First post..introduction

double_b

Hello All

My first post so I wanted to say hey before I start asking a lot of questions. LOL.

I started using SmugMug just a few months ago. Pro account to sell pictures of mostly youth sports. Followed the same path as a lot have, started taking pics of my nephew's baseball and parents loved them so you know the rest of the story. As for photography itself I always had the desire to do it but just really started last year...and man the bug bit hard.

I had an OM-1 for about 15 years in a closet, bought it used and ran some fil through it at first but then it sat for a looong time. Got it out early last year, decided to go digital with an Oly E510 two lens kit, then bouth the 50-200. Realized I would be doing sports 90% of the time so I sold that and got the D300, 85 1.8 and 80-200 2.8 right away. Man, what a great rig the D300 is. Dreaming of the D700 at some point, to go along with the D300.

Sold a few pictures so far, get a lot of "wow that looks good" but then not much buying after. I expected that, didn't expect to roll in dough right out of the gate. Need to figure out the marketing/business side of it even though I am just doing it for fun mainly.

Anyhow, figured I would attach a few pics and my site just to get things going. I am still working on getting images sharper...some actual sunlight around here would help with shutter speeds!! Also using a Kenko 1.4x Pro....not completely sold on it but it's not bad. Stopping the 80-200 down to f4 helped, just a touch soft wide open.

Well, it would only let me do one pic..maybe a limit since I'm new? Not sure.

Actually the pic isn't showing up...not sure why, it loaded it.

Here is my site:

http://dynamicsportsimages.com/

Still need to work on the banner and other cool customizing but liek my photog skills it's a work in progress.

KMCC

Welcome to Digital Grin.

Looks and sounds like you're off to a good start.

Photosbychuck

Welcome

What is your name?
I shoot some sports around my area also.
What size prints are you taking to the games to sell?
I have just been handing out cards with name, number & my web site on them.
I thought maybe if I took a few prints to some of the events it might help sell a few more.

Thanks,
Chuck,

double_b

Photosbychuck wrote:

Welcome

What is your name?
I shoot some sports around my area also.
What size prints are you taking to the games to sell?
I have just been handing out cards with name, number & my web site on them.
I thought maybe if I took a few prints to some of the events it might help sell a few more.

Thanks,
Chuck,

Name is Brian. Sorry, did forget that. .

I haven't taken any prints yet. I too hand out a business card with the site and contact info on it. I shot a friend's soccer tourney, 3 games, and he had along with him a custom poster I made of his son. He informed all the parents why I was there and gave all of them my card. I got a lot of looking but no sales. Still feelign my way through to see what works and what doesn't. This seems to be the norm from reading forums. I do have have all the protection settings set to minimize downloading.

One thing I am trying to decide which is better is the timing of getting the shots uploaded versus going through all the shots and cropping/adjusting as I see fit, which of course will take longer.

Brian

tjk60

double_b wrote:

Name is Brian. Sorry, did forget that. .

I haven't taken any prints yet. I too hand out a business card with the site and contact info on it. I shot a friend's soccer tourney, 3 games, and he had along with him a custom poster I made of his son. He informed all the parents why I was there and gave all of them my card. I got a lot of looking but no sales. Still feelign my way through to see what works and what doesn't. This seems to be the norm from reading forums. I do have have all the protection settings set to minimize downloading.

One thing I am trying to decide which is better is the timing of getting the shots uploaded versus going through all the shots and cropping/adjusting as I see fit, which of course will take longer.

Brian

Well, Brian, welcome to dgrin and the frustration of selling to parents.

Just to be constructively critical, you'll need to get a lot tighter on your shot that you posted as well as stay down to their level. That'll help. people want pics of their kids, not the scoreboard (we're all tempted to widen to get an 'environmental impact') Either get teh kids up tight or tighter, or have a great play. Watch your backgrounds (keep 'em clean) and good luck...

Here's is about as 'loose' as I go... and the background is questionable at best and probably unusable....

double_b

tjk60 wrote:

Well, Brian, welcome to dgrin and the frustration of selling to parents.

Just to be constructively critical, you'll need to get a lot tighter on your shot that you posted as well as stay down to their level. That'll help. people want pics of their kids, not the scoreboard (we're all tempted to widen to get an 'environmental impact') Either get teh kids up tight or tighter, or have a great play. Watch your backgrounds (keep 'em clean) and good luck...

Here's is about as 'loose' as I go... and the background is questionable at best and probably unusable....

Tim,

Thanks. I almost made my first post a response to your post with the great shots you had last week. Good stuff.

I normally do try to frame as tight as possible, the picture I attached is my wif'e nephew and I have a ton of shots of him so I try to experiment with him to see what I liek and what I don't.

One thing I am finding is with the 80-200 it is a touch soft at 2.8 so I've been stopping down to f/4 and while it is sharper it also doesn't give quite the OOF backgorund...for instance the backgrounds behind batters end up a little more in focus than I like. It's a trade off liek most things.

I have a feeling that 300 2.8 isn't soft wide open!!