Selling Motorsport Photos?

newb

Ok, so for the new season of racing Im going to focus on getting shots of cars in action. Until now, Ive been takin photos of cars standing still. I have stepped up my game in the equipment department (well Im waiting for the new pieces still lol), so now its just a matter of practice and honing my skills. One theory Ive been sloshing around in my head is eventually getting to a point where I can sell my photos. My question is, how do you advertise your photos to the drivers, or spectators?

Im not counting on making any money with my photos this year, but if Im able to that would be nice. Id like to get all my ducks in a row before the season starts, so I dont hit any snags during the year. Thanks.

Glort

Threre are a couple of very experienced Motorsport Photographers here and their accounts tally perfectly with my own.... Motorsport is a very tough sector even when you are established and extremely difficult to get a worthwhile return on your time.

My advise would be if you are fairdinkum about making money, look for something else to shoot. If you are more interested in being arounf the cars and having an excuse to get free entry or better viewing positions, then go right ahead.
Don't forget the reason your doing it though and get dissapointed when you make no money from it.

You have to realise that probably like yourself, there are loads of people that like happy snapping away at cars and will give the pics away for nothing. To compete with that your going to have to come up with a minor Miracle in offering something different that will motivate people sufficently to pull money out of their wallets and get enough people to do it every meet to make it worth you covering them.

You can hand out flyers and cards to the drivers ( I did onsite printing and found a sandwich board right next to the grid entry was effective because every driver saw it) but at the end of the day you are trying to start from scratch makeing money from a very limited market that is oversaturated with people providing the services you are trying to offer at a very devalued price.

Like I say, if your in it for business reasons, don't bother, if your in it for fun, thats fine but don't even ask about how to make money fronm it because fundamentally it's almost pointless.

newb

Well, I spend most of my free time at the track anyways, so I might as well be doing something productive while Im there. Im not worried about making money from photos I get at the track. I was looking for ideas on how I can let the drivers or spectators know that there is someone taking photos, and that the photos would be available for sale. Im sure there is at least a handful of drivers that would want a quality photo of one or more of their runs. But, usually the only time a photographer is on hand is during the huge events, which none of the locals get to participate in anyways.

r3t1awr3yd

A lot of tracks are rented by clubs/organizations that get together on forums (just like this one). Find those forums. Advertise if they'll let you or better yet, make friends with some of the guys and voila.

newb

The local track doesnt rent to groups like that. Either because of the costs, or the schedule. Im pretty sure its a combination of the 2. They do, however, hold Test 'N' Tunes every open Wednesday and Friday. They also hold Car Club Challenges every other Friday, I believe. I am pretty good friends with most of the members of one Club, but they only account for a small number of the total participants.

r3t1awr3yd

newb wrote: »

The local track doesnt rent to groups like that. Either because of the costs, or the schedule. Im pretty sure its a combination of the 2. They do, however, hold Test 'N' Tunes every open Wednesday and Friday. They also hold Car Club Challenges every other Friday, I believe. I am pretty good friends with most of the members of one Club, but they only account for a small number of the total participants.

Which track is this?

EDIT: ¼ mile or road course?

newb

Its Pacific Raceway in Kent WA. It is both a 1/4 mile and road course in one. Makes the schedule very full like I mentioned. There is also a new kart track in the park too. They have drift events on that from time to time, that would be cool to photograph.

woellerd

I shoot for New Jersey Motorsports Park, and your track seems to have a similar set-up. Some of the larger racing organizations have specific rules about the sale of images taken during their events (ARCA for example) by track or media photogs. Don't know how they handle the multitiude of shots from the stands, or from behind the fence Club events seem to be where the $$$$ are. The motorcycle guys seem to be the biggest customers around here, (especially if they crash). Walk the paddock area and give out cards. Be sure your web address is on there if you have one. Offer downloads with either a personal use, or commercial use license at different rates. CD's are popular here and you can offer to let 2 or three riders join up together to spur on the fence decisions. Talk with the teams, ask if they are interested in a specific shot. Do they have a new sponsor? Get a shot of the car/bike with that logo. Just make your presence known as much as possible and eventually you'll be the name they remember. This is only thoughts about what's working for me. Some great advice above, especially the tip on visiting the clubs forums. Best of luck, the new season is about to begin.

newb

woellerd wrote: »

I shoot for New Jersey Motorsports Park, and your track seems to have a similar set-up. Some of the larger racing organizations have specific rules about the sale of images taken during their events (ARCA for example) by track or media photogs. Don't know how they handle the multitiude of shots from the stands, or from behind the fence Club events seem to be where the $$$$ are. The motorcycle guys seem to be the biggest customers around here, (especially if they crash). Walk the paddock area and give out cards. Be sure your web address is on there if you have one. Offer downloads with either a personal use, or commercial use license at different rates. CD's are popular here and you can offer to let 2 or three riders join up together to spur on the fence decisions. Talk with the teams, ask if they are interested in a specific shot. Do they have a new sponsor? Get a shot of the car/bike with that logo. Just make your presence known as much as possible and eventually you'll be the name they remember. This is only thoughts about what's working for me. Some great advice above, especially the tip on visiting the clubs forums. Best of luck, the new season is about to begin.

Thank you very much for the tips. Ill have to check into rules with each organization. Deffinitely plenty of club events to get me started though.

Im still waiting for Pacific Raceways to put up their schedule, but based off the last 3 or 4 years itll be a full one.

MJRPHOTO

woellerd wrote: »

I shoot for New Jersey Motorsports Park, and your track seems to have a similar set-up. Some of the larger racing organizations have specific rules about the sale of images taken during their events (ARCA for example) by track or media photogs. Don't know how they handle the multitiude of shots from the stands, or from behind the fence Club events seem to be where the $$$$ are. The motorcycle guys seem to be the biggest customers around here, (especially if they crash). Walk the paddock area and give out cards. Be sure your web address is on there if you have one. Offer downloads with either a personal use, or commercial use license at different rates. CD's are popular here and you can offer to let 2 or three riders join up together to spur on the fence decisions. Talk with the teams, ask if they are interested in a specific shot. Do they have a new sponsor? Get a shot of the car/bike with that logo. Just make your presence known as much as possible and eventually you'll be the name they remember. This is only thoughts about what's working for me. Some great advice above, especially the tip on visiting the clubs forums. Best of luck, the new season is about to begin.

Dave,
Do you actually shoot for the track or for yourself? I see that there is an official photog for the track. Are you able to sell your photos to the riders without getting flack from the track photog?
Your prices seem very low to be able to make any money at doing this at the track. Do you actually make money from doing this? If you could answer this I would appreciate it. Are you making $50 a day from a track day or are you making $500 or more a day?


I will be coming there to ride my motorcycle and take photos of our group at a track day some time this spring.

woellerd

Hi MJRPhoto,

First let me say that I am retired and definately am not making a living at this. So to explain the set-up, NJMP has what's called a green Flag Committee which is all volunteers who help promote the track and help with various functions. The track has several green flag photographers. There was a paid photographer for the park last year, but I'm not sure they are going in that direction this year. I shoot the events and put the images up on my website. The track then has the authorization to pull whateever they need for advertisements, facebook, etc. I can at the same time sell the shots from my site, but I don't set up a booth at the track. To do that without paying a vendor fee would not be fair to the photogs who do pay the fee. So it's a kind of passive sales effort. There have been several vendors set up at the cycle events and we all try to cooperate as much as we can. Again I'm not at the track to make a living. my larger sales come from my fine art shots at galleries and art fairs and such. The track also doesn't grant acces to freelancers and media must have a letter of assignment to gain access inside the fence area. You may be able to get a letter of assignment from the group your shooting for. Do you ride for nesba, absolute, pro-motion, or in CCS. I'd like to meet up with you when you come to NJMP and share some war stories. Have you shot on either NJMP track before?

Glort

woellerd wrote: »

Hi MJRPhoto,

First let me say that I am retired and definately am not making a living at this.
The track has several green flag photographers. I shoot the events and put the images up on my website. The track then has the authorization to pull whateever they need for advertisements, facebook, etc. I can at the same time sell the shots from my site, but I don't set up a booth at the track.

Again I'm not at the track to make a living.

It is because there are so many photographers at tracks that are not trying to make a living and working cheaply of for next to nothing that makes this form of photography very difficult to make money from.

It's fine to shoot if you aren't interested in making any sort of profit and like to do it for the enjoyment of the photography but making a decent return on your time is quite a different thing.

It's for this reason that people that are interested in the business aspect are better off researching other markets where they have a better chance of earning a decent return be that be for part or full time work.