives. The MMA fighter runs a gym which hosts events on a regular basis. He's not been completely satisfied with the photography he's gotten in the past, and he likes the work of mine that he's seen. I was introduced to a woman who's a film producer. When she heard my name, she looked at the logo on my shirt and said "Aren't you out of San Diego?" I was floored. I was in San Diego up until a year ago. She said I'd been recommended to her and that she'd like to talk to me about some upcoming projects. 

After leaving the hotel, I stopped at Daytona International Speedway and got dialed in for the Rolex 24 in January, as well as the Fall Cycle Scene being held there during Biketoberfest.

So, I got some things taken care of which would've required the hour drive anyway, so I don't see it as a _complete _bust.

So, what's the moral of the story? 

Hell, I dunno'. 

Maybe it is, first and foremost, to know who you're dealing with. I'd never heard of this event or the promoter. I had no idea what they were about, or how successful (or, maybe more accurately, how unsuccessful) they've been in the past. They were nice enough folks, and they didn't really try to do anything underhanded, but I think they may have been a bit out of their element. I also think they could've been a bit more forthcoming about the issues they were dealing with. Second, consider the type of agreement you have with them. I could've done a daily flat-rate shoot, but opted to gamble for a bigger payoff. Well, I lost. I entered into an agreement which could've panned out nicely for me had the event been promoted correctly, and not been cancelled and then resuscitated. But, at the end of the day, I looked at it as having spent two days in a small, beautiful seaside city, during which I made some new contacts and got some other business handled.

So, today, I'm going to drive five hours to Miami so I can do some shooting for _me_...


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## tirediron (Oct 5, 2013)

On the flip side though, 'nothing ventured, nothing gained'.  Aside from your time, how much out of pocket were you from this?


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## Steve5D (Oct 5, 2013)

tirediron said:


> On the flip side though, 'nothing ventured, nothing gained'.  Aside from your time, how much out of pocket were you from this?



Well, nothing, really. Some printer ink and paper, but it's not like those are gonna' go to waste. Aside from that, yeah, I take that view of it. I got some other things accomplished, for which I would've had to go anyway, so I can't even really ***** about the gas money.

Oh, and four Bloody Mary's; $24.00 plus tip...


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## Derrel (Oct 5, 2013)

Good write-up Steve5D...Wow...what a bad turn of events. Made for a hell of a post though...too bad there were no hot chicks in bikinis photos to go with it..but there were *those lovely columns* in the grand old hotel, and the guy playing to 350-some-odd empty seats! I bet the acoustics were a trip!


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## hopdaddy (Oct 5, 2013)

Well I'm sure things will be much better in Miami!


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## pixmedic (Oct 5, 2013)

probably a good thing you didn't spend $300 on a new printer for this gig. :mrgreen:


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## Steve5D (Oct 6, 2013)

DAMN!

In my post, I meant to thank Pixmedic for the hook-up on a printer. Thanks, dude!

Turns out, sadly, that I didn't really need it. You want it back?

:mrgreen:


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## pixmedic (Oct 6, 2013)

Steve5D said:


> DAMN!
> 
> In my post, I meant to thank Pixmedic for the hook-up on a printer. Thanks, dude!
> 
> ...



Nah.. I have two other printers plus the wide format.  Im good on printers. 
I would rather keep the beer.


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## CCericola (Oct 7, 2013)

Did someone say beer!?


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## Steve5D (Oct 8, 2013)

CCericola said:


> Did someone say beer!?



I can neither confirm nor deny the involvement of any cold, frosty adult beverage at any point...


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## CCericola (Oct 9, 2013)

Tease!


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## Steve5D (Oct 10, 2013)

CCericola said:


> Tease!



Hey, it's part of my charm...


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## spacefuzz (Oct 10, 2013)

Well at least you got a story out of it!


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