MULE SALE/AUCTION PHOTO TIPS & REQUIREMENTS

CAMERA             VIDEO          YOUTUBE   Click on these links to go directly to that area on this page.

A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS!!

Hire a professional photographer.  Your photo is the first link to any potential buyer and can get unlimited attention from more buyers for your animal.

A professional photographer can insure that your photo's show off the very best aspects of your sale mule. 
A professional photographer will also make lighting/shading adjustments to each photo in order to achieve the very best appearance
We have seen mules with professional photo's bring astoundingly more money than a photo taken personally.

CAMERA

View "Required Photo's" shown on the Consignor's Tab - Auction & Consignor Information

Be sure your camera has a zoom lens.  Stand 20 feet away from your animal and zoom in.  This will keep the perspective correct.

For Digital Cameras:  Be sure to set the camera to be 1MB up to a maximum of 3MB for the best clarity.   Most digital cameras are set to the smallest picture size.  DO NOT USE THE SMALLEST PICTURE SIZE when taking your animals pictures.  RESET to medium/maximum size.

Don't take only a few photos and think you have the perfect photo. Take 30-50 and take a least 5 or 6 photos of the same pose. Stand back at least 20 feet from your mule/horse and zoom in. This will help keep proper perspective. Digital cameras are great as you can view the photo right after you have taken it, but the shutter speeds on digital cameras can be extremely slow and it is easy to miss your mule/horses ears being up.

LIGHTING
Choose a sunny day and don't use a flash. Early morning or latest bright afternoon light is the best light. Midday photos are terrible, too much white light and too many shadows. Always make sure the sun is shining on your animal and the SHADOW is BEHIND The Animal as you take the picture to show off the qualities of the animal. 

Make sure NOT to get the photographers shadow onto the animal.

BACKGROUND
Take a moment before you shoot your photos to look at the background. Are there junk cars in the background? Manure piles, telephone wires, other mule/horses? If so, MOVE. The BEST photos don't have competition in the background. Don't have a fence post extending up behind your animal.  Don't compete with weeds, they hide the animals legs and take the buyers eye's away from your animal.  It's ALL ABOUT the sale animal and bringing the buyers attention to your animal so they will be sure to have them on a list of POTENTIAL ANIMALS TO BUY.

POSITION
The best photos are taken when you are on your knees or the lens is even with the middle of the animals body. If you shoot from too high, your animals look like they have no legs. Take pictures from several angles. Try to compliment your animals strong points. Having the sky in the background actually keeps the picture clear and clean and will show off the animals head and other features the very best.  Shoot your photo with the hip closer, this will help make their hip look larger and the head small and more refined. 

When you are shooting a Profile of your animal, have your handler position his feet correctly, keep them together and square with the body and straight vertically.. Sometimes the head and neck can be turned 45 degrees. Make sure to center your animals in the frame or at least don't chop off his ears, tail or legs.

Having a rider on your mule is not always the best way to show off your mule's conformation.  You can certainly have a rider showing your mule and take photo's of the activity, but we like a conformation shot with your mule saddled and bridled with no rider!  We are selling the mule, not the rider!

For a Three Quarter Front shot from the back, the animal can stand square with his head and neck straight or turned back looking at you. Make sure his ears are up! DO NOT tie your animal to a tree, a fence or a trailer to take your picture. Get someone to help hold the animal that is capable of positioning the animal correctly and getting his attention to put his ears up. The use of a mirror sometimes will work to get the animals attention.

FORMATTING AND SIZING

Make sure you resize and highlight your photos properly before uploading them to the website. Upload them at a minimum of 500kb up to 5 MB. You can resize your photos in Photo Shop or another software program. We must have pictures in a jpg format. It is easy to find your photos later by naming the photos with your animals name, like: DocBar.jpg or DocBarLeftside.jpg. 

THE ANIMAL
Make sure your animal is presented in a professional manner and looks his best. Tack should be cleaned and polished and every effort should be made to have properly fitting tack. Tie your halter up tight, not sagging or hanging off the nose.  The very best is to use a bridle to show your animal as a riding animal.  If the animal is being photographed under saddle make sure the rider is sitting up straight and is presenting a pleasing picture.  

REMEMBER- TAKE LOTS OF PICTURES TO GET THE PERFECT ONE

VIDEO

View "Required VIDEO" shown on the Consignor's Tab - Auction & Consignor Information

TRIPOD **A MUST** The use of a tripod IS the very best choice you make when filming a video.

Be sure to keep your picture zoomed in on your animal in order to see all the qualities while riding.  Show your animal doing everything they do best, but please don't bore your audience.

Highlights Show your animal in the following examples as follows (be sure they have done this as the buyers will expect them to do anything in the video's well):
Being caught in a large pen to show how easy it is to catch.
How good he is with his feet, ears, and walking around it.
Brushing and Saddling 
Mounting and Riding off
Riding through any obstacles, Loping and Changing Leads, Backing, Turning and Rollbacks.
Roping, Barrel Racing, Pole Bending, or any other Events
Walking through Water and Leading a pack animal.

When you get ready to produce your video, Copy 10-20 seconds of the very best highlights in the first 2-3 minutes of the video.  If you have gotten your buyers attention, then they will want to watch your full video for all things and events your animal is able to do.  

Length of Video's

Maximum length of the video should be 15 minutes.  Auction Ring Video will be  an average time is 3 minutes in the ring and a maximum of 4-5 minutes.

YOUTUBE Suggestions
People do searches on Youtube for items to buy...be sure your consignment shows it's ready to sell!

When completing/editing your video be sure you complete the Boxes beneath the video,
  ie: during editing, Click on Tab below video "Basic Info"

Top Box is short description, we suggest: 20xx (mules name) consigned by (consignor's name) to Jake Clark's MULE DAYS, June xx, 20xx.
              This will promote the mule, promote your mule in the sale, promote you, and tell a potential buyer when the sale date is.

Next Box:  Description - Please insert your mules description, same one used on the website.
               This will give a potential buyer, searching for mules on youtube, your mules qualities and reason's to buy.

Last Box:  "Meta Tags" are one or two word groups that the internet uses to find what a person is looking for in searches:
  ie; suggestions:  Jake Clark; Mule Days; Draft; Draft Cross; Paint; Mule; mule for sale; mule sale; auction

Thumbnail Choices are to the right of your video.  Be Sure to Use/Choose a Thumbnail for your video; this will be one picture (youtube will provide you 3 choices coming from the video itself) which will show off your mule the very best and used as the promotion picture for your video. If you've taken a better still picture, use it.

Be sure the shadow is behind the mule
Be sure the mule is standing square, all 4 legs straight and directly underneath his body
Be sure ears are forward
Be sure you are far enough away so head, tail, legs are in proper proportions and one is not bigger than the other.  

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