Kids Sports Photo Ideas

[amy_bb]

So my youngest, much to my dismay, has added yet ANOTHER sport to his repertoire, football (American Football to those of you across the pond and across the world). This is in addition to baseball, soccer, and downhill ski racing. Coupled w/my daughter (gymnast) and other son (LAX) you may see why my photography focus is on kid's sports/action shots.

Here's my question.

Last night at football practice, I see a few sports shots (2yrs old) hanging in the concession stand. I ask the seasoned fball parents
Me: "Hey, who took those?".
Other Parent:" Oh, sometimes at the games some guy/girl/person will walk around taking pictures and then hand out their business cards. Usually....like....blahblahblahFOTO.com. No one from our team and they don't come to every game but they shoot around and people can see the pics later".
Me: "Do they have special permission to be at our games or any kind of exclusive rights"
Other Parent :"No".

So say you're me. I think, hmmmm...could I do this at our games both home and away? Take action shots of the kids and then hand out a card? Can I PP some of the shots quickly enough and load them somewhere to make a few sales? Probably could....

I know that this is not my way to fame and fortune (these are 10yr old boys and girl cheerleaders). I know that I may make very few sales. I know I need to set up some sort of e-commerce site to host pics and cash out sales. I also know that I have a large circle of sports parents/friends who continually yell at me for not trying to make a go of this as a business. I have no desire to shoot weddings or portraits, just this.

I'm looking for pointers on how I might go about this. The first game is in about 3 weeks and I'm looking at this with a "nothing ventured, nothing gained" perspective.

I know I'll get the standard number of "everyone w/a good camera thinks they should do this professionally" responses. I get that. Here's what I would really need to know.

Where's a good spot for a low-volume photog to host pics for sales? Does this same spot do purchase/e-commerce? Is a business license always needed? I know I will need to file for a sales-tax permit in NYS and hopefully this will not have a long lead time.

What business steps would you all take to pursue this.

TIA

[zona5101]

smugmug has e-commerce. Also check out Uniprints they are a subsidiary of Color Inc. a great pro lab out of Michigan that does fantastic work, quick turn around and excellent customer service.
Color Inc Pro Lab - Professional Photo Printing | Grand Rapids Michigan, digital prints, gallery wraps, ROES
unitprints.com - Professional Photo Printing

[Drkranger]

I do about the same thing and starting out like you are turned into shooting for the local college and a local professional team, so it can be a good springboard.

As for hosting, I do it myself. I did start out by creating my own shopping cart, but ended up purchasing PhotoCart from PicturesPro. It has an upfront cost, as does the host, but after that, all profits are yours. There's no percentage going to a third party. You can use PhotoCart as your total website too. It's pretty simple.

Other alternatives are exposuremanager and zenfolio. I've heard good things about both. I don't recall the percetanges or costs for either of those.

And by the way, I'm not associated with PicturesPro at all. It's a good product and well worth the cost.

Good luck.

[amy_bb]

Originally Posted by zona5101

smugmug has e-commerce. Also check out Uniprints they are a subsidiary of Color Inc. a great pro lab out of Michigan that does fantastic work, quick turn around and excellent customer service.
Color Inc Pro Lab - Professional Photo Printing | Grand Rapids Michigan, digital prints, gallery wraps, ROES
unitprints.com - Professional Photo Printing

Thanks for the advice, Zona. I checked out both of those sites and could see using them. I think at his point I need an all-in-one-do-it-all-for-me type service like smugmug. I've looked at their site as well and it looks to be what I'm looking for. I do need to understand what exactly I'm getting for my money, though.

Originally Posted by Drkranger

I do about the same thing and starting out like you are turned into shooting for the local college and a local professional team, so it can be a good springboard.

As for hosting, I do it myself. I did start out by creating my own shopping cart, but ended up purchasing PhotoCart from PicturesPro. It has an upfront cost, as does the host, but after that, all profits are yours. There's no percentage going to a third party. You can use PhotoCart as your total website too. It's pretty simple.

Other alternatives are exposuremanager and zenfolio. I've heard good things about both. I don't recall the percetanges or costs for either of those.

And by the way, I'm not associated with PicturesPro at all. It's a good product and well worth the cost.

Good luck.

I checked this out and I guess I would need a webhost too to make this work. I may need some IT help to get this one started so I'm not sure I would go this route. I will check out zenfolio too.


Others have opinions on these or any other all in one hosting/ecommerce sites?

I've just been given the go ahead from my kid's football league commissioner to do action photos at the games and hand out cards. I guess our teams (from ages 7-14--4 teams, 4 games each Saturday, 6 homegames for the year) have not had anyone do this for at least 3 or 4 years. This may be just the opportunity/learning experience I was looking for.