Possible business & seeking advice

[Jamzano]

Hi all!

I have a possible business in mind that seems to be a perfect fit for me and I wanted to get the feedback and opinions of the masses here at DPS.

One of my favorite photographic subjects is sports. And I mean all sports, football, baseball, volleyball, cycling, you name it. If there is athletic competition I love photographing it. I love the drama, the emotion and of course the competition.

My idea is this; I hope to get sideline access for all the sporting events at our local high school so that I can shoot the student athletes in competition. I would then set up a web site at a site like Smugmug or Zenfolio so that parents could purchase photos of their children in competition.

My wife is a teacher at the high school so hopefully that will make the administration feel a little more at ease granting me permission to be on the sidelines photographing. With my wife being a teacher at the school I have also met many of the head coaches socially and since they know me personally I think that would be a plus also. Our school district has a very active (and politically powerful) sports boosters organization so I was thinking that it might be a good idea to offer them a small percentage of the sales in exchange for them getting behind me and recommending my services and photos to the other parents.

Has anyone done something similar and can you offer any advice to me for this venture? I am sure that I am missing something obvious.

[Jim Poor]

Has anyone done something similar and can you offer any advice to me for this venture? I am sure that I am missing something obvious.

Yes, just about EVERYONE has done it.

Sounds like you might have a leg up as far as access is concerned provided nobody cries "conflict of interest" or "preferential treatment."

[Krusty79]

I used to work at printroom.com, which does what you are describing. Other photographers have been doing this for years. One problem photographers had when posting galleries of high school students is that they do not have a lot of money, so they would go to the online galleries, bring up the large preview image and do a print screen command, so they could crop and print out the preview image, even though it had a watermark on it. So, you will have to find a balance between making the preview images attractive, but putting a large enough watermark to discourage the print screen "cheaters."

You will need some fast lenses if you are going to shoot something like night football games, as you will need a fast shutter speed, but cannot use a flash. The lighting in gymnasiums is usually not ideal either, but I assume you have had some experience shooting in those conditions.

Like Jim says, you have a built-in advantage if you have exclusive access to take field level pictures. I wish we had someone doing that when I was playing high school sports.

One encouraging thing I can tell you is that the photographers doing this type of business were receiving the most paychecks from us compared to photographers who shot landscapes or portraits.

[Jim Bryant]

I do just that. And guess what? You don't make shit! Some parents would rather spend the money elsewhere....like supersize their meals. I going to take a different route this upcoming season. Going to offer parents a $50.00 flat fee to cover their athletics (5 athletics per game) and give them a disk with 6-10 low res images that they can email, use on facebook or desktops. I'll take reservations only, payable up front. Read this thread I posted: Clients says my prints cost too much :)

[Crabs]

Hey Jamzano,

Good questions mate... This is actually something I have been thinking about doing as well. I live in a fairly small town and have been round most of the sporting comps, there are actually not many people doing this sort of thing so I think I might give it ago.

As far as advice, I used to race karts and at the track some times there would be a photographer taking pics, he had it set up so that every 2 or 3 races he would come back to a tent he had set up, swap cards and get back out to the action, his misses would then have the pics loaded up and showing on a screen, you could then on site select the images you wanted and they would print them right there for you, at about $20 a shot or you could buy a CD with all the pics they had taken for about $40. Almost everyone would purchase some, I have probably spent $300 on photos with them.

The benefits are that your overheads are not really that dear, and hey if you love taking sport photos then its not like you are suffering by just being there.
Getting a foot in the door might be the hardest part though, I admit that.

I really like Jim Bryant's idea of having people subcribe to you for a season worth of photos. That would help you plan your events and income at least.
But it was always good to have a hard copy in your hands as you left the track for the day. You could also pick out photos and say that you wanted them edited into BW or the like and he would send them to you after the event.

Just some ideas... I would very much like to hear how you have been going on this venture.

Chris

[dionv]

Originally Posted by Jim Bryant

I do just that. And guess what? You don't make shit! Some parents would rather spend the money elsewhere....like supersize their meals. I going to take a different route this upcoming season. Going to offer parents a $50.00 flat fee to cover their athletics (5 athletics per game) and give them a disk with 6-10 low res images that they can email, use on facebook or desktops. I'll take reservations only, payable up front. Read this thread I posted: Clients says my prints cost too much :)

Sounds like an interesting twist to the idea, Jim.

When you say "5 athletics per game", do you mean 5 shots of their kid per game? If so, how will you be able to guarantee you'll be able to cover all the kids whose parents have reserved?

I'm not into any sports, myself, so this is purely academic for me, but I think the idea is interesting.

[Biomech]

Hi Jamzano.

I have a plan much like that for Christmas - I'll be photographing people at an outdoor ice rink and offering the images for sale via PhotoboxGallery. In my experience, you'll get much much much more revenue printing and selling on the spot. Obviously this isn't always that easy. For me, at least, this is more about getting my name out there than the sales.

From holidaying abroad and seeing theme park and activity trip people do the same, they make a fortune. Frequently they will do one of 4 things:

1.Photograph you, print ALL images, put them on a board and you choose what you want to buy (Higher overheads and more waste. Possiblity of people buying images not of them (could be an issue with kids))

2. Photograph you then run you through them at the end and you select what you want (queues form, revenue drops)

3. Photograph you and hand you a business card with the online shop on. (lower revenue, lower overheads - this is what I will be doing)

4. Photograph you, give you a raffle ticket which you then take at the end. They match the ticket to the image in the sequence. (more chance of confusion).

I think the best approach is a combination of point 3 and 1. Perhaps a monitor looping the images so people can see IF they like them, then they can join a queue. Leaflets or cards on the side if they cant be assed to wait or have to leave. Whatever you do, put a business card with every print.

hope that helps