Questions for Newspaper Sports Photographers
The Sports Editor of our local paper is interested in using my services in photographing High School and College sports events. We are scheduled to talk next week to discuss the details. All I know right now is he wants me to send 4-5 photos during half time and then again after the game. My questions are: What is the current method of sending during half time as their is not much time to accomplish this. I have a laptop with wifi hotspot device. What software do you recommend to use as I will need to add a caption for each photo? What is the going rate for photos? What questions should I ask the sports editor when we talk?
Thanks in advance,
Thanks in advance,
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I suggest if you do this a lot you get Photo Mechanic especially for the name substitutions.. You can go through pics quickly and caption them (which is the biggest adjustment shooting for a paper I didn't have to deal with before) So for instance I can type in \HI45\ and Photo Mechanic will replace it with the text I've selected which is "Trojans Running Back Eric Smith (#45)" so I don't need to sit there with a roster, which REALLY helps with deadline issues... more than any other program I've ever used. However, I have had issues where the captions didn't apply and I had to copy it from PM and put it in via Photoshop, but it's rare.
Rates around here for sports (suburb of Chicago basically) ranges from $90-125 depending on the paper. One pays $90 for sports, one pays $125, set rate.
Excellent tip.
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Here is a quick Synopsis on Code Replacements and Photo Mechanic, if you are shooting for a paper it probably will not be an option not to use it..
http://news.smugmug.com/2011/09/26/photog-tip-of-the-week-sell-smarter-with-smart-galleries-by-david-evertsen/
I have yet to be in a media room where anyone shooting for a paper or wire wasn't using it. They may be even able to help you with Code Replacement files for the teams they have already shot for this year.
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I usually have a 10PM Deadline (CST) on the weekend football games and usually I'm wrapping up captioning about 9:55 because the game ran long and had a lot of good action I had to go through. I do a half-time submission as well, so that is a little consolation, but to get game winners, tie breakers in sometimes is a flurry of activity and a quiet place is always a good thing, so the box (for football) is almost always not an option because of broadcasters and their post-game shows!
Code Replacements is a really inexpensive subscription service that makes life *much* easier for sports shooters! I have on occasion written my own code replacement templates, which is not hard at all but very time consuming. If you're shooting more than a few pro games per year, just subscribe.
Unless you are an ex-software developer and can do excel spreadsheets.
codereplacements.com has a section to make custom rosters. You can paste the rosters from the schools website, maxprep, or the state HS association into the custom roster creator and you have your roster. All that is dependent of course on finding the rosters online.
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First of all, don't feel like you have to be on the field for every play. You are not shooting for SI. You also do not have to document every play. You can leave with a few minutes left in the second quarter if you need too.
Not to sound flippant in my response, but you should have an idea of what your strongest photos are before you edit them. You can lock them in camera so they are tagged when you pull up Photomechanic. Browse through your photos in PM while the pics are still on the disc and tag or color code. Then sort by tagged or color coded so only those pics show up.
Edit those pics, save to your HD, caption, and then send off.
Does the paper actually expect you to stay for the whole game? Unless you are getting paid a bunch of money, I would only stay for the first half unless you just really want to see the game. I rarely stayed for the whole game. I would leave at halftime and find the nearest Macdonalds's or free wi-fi spot.
Are you paying for your wi-fi hotspot device, ie wireless card? Is the paper going to re-reimburse you if you are? If I were you, I would tell the editor they will get pics of the first half. Go find a free wi-fi spot and file your pictures. If the paper wants more than that, then ask for more pay.
Depending on where you are shooting, you might have access to Wifi. If so, you're golden! Just pick a few good shots as the game progresses, edit and caption when you have a few minutes of downtime, then shoot those 4-5 shots into your FTP software and hit the send button. If you don't have access to Wifi, then you can tether your computer to your cell phone and send. However, this is really slow, so ask the paper what size jpegs they need, and see if you can downsize them to 1-2MB (which is more than large enough for most newspaper-sized photos, though they may tell you otherwise). You should be able to download this fairly fast.
I usually stay for the whole game, just in case some great moment emerges at the end. You should ask the paper the latest time in which they can take the pic, send them a few good ones earlier, then a few more after the game if you capture something really nice.
Having the right software, knowing how to use all of it's features, and practice.
Using PhotoMechanic and Photoshop, my typical halftime routine when covering college football is to upload 10-15 captioned images (including game info, team, player(s), position(s), and numbers) to the agency handling my photographs.
I head to the media room a few minutes before halftime and am back on the field before the beginning of the second half. Much of the captioning can be done ahead of time using PhotoMechanic. The player information is added relatively easily using PhotoMechanic's code replacement feature.
The remainder of my captioned images are uploaded ASAP after the completion of the game/event.
Being able to upload images at halftime, or frequently during other types of sporting events, is the rule - rather than the exception.
Kent
"Not everybody trusts paintings, but people believe photographs."- Ansel Adams
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I don't shoot football, but during other sports events there are usually enough down moments to fire off an image or two as the game is underway. Even in soccer, which doesn't have a lot of down moments, I manage to do this. Baseball is *really* easy to provide almost a live stream of shots!
Regarding practice, I did a couple of dry runs during unimportant games, just to get the hang of it. You probably don't want to be plumbing the software and refining your workflow as an important game is underway and the photo editors are waiting for your images!
Things like Soccer, Cross Country, etc.. usually have breaks, so take advantage of them.
This is the typical "submission" to the paper, FYI.. While I submitted 5, they will all usually be online but only one gets pulled (maybe 2) for the paper..
Cross Country Sectionals
There are always things I'm not happy with either.. The Cross Country, first time ever shooting. Thankfully wasn't that difficult. Soccer Sectional, again, first time ever shooting soccer.. I think was a disaster..
Soccer Sectional Disaster
When I'm in my comfort zone (Baseball, Basketball, Football) things always work so much better.
Jim, if that's your first attempt at soccer, you should be proud! Soccer is my main sport (just cuz I love it so much) and I am quite sure my first several shoots were nowhere near that good. You captured some key moments under less-than-ideal lighting. Now if you were a veteran Getty shooter at a ManU-Chelsea game in the EPL, I might give you some flack!
Thanks!
Tethering is slow and highly variable (i.e. slow, really slow, extraordinarily slow). It's definitely a last resort for me, but I have done it. In these cases I reduce the size of the final shots to less than 2MB. This is usually fine for newspaper work, but keep your RAW files in case a larger size is wanted.
Unlike John, with TMobile here in Chicago, I get about 1MBit/sec upload which isn't horrible but it's not broadband. Still my images which are around 1-2MB each never take more than a couple seconds a piece to upload. I'm done in 2-3 minutes max.
Sprint and a couple other companies sell wireless hotspots that are basically cell phones with USB and or WiFi modems built in, so your laptop sees a hotspot to connect to. What I have works and I'm fine with it, for now!