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Selling Photos to Newspaper
has anyone here sold any of their photos for use in a local newspaper - online and/or print? i'm thinking of offering some of my pics of local high-school and college sports teams to a local newspaper. i've noticed they run stories on these teams without any accompanying photos. may be an opportunity. if you've done this and can offer any suggestions, specifically on price, i'd appreciate it. Thanks.
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I will totally agree with Jeffro in that the paper will have set rates they will pay for a shot.
I would also suggest that you contact the sports editor and offer your services as a stringer for them to help them cover games. Something you might want to consider in this, particularly for high school games, is that the paper will probably have a deadline that you'll need to meet for submission of images. Which means that if you normally stay and shoot the entire game, with a deadline to meet for the paper, you may have to leave the game at halftime in order to process and get images submitted by your deadline.
Anytime I've covered games here for the local paper I've never stayed at a game longer than half-time, and most times I'm outa there during the 2nd quarter in order to meet deadline.
Atlanta, Georgia
Photos at SportsShooter
I've worked with several local newspapers in covering high school sports. Contacting the sports editor directly has always been a good strategy for me.
I've had some clients that pay a set rate per published photo and others that pay a fixed assignment rate.
Kent
"Not everybody trusts paintings, but people believe photographs."- Ansel Adams
Web site
What I have found useful to get the interest of newspapers and media outlets is to submit two galleries: a small one with your best shots (ideally as many relevant sports as you can), and a somewhat larger gallery (30-50 shots) of a single game. The reason the latter is important is that any media outlet or news source looking to hire a shooter wants to know how well they do at a single game, not just that they can get a few good shots after shooting many tens of thousands of shots.
Regarding submitting on deadline, this is usually done (at least by media outlets) by setting up an FTP account on which you can do live submissions. The real trick is captioning (and at least for media outlets, a photo without a good caption is worthless) as the game is proceeding. I always stay for the whole game but submit captioned images as I go along. I use Photo Mechanic, which is a very good app for attaching IPTC metadata, captions, etc. My workflow is camera-->lightroom (quick edit)--> photo mechanic-->FTP. Most games--even soccer, which I shoot the most--have enough time to get a few good shots off as the game is going on.
Lastly, my impression from talking to sports photo editors at major papers is that they prefer acceptable images that are well-captioned, representative of the event, and on time, to beautiful images that are submitted a day late. One of the challenges in sports photojournalism is workflow and editing on a laptop in difficult lighting, as opposed to that beautiful fully calibrated 27 inch monitor in your darkened studio at home. Takes some practice...
In addition, they only pay for ones they use. You have to keep a close eye on them as well. You give them 5 shots and they use 3. They could use the other 2 in a "year in review" edition at the end of the year. If you don't catch it, they basically ripped you off.
Be careful when selling to papers. Make sure you know your rights and what you have to do to get your money.
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Yeah, I am constantly surprised by the poor quality of news photos.
Yep, captioning is key! I always try to get head shots of the star players, and if I capture a great play I make sure to take another shot of the player with his number in view. In baseball, I take a shot of the scoreboard during each change of field so that I can recall where in the game an event happened. Lastly, there are services that will provide you with the entire team roster, including umpires/refs (http://www.codereplacements.com/). If you use Photo Mechanic, you can just write a shortcut in the caption (e.g. m10 for Manchester United, player 10) and PM will fill in all the details of the player: full name, number, position, etc. In addition, you can put in boiler plate details, such as date, teams, location, and final score, which will be applied to all of the shots. The you just need to add the players in each shot, and a brief statement on what is happening. It makes captioning easy (or easier). Lastly, newspapers love the celebratory shots, which are easy to get. If you have some of these, you'll get a lot of interest.
I once shot a minor league baseball game just for fun and there was another photog in the photo well with me. He was shooting a 1D M4. After he got a good shot that he was going to submit to his newspaper, he would switch to video mode and record his voice describing the play - who made it, what inning, the score ,etc. So he could caption it later. When he got on his laptop later to upload the images he plugged in some headphones to hear what he said on video about each shot. I thought that was pretty clever.
I do agree with others here that point out the need for accurate descriptions to go with the images. Knowing this, I learned early on (1) Grab a program and stick it away in my camera bag (2) Not to delete ANY images until after I have my 8 shots picked out with accurate descriptions to eMail to the editor.
There are going to be times when you have a great action shot but you can’t quite see the number on the uniform to correctly identify the player. Several times I have been able to go back and look through ALL the images on the card and identify a player on a “deletable” image by a knee pad, an arm pad, type of shoe or sock, headband, ect.
For football and basketball when the PA Announcer gives the player’s name of who score red the basket I carry a little digital voice recorder in my shirt pocket. I can have it set to record on voice recognition or continuous mode. In voice recognition I get the number of the image I just shot, relevant time in the game, players involved, ect. In continuous mode, I just let it run and then when I get a “keeper” I let the PA Announcer describe the action I just shot and then I add the number of the image to the audio.
I do ask permission from the local schools to shoot the games before showing up at the game. Seeing as they all know I am shooting for the paper they always grant me permission, but I feel it is just proper etiquette to ask permission anyway. In my state, you don’t need any special pass to be on the court/sidelines/infield until the tournaments/playoffs start. Then I need to show my Press Pass that is supplied to me by the editor.
I don’t know if this is the exact information you were looking for, but this is how I got into the business about 10 years ago.
My experience is that newspapers are a great way of getting a press credential and getting your work noticed, but not a great way to make money. (Actually if you want to make money, don't go into photography!) The trend for the last while is towards shooting for media outlets like Getty or its competitors. However, the catch-22 is that you need a tear sheet to land a gig with news image service, which usually means your photos in a newspaper. I don't have a lot of experience in this area, but I was able to work with a fairly major paper (via a friend who knew my work well) to get my first access to pro sports, and that led to some publications and bigger things.
So my limited experience is that newspapers are are great way to break into the business of sports shooting, but it's really hard to get a steady job as a photojournalist at a paper.
The problem with shooting sports whether it be for newspapers or for money is you are competing against free. Shooters will trade press passes for publication. Media is now counting on hobbyists who like seeing their name under pictures. What this does is devalue photography. If you try as an individual to make money with sports, you are comepting against free because, again, you have hobbyists on the sidleine who give their pictures away to parents and players. This also devalues photography but the rationale is they are not pros so they just give it away.
There isn't a business in sports photography unless you are one of the wire services that hands out press passes, gets pictures foe next to nothing, and then sell those pics to publications. You mention wire services, but many of them like USPResswire, Southcreek, shoot on spec. USPresswire just started paying their freelancers $100 to cover an event and they get hundreds of shooters who will shoot an NFL game for that. Doesn't sound like a business to me for the shooter who will spend around 6 hours at the stadium not including travel time. Lets not even mention the gear needed to shoot the game.
There is money to be made in sports photography, but it isn't upper level. The higher the level of sports, the more easlily it is for media and people who will buy the pictures to find shooters who will do the games for nothing. If you want to make money with sports, shoot little league where the kids are adorable and parents can't resist the buying impulse.
i agree there are few jobs at the top end. However, I disagree with the notion that you can make a good income by shooting little league action. There again, you are competing against FREE. There is invariably a parent or two shooting action and giving away their photos to other parents. When it comes to buying, that's another matter. Especially if you use your smugmug account. They look at the pictures and love looking, but actually buying is something else. The money in sports is still in the Team & Individual (T&I) business. Those still sell and they're the best return on time spent - but you can't do it successfully as a 1-man show. It's a bit different if you're doing event shooting for tournaments and such - where you have exclusive contracts, multiple shooters and such. But, the local city little league? Not a huge market anymore.
I agree and didn't say "good income". I should clarify and say "more income" than trying to sell to news media. To make money, you have to market and control the pictures yourself. You will not make a living selling sports pictures, even with youth league. Having the idea shooting for a newspaper is a way into the business doesn't really apply anymore which is more what I was making a point too.
I think many people on here think shooting college/NFL is the ultimate sporting experience and means they have arrived. In reality, most wire services are using the photographer for cheap labor and making money off the cheap labor. There isn't a ladder to climb anymore in regards to sports.
Cheap labor is right! I don't know any of the wire service shooters--Getty, Presswire, etc.--that are making a living at it. Most do other work, such as event shooting or studio work, to pay the bills. About the only value of getting one's shots in the paper is to attract customers for these other gigs. I have to say that, because of these affiliations, I do get asked to shoot soccer games for local competitive teams, many of which are populated by children of wealth and think nothing of paying relatively large sums of money. I only wish I had the time to accommodate them, but I don't.