Sports Photography - Assistant

[jpnatale]

I recently got put into contact with a local photographer who runs a side business (main business is a high-end portrait studio) at a 94-acre baseball complex on the weekends. He has parents sign up ahead of time, will photograph up to 4 kids a game, and then sell prints/packages, etc. He does around $3000-$6000 in business a weekend, from what I understand.

Recently, he's been getting a little too busy and is looking for an assistant. I spoke with him on Tuesday and have an interview this Saturday. In our brief conversation, he threw out (unsolicited) that I could make $200-$300 a weekend. From what I understand, I will not be following him around 'assisting' so much as I will have my own games to photograph during the day, presumably edit (he asked about what software I'm familiar with), and help him sell on Sunday's.

To me, that seems like a slightly low-ball price for what I'd be doing. However, I've never been an assistant before, in any aspect, and was wondering what ya'll normally would pay/get paid to be assistants on shoots like this. I understand that it would probably vary with the amount of business he does in a weekend, which varies a lot, and that it's a) his business, b) a larger portion of his time c) much more experienced (30 years in portrait photography, but only a few in sports). I just don't want to be taken advantage of, and want to get paid appropriately for my skills and effort.

Background on the job: shooting 9-18 y/o baseball players at organized baseball tournaments. People travel from several states to go to this complex. Assuming I get the job, it's ~30 weekends a year. I still don't know if I would be just shooting on Saturday, shooting saturday and doing office/PP stuff on sunday, or shooting both days, which would obviously affect what I get paid.

Just wanted your thoughts, thanks for reading/responding!

[Jim Bryant]

He most likely makes the bulk of his sales off team and individual ( T & I) pictures not sports action photography. You'll be in competing against moms and dad's armed with entry level camera, who put all the images on a disk to pass around to team parents. I just finished up shooting an eight team, six day Big League Baseball Tournament and charged the teams $300.00 for a CD with all the games their team was in. I've covered this tournament for the past three years and the $2400 was the most I've ever made. With today's economy and the individual costs involved, some team parents don't have enough money left over to purchase sports action pictures and normally spring for the T & I or memory mates.

I also have parents reserve my shooting time, but at five per game. Good luck........can be a great learning experience for you.

[jpnatale]

Thanks Jim! The more I think about it, the more comfortable I am, since it still seems like a fair salary compared to say, a wedding assistant. I guess since I figure I'll be shooting my own separate games that I'd be paid a higher percentage or something of that sort.

Maybe it just seems low because my estimate of 3k-6k is high

[Hill Country Hack]

Originally Posted by jpnatale

Thanks Jim! The more I think about it, the more comfortable I am, since it still seems like a fair salary compared to say, a wedding assistant. I guess since I figure I'll be shooting my own separate games that I'd be paid a higher percentage or something of that sort.

Maybe it just seems low because my estimate of 3k-6k is high

Good luck on the interview. If it was me I would have to consider:
1. $200-$300 for how many hours of work?
2. Negotiate percentage of sales?
3. Take the sure thing or be happy with the fluctuations that happen with percentage of sales?
4. Per Jim, if most sales are T&I, negotiate a percentage of YOUR action shot sales on top of other negotiated rate?
5. Take sure thing and consider getting the business passed to you when this photographer retires? You said he has 30 years under his belt.

That's my two pennies I found in the parking lot.

[jpnatale]

Originally Posted by Hill Country Hack

1. $200-$300 for how many hours of work?
2. Negotiate percentage of sales?
3. Take the sure thing or be happy with the fluctuations that happen with percentage of sales?
4. Per Jim, if most sales are T&I, negotiate a percentage of YOUR action shot sales on top of other negotiated rate?
5. Take sure thing and consider getting the business passed to you when this photographer retires? You said he has 30 years under his belt.

1. they are ~9 hour days, the thing is I'm not sure if it's a 1 or a 2 day job for me. if it's just 1, then it's much more reasonable.
2. I think that is what I'm getting, since he had the caveat "if you work hard" or something to that effect.
3. I'd prefer the sure thing, but i'm guessing it's one or the other, and his mind is made up on it already (find out saturday!)
4. I'm pretty certain he doesn't do team photos at all. The way he described his philosophy about it, he's carrying it over from his portrait business, in that he wants low number of clients, high volume.
5. ABSOLUTELY! i wish, haha! that'd be great, but I feel like that might be a little while still, he's 30 years in his portrait studio, but just started the sports gig in the last few years (maybe even last year?)

6. I liked jim's old avatar better :-/

Very helpful comments, both of you! Thanks so much!

[Jim Bryant]

See if he's also willing to give you a percentage of sales.

[Hill Country Hack]

JP,

It is all up to you and what you learn on Saturday. It would give you a lot of practice and since using your camera, the images are your images to build your portfolio.

Good luck and let us know what happens.

[jpnatale]

Ok, so I met with him on Saturday. He allows/takes up to 4 kids a game to photograph, and chargers the parents $20 to reserve that spot. Right now, because of the heat, the games are limited to 1 hour 30 minutes, and go from 8AM to 5PM on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. When he's not shooting games, he schedules sales meetings with the parents, and brings them to his (very nice) shed on the premises, and shows them his ~30 'select' shots, and they pick a package/collage/prints.

He said that he's looking to hire a photographer or photographers, and work more on the sales himself while they shoot. He thinks he's going to give the photographer the $20 a child, and a small percentage of sales (TBD). With up to 4 kids a game and several games a day, there's a decent amount of potential, methinks. Granted, there's no guarantee of more than 1 per game, and it would partially be up to me to recruit more parents. But like what was already mentioned, it's also really good experience.

[AndyM2020]

Well, at the end of the day it's up to you to decide whether or not that $200 - $300 is fair pay for the amount of work / hours you'll be doing.

I guess there will be room to negotiate (you never get if you don't ask). But as you said, it will be experience - and possibly chance for you to network and get your own name out there. And it's money that is better off in your pocket than someone else's, especially if you won't be doing anything else at the time.

[jpnatale]

Originally Posted by AndyM2020

Well, at the end of the day it's up to you to decide whether or not that $200 - $300 is fair pay for the amount of work / hours you'll be doing.

I guess there will be room to negotiate (you never get if you don't ask). But as you said, it will be experience - and possibly chance for you to network and get your own name out there. And it's money that is better off in your pocket than someone else's, especially if you won't be doing anything else at the time.

Yeah, after doing the one game, 200-300 would be no problem. My worry now is with the uncertainty of how many kids there will be to photograph, will I get stuck with $60 dollar weekends sitting around doing nothing over two days? THAT wouldn't be worth it. Granted, I wouldn't need to be there, I think, but I don't know how he'd want it run when business is slow.