Hello.....My name is Jim Earp owner of Earp Entertainment Services, an Entertainment Production Company based in Smithfield, NC. Backward Bunny is a new venture of mine that was born out of necessity.
As the story goes, one of my Team Members (a rising Senior at a local high school) ask if his girlfriend could come and hang out with him at one of our shows. He had been working most weekends, not leaving much time for her I suppose. "As long as it does not affect your work....sure" I said. As it turns out, it was not as fun as she thought it was going to be. Standing around, watching a bunch of men loading in and out sound and lighting equipment, staging and the sort. And of course my guy, had to constantly check in to make sure his main squeeze was OK and what not. You guessed it. A potential problem was brewing..... I did not want the girlfriend giving team guy grief for being at work on the weekends all the time and did not want to lose a team member over worrying about his girlfriend. I mean you know the saying "Happy girlfriend....happy everyone" or something like that. So what to do.......
Enter the light bulb moment. At a show one night, I ask the team member's girlfriend if she would be interested in taking some photos of the show that night. After all, our production teams travel with cameras to document set ups of our shows anyway. YES!...she said with enthusiasm and so the seeds were planted.
A couple of days later I went to dump the photos off of the camera and got an unexpected surprise. The photos the girlfriend shot.....they were good! Some of them really good in fact. Now these photos were not shot by a trained professional photographer with all of the latest and greatest gear. But.....they were shot with a very high end, more than average camera. I thought, you know if we actually got out the manual on this thing, these photos could probably go from good, and really good, to GREAT.
I let it swirl around in my head for a couple of days, and thought to myself....you know, I know a lot of bands that could use some better photos on their websites and social media platforms. I mean it's OK to post the cell camera photos from the family and friends that are at the show. But to have photos that are shot by someone actually putting some thought into the shot, with cameras that have great lenses and high pixel content, that a band could use for anything.....well that could be something.
Now, in no way, did I want to try to compete with professional photographers. Did not want to be that. So I needed to come up with a concept that would solve all of the issues. How could I somehow, keep my team member, keep his girlfriend happy, provide great photos to bands that need them, and do it in a way that does not try to be in the business of competing with pro photographers. And how can I do all of this in a cost effective way that could possibly inspire the person taking the photos into a career, or at the very least a great hobby, help the band, and help myself as well.
What I came up with was Backward Bunny Rock & Roll Photography. I know...weird name. I actually came up with the name Backward Bunny, when I was floating the idea of starting a tee shirt company back in the early 2000s. Glad I didn't...talking about an over saturated market. Anyway, the name kind of stayed with me, so I researched it on the web one night and no where was it to be found. I checked to see if the domain was available, it was, and the .com no less, so what the hell...why not. Just a short side bar.......You see, the way the internet works is, if you have a really unique name that NO ONE ELSE even cares about, then when you search it.....you are the only thing that pops up. And you don't have to hire a team of intergeaks, and pay them a fortune to get you premier placement on the first page of a web search. Cool right.
Anyway, enough about the name. The concept behind this venture has evolved into this. We have began to reach out to ANYONE that LOVES MUSIC and wants to LEARN PHOTOGRAPHY. Mainly high school students, that may want to make photography a career, but adults as well that have free time and want a little something extra to do. We have invested in additional cameras, marketing materials, and this website to add in providing all of the tools for these entrepreneurs to learn a trade and enjoy some great music all at the same time. This business is created to give a platform for entrepreneurs, young and old, and interested in photography, to learn a trade. And on my end, it allows me to get great promotional photos of bands, that I now may not have, so that I will be able to better promote the artist that we represent in the Talent Management Division of our company. It's a win-win for everyone.
So here is the deal. We charge a flat fee based on the distance and amount of time involved in the photo shoot. Our photographers will travel to your show and take photos of your band's LIVE performance. Alot of photos!! Group shots, audience reaction shots, individual band members shots, and any other photos of the event that seem relevant. They will then go through and weed out any duds. The rest will be sent to you by email via Google Drive. You will have 20 days to download all of the photos on your devices. They are yours to keep and do with what you will. You may want to use them to enhance your website, or maybe post them on your social media platfoms, or even use in your print media, business cards, or brochures. You get all of this for a very reasonable rate. Much lower than hiring an industry photographer.
The largest precentage of any monies received will go directly to the photographer that shot your photos, to pay for their time and travel, and also give them the opportunity to begin to save for the purchase of their own camera gear. It is a great way to begin working on building their future. The additional smaller portion of the monies will go to support this venture, and we all are committed to setting aside a small amount to be given to chairty at the end of the year.
So that's it. If you see someone with a camera snapping away at one of your shows, ask them if they are with Backward Bunny? If you want to request one of our aspiring prographers to come and photograph a show of yours, just ask. And just so you know, although the majority of the photographers are high school and college age, we do have a small number of photographers that are adults as well, so we can shoot photos in any enviorment. Thank you for your time in looking over our website. We hope to see all of you out there on the road very soon......so keep a rockin'!!
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