Freelance shooting of sports events
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I would like to start shooting local sporting events and selling the pictures to the participants.
My question is what is the best way to get a list of the participants with their contact information - email address, number, mailing address?
My plan was to put all of the pictures on my smug mug account, then send out an email to all of the participants with the gallery link to the race.
What would be the best way to advertise - handing out business cards, sending out an email to all participants? I think the email would be easiest for this upcoming event, a triathlon with around 300 people. For smaller events I was thinking business cards would be better.
Just wondering if anyone had tips for shooting this kind of event and selling the pictures to the participants.
Thanks
Corey
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My question is what is the best way to get a list of the participants with their contact information - email address, number, mailing address?
My plan was to put all of the pictures on my smug mug account, then send out an email to all of the participants with the gallery link to the race.
What would be the best way to advertise - handing out business cards, sending out an email to all participants? I think the email would be easiest for this upcoming event, a triathlon with around 300 people. For smaller events I was thinking business cards would be better.
Just wondering if anyone had tips for shooting this kind of event and selling the pictures to the participants.
Thanks
Corey
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0
Comments
Every Locale is a bit different, there are Little League, Church League, City League, Park League, School Leagues.....etc etc.....
You will need to see what is available in your area (check chamber of commerce and local schools) to get contact info.
Good plan, wish it were that easy. I don't think however that any organization is going to just hand over all the personal information to you. I know if my stuff was handed out like that, I'd have a real beef with the commissioner/convenor whomever.
What I do is keep my business card in my pocket container. I shoot photos of my children playing - soccer for example - and if someone asks me about it, I tell them yeah it's a great hobby, do some photos on the side blah blah and then hand over a card. From there they can contact me if they so choose.
Rob
Pentax K1000 | M28mm F2.8 | M50mm F2 | Takumar Bayonet 135mm F2.5
www.southshoresnapshots.smugmug.com
If they don't already have a contract with someone else, once the organizer has met you and is aware of your services, he could let the participants know about your services.
Best of luck to you and have fun shooting the race!
I have many replies to this, some are good, some not.
If you think you have the ability, equipment, experience, knowledge. To cover an event, contact the organizer of the event. No body will give you contacy info, the event organizer will link to your photos. Then your photos will take over. If they are good you may sell a few. It's not what you think it may be.
Have a good dream
A link to my photos would be great. I'll contact them and see what they say.
Ain't that the truth
Website
Sports Sample Photos
Sportsshooter.com/ctproctor
Four Seam Images
I agree with you. Amateur sports is definetly not the place to make money.
You won't make much here as already said. Ususally do better with the young kids. I started, few yrs ago, with youth soccer.
Make 'business cards on bright colored paper - I use paper from Staples, print 4 on a sheet, cut them up and carry around with me. Sometimes you can put a bunch on a table at the event. Staple a dozen or so together so they do not blow away!
I've started charging just to be there and shoot a game or all day event, typically not a youth event. Some pay some do not/cannot. Then you decide whether to go and shoot or not. To do this though you need an online gallery(ies) of you best shots for the organizer to see what you can do.
Other than smugmug, you should also get a basic Flickr account and post some there, and perhaps a myspace account. Make sure to add all the related tags you can think of. It's all advertising. Only upload a few at low res. because they can right click and copy those.
What doesn't work:
- "I just got a great picture of _____, I'm going to give him my card!" - I see too many of those cards laying on the ground after the event. Speaking with some of the athletes later you might get the reply: "oh, am I fat! I need to go on a diet!" or "my shoulders are too stiff". You just never know how the other person feels about that 'perfect' shot.
- Shooting run of the mill events. Hit the biggies, or the hard ones. The event where the participant is proud to have completed it or have done well.
- Routine picture of them just competing. Get the WIN! Get the 'leader of the pack' shot. Okay, I'm not shooting the Boston Marathon, but after the first 10 in a pack, I stop shooting.
I do carry a bunch of cards in my pocket, and if someone asks then you bet I give them out. But I don't solicit. I have other means of advertising - but again - trade secret!
Suggestion: Do good work, keep striving to get better, be consistent with your appearances, and have fun with it.
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]First, take good pictures. The better your pictures are the more people will be interested in buying them. Make sure you understand the basics of sports photography and build on that, always learning and improving. Once you have a quality product to offer then making contacts will be worthwhile. Otherwise, you're wasting your time.
Make sure you have business cards at all times, especially when shooting, to hand out to the curious. If your work is good enough then just handing a card or two will get the word out. Players and parents will share the info with others.
Approach coaches before the game, give them your card and briefly explain you have a sports pics website. You'd like the team roster to ID players in your photos (done by matching uniform # with name). You may have to copy the roster longhand so bring a pen and paper and make sure you get there well in advance to allow time to do this.
Now you have player names. It's tedious but you can begin searching for MySpace and Facebook accounts the players have and then send them brief messages alerting them to your photo website. Even if you watermark your pics they will enjoy viewing them. If you don't image protect them they will copy them but if you at least have your website pics watermarked then every copied pic will point viewers back to your site. Proud kids will show their parents their pics and then parents may purchase prints or digital downloads (watermark free of course).
Searching MySpace and Facebook is only necessary at the beginning until you have spread the word sufficiently about your work.
Some sports leagues have websites with contact info for coaches. Schools usually list coaches' names and often email info. Send emails to all coaches for whom you can find this info alerting them to your work. Some will reply and/or pass along your info to parents and players. The better your pics are the more likely they will be excited about them and pass the info along.
Wear a shirt with your sports pics website info on it to all events you shoot.
Get early to games and stay afterwards to converse with folks casually so you can introduce yourself and your work. Real low key but if you can make some contacts this way and your work is good, the word about you will spread rapidly.
If you can afford the time and you are really serious about committing to this endeavor, consider investing at least a few months worth of time just taking a lot of good pics and making them freely available for viewing without trying to sell anything. Continue to promote your work but don't pursue sales unless someone specifically requests such info. This is like a new gas station that opens up offering super low prices and makes no profit for a while just to get the word out that they are in business.
In the end you will probably be lucky to break even but at least you can say your hobby pays for itself. If you're extremely good and lucky you could make a decent profit.
Jay
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If you shoot anyway, just make sure you don't do anything illegal, like entering private property where you are not allowed or cameras are prohibited. If it's just a triathlon, 99% of it is probably going to be on public property anyway, so there shouldn't be a problem as long as you don't obstruct the race and stay out of barricaded areas. If you see other pros there, try to cooperate with them and shoot some part they don't cover. If they're SM, then you might even offer to provide links to each other's galleries and the customer will be able to purchase from both of you in a single transaction.
If there is only one guy shooting a triathlon, he cannot possibly capture every part of it. Usually, what happens is they get everyone coming out of the water, a few of the people on bikes, and everyone running. It's simply not possible for one person to shoot everyone swimming, biking, and running because the fastest people often finish running while others are still on their bikes. If you see a single pro there doing complete coverage of the swim and run, then be the pro who does complete coverage of the bike. Triathletes are notorious gearheads and might be more interested of your photos of themselves utilizing their shiny bikes than those photos of themselves coming out of the water, which may not be as flattering.
Once you've created the gallery, there are several more things you can do to help it sell:
(1) add appropriate keywords, like event name, location, and type in all it's possible permutations so that it turns up on a google search.
(2) look for bulletin boards used by the track or triathlon club involved in the event and post a link to your galleries there.
(3) Consider throwing in some free pictures of the volunteers. They don't get paid. I have found that they appreciate that a lot and it helps to promote both the event and the volunteer's organization. Also, you might throw in a few free shots of the mass start, nearby scenery, etc. In other words, stuff that's interesting and memorable, but really can't be sold to an individual. I've seen people buy prints of these kinds of things for their scrapbooks, along with the regular for-profit individual photos I sell. If it enhanced their overall experience, then it's a good thing.
(4) If you've got some kind of a charitable cause for which you wish to do fundraising, use your galleries to support it. In my case, it's Tour de Cure. I can see when someone donates and what I do is move their photos into a free gallery. I have found that people will usually donate more than they will normally spend on prints or downloads. I had one person donate $100 and my free gallery is stuffed with photos of him and his team at several events.
One final point. Having done a few of these myself, I have found the number of participants actually buying something to be pretty low -- maybe 5%. Most, I think, are a core group of people who enter most of the local races every year. They are not going to buy photos from every event they do. I suspect you'll get more interested buyers, but also more competition at an event like a sprint triathlon that's more geared toward youth and beginners.
Good point. Even with the "pro" account, flickr is very snitty about "commercial use". I have heard of people getting their accounts deleted for too many links, commercial URL's inside the picture, etc. Plus, flickr is bug-infested, its download protection is weak, and it doesn't have a way to overlay your uploaded pics with a watermark, etc. If I were still using flickr, I would just get a free account and upload a small number of images as you say with all apprpriate tags -- just a way for people searching flickr to find your smugmug site. It would probably be best to have the URL as a watermark inside the image, rather than a text link in the description.