Couple Questions for sports photogs

RacinRandy

Just curious how many of you sports photographers will email files to parents?

I have gotten involved with a junior league hockey team and have had a great many parental requests
for emailed files of their players, They are expecting them for free.

I have gotten into a promotional agreement with the team where they paid for a banner, do P.A. ads for my stuff and they get promotional use of my images. I have rights to use their logos and sell prints from the games where the team can not. This way I get to make a little money for my time, efforts and equipment.

I have been involved at many race tracks in my area and refused to email pictures to racers and crews.
I do however work with the tracks on their publicity stuff in return for promotion and free entry to the races. I do sell prints and "handout" and sponsor prints to the racers and make a decent living doing that.

Am I wrong about the emails? I do have a smugmug with the buy options enabled for their convenience.

I know most of those sales are are impulse and will be few but really? free emails?

perroneford

Free emails to parents? The only instance in which I've done this was for a nice gentleman from England who's son was playing college soccer in the US and he couldn't come see. He asked how much to buy photos of his son, and I sent him a link to download all the images of his son I had. Beyond that, people can buy off my SmugMug or Photoshelter site.

The next time someone asks you about free images, ask them what THEY do for a living... then ask if you can show up there and partake of their skills for free.

I hate freeloaders.

RacinRandy wrote: »

Just curious how many of you sports photographers will email files to parents?

Am I wrong about the emails? I do have a smugmug with the buy options enabled for their convenience.

I know most of those sales are are impulse and will be few but really? free emails?

Zerodog

Why free? How do you get paid from this event? Do they pay you to be there and shoot?

Mike J

The good news is that you are getting demand and awareness. Parents know you have photos and want them. Why would you give them away free?

Direct them to your website so they can purchase. The key is making it easy for them to find the images that they are interested in. Granted this is a passive approach and will result in low sales.

There could be more direct approaches as well:

• Let them know that you are willing to shoot a team's game for a fee. Team gets the photos. Set your fee appropriately. You could do this for an individual as well.
• Why not take order forms for them to order at the games? You could take the order and payment there. The Square reader is great for this.
• Offer a package to sell a parent all of the photos from the season. This assumes, of course, that you would photoing most of the games. I do this for ski racing and this is where the bulk of my revenue comes from. They key here is being able to identify the individual in each shot...

johng

As others have said there is almost no good reason to email free photos to parents. That being said, I never found my smugmug account to be an effective first sale tool. I found selling the images via disk was a better deal. Onsite printing is a completely different business model. But, I found charging a fee for the disk worked best now that you have interest. It's always best to find out right away if the parents are willing to pay. Some are, some aren't. If they're not willing to pay, time to move to a different team or sport. But, you have to come across as a professional with a product worth buying.

The only reason to give away free work is when you haven't gotten that recognition -you're past that point now

jww

Free? Gosh I love it when that word comes up.

Even if you get paid to shoot the event, which I doubt you do, those images are yours. None of those parents paid for your equipment nor your time to learn your craft. Why would any of them expect you to take your time to not only look up the correct image, but to email it to them for nothing? Wow.. that is bold.

Any of those same parents offer to mow your yard or paint your house for free? ...didn't think so.

It is up to you to set a fair price for your work, but nothing you shoot, unless it is maybe a favor for close family should be for free. ..and even then WATCH OUT!!

When they email, just direct them to your site and please insure your images are watermarked heavily.

RacinRandy

I am going to try and address all of the replies in post here..


My "Deal" with the team is exclusive rights to sales for the season. They get to use pics for promotional uses, Ads, Website, weekly player spotlight handouts etc, etc....

The team "Pays" me for this by displaying a Banner for my business at all games and P.A. ads during games with a link to my website on theirs.

I have exclusivity to use their logos for accents on photos and can sell prints at the games or online without having to give them a license fee or any other fees.

The party im questioning the whole thing about was sent direct image links and a gallery link to the photos he was looking for. I also explained that he should feel free to use the Buy button to order the prints he was after as they would be shipped right to his door. His reply was " Thanks, Can you just email them to me instead?"

I was also contacted by the teams marketing manager. She asked me to email the files to her and she would forward them to the parent. At that I replied to her with the guidelines of our agreement and that my images aren't free for anyone. the team gets use of them but parents and fans pay for them.

At this point shooting the games has cost me way more than i have made. The advertising is working however, as i have been contacted by the coaches of some of the local youth teams about team shoots and packages for kids. I have recieved inquiries from several fans and Families about senior pictures and weddings so the advertising is working.

As I said i make most of My income in a very short Dirt Track Stock Car racing season. They still ask for free stuff too but they are all politely told no. Just bugs me that parents expect things for free.

jmp2204

Good for you , funny i shoot for fun and experience , (http://srxman.wix.com/6k-images?goback=%2Enpv_76853689_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1# but at a tournament last year there was a photographer set up with a sell on site and or buy from his page (website) i told him i would give him 10.00 for an e copy croped 8x10 if he would email it to me .I didn't need the photo, certainly didn't need it printed , he was actually a bit of a dick about .i did get his email and emailed him later explaining i shoot my own photos and was showing him some support .I actually sent some of my shots so he could find the player ( my daughter ) i was looking for as he did not have them posted lol. I sent him 10.00 and he emailed me the 8x10 as request but he was really put off buy it .He wanted 25.00 for the 8x10 printed. marginally better than what i was doing .
Another tournament last year ,There was a pro there shooting as well .(she is a member here I learned later) anyway I went and talked to her looked at her work (very good) I was on the bench shooting and she was beside me in the penalty box ,being the awsome person she is , she asked for my memory card slipped in her camera (1d mk? with a 300mml2.8) handed it to me and sadi you have 5 minutes .Wow !! that was cool .I talked the team into buying a disc of the whole tournament off her !! (that was the only time I had met her) very cool

RacinRandy wrote: »

I am going to try and address all of the replies in post here..


My "Deal" with the team is exclusive rights to sales for the season. They get to use pics for promotional uses, Ads, Website, weekly player spotlight handouts etc, etc....

The team "Pays" me for this by displaying a Banner for my business at all games and P.A. ads during games with a link to my website on theirs.

I have exclusivity to use their logos for accents on photos and can sell prints at the games or online without having to give them a license fee or any other fees.

The party im questioning the whole thing about was sent direct image links and a gallery link to the photos he was looking for. I also explained that he should feel free to use the Buy button to order the prints he was after as they would be shipped right to his door. His reply was " Thanks, Can you just email them to me instead?"

I was also contacted by the teams marketing manager. She asked me to email the files to her and she would forward them to the parent. At that I replied to her with the guidelines of our agreement and that my images aren't free for anyone. the team gets use of them but parents and fans pay for them.

At this point shooting the games has cost me way more than i have made. The advertising is working however, as i have been contacted by the coaches of some of the local youth teams about team shoots and packages for kids. I have recieved inquiries from several fans and Families about senior pictures and weddings so the advertising is working.

As I said i make most of My income in a very short Dirt Track Stock Car racing season. They still ask for free stuff too but they are all politely told no. Just bugs me that parents expect things for free.

jmphotocraft

Sounds like the parents may be expecting free images because they imagine you are doing this just for fun or on a volunteer basis for the good of your community. You'll need to explain that it takes expensive equipment, the ability to use it competently, and a significant amount of your free time to produce images of high quality. You must be compensated for your investment, expertise, time and effort. Some people may push back and point out that other people are volunteering their time for the league (coaches, referees, committee members, etc), so why can't you? The easy rebuttal here is "if I owned a Zamboni, should I make ice for free?"

RacinRandy

The awkward part is Coaches, Marketing and a few key staff are all paid positions.

The solution i came up with was.

Since I have smugmug, and use it regularly, I set the images in question to being available for digital download for a fee. Included a link to the return email and explained that the image sales were my payday for my time, equipment, gas, vehicle etc etc.

Wish I had that Zamboni line then! lol he hasn't made a purchase yet but then I'm not really expecting to see one.

jmphotocraft wrote: »

Sounds like the parents may be expecting free images because they imagine you are doing this just for fun or on a volunteer basis for the good of your community. You'll need to explain that it takes expensive equipment, the ability to use it competently, and a significant amount of your free time to produce images of high quality. You must be compensated for your investment, expertise, time and effort. Some people may push back and point out that other people are volunteering their time for the league (coaches, referees, committee members, etc), so why can't you? The easy rebuttal here is "if I owned a Zamboni, should I make ice for free?"

jmp2204

link ? i would like to see your work