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05/15/2007 07:35:30 PM · #1 |
Howdy all,
I would like to ask all of you a couple of questions to get your input ... obviously.
I have really enjoyed youth sports photography, whether it be of my daughter (8) playing soccer, her team or even random kids active in sports. Seems that many parents love the action shots and are interested in getting pics taken ... but I have never really followed up on it.
Since getting my new 70-200 IS 2.8, I am starting to toss around the idea of doing this on the side, mostly for fun and for a little extra money. I was looking for input from the community here, both from those that are doing this (or something similar) now or from a parents perspective as it relates to having this done for you:
Specifically....
I am thinking of starting to attend games in hopes of finding parents that would like to have their child "shot" during their activity. I would provide 20-30 good action shots over the period of the game, a CD of the photos as well as a brief meeting before hand towards determining what types of shots they prefer, the personality of the child, expectations, etc. A small travel cost on top of it to make up for the time and gas. But most of all, I want the pricing to be aggressively good for repeat business, word of mouth, etc. I don't desire to do this professionally but do enjoy doing it. Payment wouldn't be made until the parent was able to view the work to make sure that it was acceptable. Additionally, I wouldn't take any more than 2 kids at any one time so that I could focus on their action solely.
Would you all give me some input on what you would expect to pay, or would even love to pay, for this type of service? What SHOULD I charge or what would be expected out there that you have seen? Other items of note about doing this?
Thoughts from the community on pricing, whether or not this would be accepted and worthwhile and thoughts from experience are most appreciated.
Thanks
Jeff
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05/15/2007 07:49:40 PM · #2 |
| There was a guy at the baseball field taking pictures during my step son's baseball season. He had prints of all the pictures at the game Saturday & had them divided by team. He sat at one table & you just went through all of the pictures to find one of your child. He charged 3.00 each for the first 4 photos & then 2.00 each above 4. Most parents can't resist great shots, you could definitely make some extra cash. |
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05/15/2007 07:51:36 PM · #3 |
as a start, ask yourself what would I pay for this service.
You might be supprised, if you can display your work so they can see what they would get. Its a great idea and is something that many parents would get behind.
Me, I would think that around $50Aus would be fine So I guess thats around $75 for you guys.
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05/15/2007 07:53:42 PM · #4 |
| It is definatey a good idea. It takes some time for the parents to learn about you, but worth the effort. |
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05/17/2007 12:53:02 PM · #5 |
Extra cash...what is your time worth?
Selling 4x6 for $3 on spec - so you print and then hope to sell some, is not going to make much extra cash and will be a lot like work.
Most that I know that do this attend games wearing a t-shirt that is printed front and back with the website and hand out cards with the website. the images are up there for purchase. You could possibly have a banner made that you put up in the outfield or on a fence near the entrance. A LOT less work - you shoot and sales happen 24/7, once every day or few days you can process the orders, make prints, sort the prints into envelopes and mail them out.
people begin to expect to see you and buy images. Reality it, the first time they have no clue. By the third time they've got action pics so don't buy any more. Playoff games are a bigger seller, sports stars may buy more than those that play for the fun of it.
If a game is 2 hours and you can make $200 or more then it's worth it IMO.
ALWAYS check with the league to see if you can do this. offer them some free images/prints (with credit) for their website/promo stuff. Nobody cares if a parent is taking pics - many people care if a pro is - and if you're charging money, you're a pro.
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05/17/2007 02:38:09 PM · #6 |
| Some leagues or soccer clubs have contracts with professional photographers to let them be the sole professionals shooting, especially at big tournaments. This could consist of the posed team/individual and/or action shots. In return, the photographer or photography company usually give a nice kick-back ($$$) to the league or club. I don't know what the legalities or politics involved are, but I would talk to the league's commissioner or other representative first so you don't inadvertantly step on anybody's toes. Good luck to you! |
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05/17/2007 03:02:57 PM · #7 |
I've been doing this the last several weekends. Been shooting approx. 1000 shots and processing approx 500 to 600 shots in one day. Than printing them as wallets for review. I have my printer and laptop on Sunday and print to order. I'm selling the 4x6's at $10 or 2 for $15, or $18 a sheet of 8x10. Even with actions, it's a ton of work. The tourneys have 16 to 20 teams. Than I upload them on to my smugmug acct. for extra sales. I've been making $300 to $400 gross. By the time you subtract ink and paper cost I'm lucky to make $250 for the 2 days of 30hrs of work. In my opinion work to pay is not enough. I'm got another tourney this weekend. I'm not going to sale on site. Will have flyers directing them to my site for purchases. I'll beable to cut my prices due to less costs and time. We'll see how it works.
check it out;; jagphotos@smugmug.com
Message edited by author 2007-05-17 15:50:22. |
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05/17/2007 03:14:23 PM · #8 |
I highly recommend using SmugMug. I shot pictures for a few color guard competitions and shows and without SmugMug it would have been impossible for me to sell to as many people as I did. SmugMug takes care of your printing, billing, and shipping. They take the cost for printing plus 15% but it is definitely worth it. They are such a great company.
You can check out my SmugMug page at www.callstudios.us.
Message edited by author 2007-05-17 15:16:28. |
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05/17/2007 04:01:26 PM · #9 |
My friend, Ron, does this all the time.
I help out now and then for extra cash.
He puts out an email to all the coaches, and managers, as well as flyers, about his business.
He gets feedback from the coach or manager if they are going to buy prints.
He only sevices the bigger tournaments that he can make some money on.
He also drives to other cities, and counties to service tournament games.
It is a great thing once you get all the bugs fixed, but, be aware there will be those bugs to fix. And one bug can be the determining point of a good weekend, or a bad weekend.
I have seen Ron go from good to bad to good again with his business.
Here is his site.
RnR Photo
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05/17/2007 04:25:21 PM · #10 |
| Agree, good and bad. What I've found. The last tourney I did, half of the teams I already shot. Sold few to them this time around. The new teams were very excited. I've just email the 10U coaches from last weekend that the shots were up on the site. I hoping for additional sales. |
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05/17/2007 05:48:29 PM · #11 |
At the last soccer Toury we went to, there was a photographer that took Team group photos of each team no charge, then the next day he gave a free T-Shirt with the team photo on it to each coach with an order form to hand out to the parents I beleive the T-Shirts were like $25. I bet he made a killing on that idea, I know all the parent on our team purchased a T-Shirt for their kids.
Brenda |
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05/18/2007 09:05:37 AM · #12 |
I recently turned my buddy Ron on to a local sports company that was doing two differant softball tournaments.
He contacted so and so. Everything looked good. He was going to show up with 3 photogs, and himself for four fields. Have his son work on the prints in a tent, the whole works.
The company at first was excited.
Yesterday, Ron called me and told me he was going to pass on the tourney's.
the company emailed him, and told him that the tourney director want %15 of profits from all vendors at the venue.
Total piece of crap. I don't blame him for passing this up.
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05/18/2007 09:25:12 AM · #13 |
Interesting, I've been giving 10% back . Do you think that's to much?
Message edited by author 2007-05-18 09:26:15. |
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05/18/2007 09:44:21 AM · #14 |
To set yourself appart from the "Soccer Mom" (sorry to all the soccer moms) with a point and shoot. I would look into making posters. Here's a few links.
PhotoShop Actions
Sports Products
Sport Templates
I had a link to some guy who made these posters, but the links are dead. Hopefully those will give you some idea. |
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05/18/2007 10:54:20 AM · #15 |
Those are great Tom. Thanks for the links!
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05/21/2007 07:45:22 PM · #16 |
Here's my story.
A friend of mine is on the Board of Directors for a local Little League.
Through him I was able to get exclusive permission to take action photos on the field during games. I tried my best to get at least a few shots of each kid.
Once I got the pictures on the computer I used photoshop and made contact sheets (9 pics per page) which I placed in binders separated by teams.
I set up a table on Saturdays at the ballpark and the parents look through the binders, find thier favorite action shots and fill out an order form. At this time I'm only offering 8x10 ($15 plain, $20 Magazine cover) and 5x7 ( $10 w/graphics, $7 plain) sizes. I took the time to print some samples so the parents could see the finished product.
The first Saturday I sold $ 425.00 and this past Saturday I sold $518.00. I plan to go back at least one more time.
Here's what I've learned:
1.In my opinion this is a viable way to make some $$$ doing something that you already like to do.
2. Getting permission from the league in advance is a must.
3. There is probably a better, more efficient way of doing all this and I intend to keep doing this untill I find it.
This league has 29 teams so I spent quite a few hours wading through pictures, printing contact sheets and putting them in binders.
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05/21/2007 07:58:56 PM · #17 |
| Sounds like what I did minus the mag. covers, I've made additional $600 from sales on smugmug. The only thing I've found is, once you shot a team, and that team has purchased shots, sales drop off huge. What was you cost in ink on the proofs? It killed me, around $120 for approx. 80 sheets of 9 shots on a sheet. The other killer for me was the time to upload, process along with printing the sheets. I have over 1700 shots on my site from 2 weekends and one day the last weekend of tournaments. If the site sales continue, it will be all worth it. |
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05/21/2007 08:05:06 PM · #18 |
The ink and paper for the contact sheets is a killer. I probably spent about the same as you. For now, I'm getting my prints done at Sam's.
8x10's $1.46 and 5x7 $.38 and it's done in an hour. The quality is good and the parents have been happy so far.
I forgot to mention that I promised the league a 15% kickback. I had no idea how much to offer....I probably could have gone 10%. |
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05/21/2007 08:16:21 PM · #19 |
I've actually taken a little different approach with the kids games, mainly because my kid is in soccer and softball.
Last year I shot one of my daughter's softball games, making sure to get good shots of each of the girls, both at bat and in the field. I printed a very nice label onto each of the CDs, and gave a copy to each parent as a freebee. Of course, conveniently, I included my web address on the CD cover.
I actually got thousands of dollars worth of business just from the word of mouth that generated! I got some work with an architectural company to do some traveling to shoot some of their products in Philadelphia and New Jersey, along with senior portraits and a wedding.
I just handed out CDs to my daughter's new team this year. Even if nothing comes of it, I enjoy the feedback from parents -- I get a lot of positive comments and thanks for the effort. The word of mouth certainly can't hurt. |
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05/21/2007 08:17:04 PM · #20 |
| I'm giving 10%. Along with there logo on the shot. Some parents didn't want the logo and that's cool with them. What age group are you shooting? The 12 year old parents we did OK, but most of the sales are coming from the 10U parents. I'm shoot 18 year olds this weekend, but just the games that my daughter are in. I'm taking the rest of the softball season off. This is the last year to see my daughter play. I have the rights to all the tournaments next year at the park I work with, going to come up with some templates for magazine covers & other type of effects for next year. Keep in touch on your progress. Good luck |
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05/21/2007 08:21:09 PM · #21 |
| alanfree; Good idea. Thanks, I'll do that with my daughters team this weekend. Give all the girls a CD, not all the girls are seniors like my daughter...Hmmmm...cool |
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05/21/2007 09:04:39 PM · #22 |
Here are a couple of sample of what the parents are buying. Comments are welcome. |
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05/21/2007 09:39:54 PM · #23 |
| Very cool, adds to the shots a ton. |
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05/22/2007 12:34:28 AM · #24 |
Playing with some ideas..do you think something like this will work?
Message edited by author 2007-05-22 00:35:49. |
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05/22/2007 11:56:23 PM · #25 |
I've just started doing this with some local Optimist clubs, but I use photoreflect for the service. They get 15% for e-commecre and 3% for processing the credit cards. They have multiple labs that you can select to offer all kinds of things.
Just starting to get know at one of the local clubs, and talking to the board members of another.
If you hit my site //www.zillaphotos.com, then click on the store for the photoreflect layout.
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