Pictures Gratis as Courtesy

kschmeits@charter.net

[FONT=&quot]My website is http://actionphotos-K3.smugmug.com. Our main focus is kids sport photography.

To give you all a little background. I am the "official photographer" for certain racing leagues. I get into all the races free, have access to everyone and anywhere on the track I want to go, within reason (they don’t want me getting hit by a kart/car) The track owners also promote me on their websites, and my pictures all have my logo on them.

As part of my "responsibilities" I provide the track with some photographs of the race/event. So if there are 4 classes with anywhere between 5 and 15 kids in each class, I will give the track owner anywhere between 15 and 20 pictures from that race. I shoot about 200 to 600 photos for that race. (yeah yeah too many I know!!) We don't just shoot the race... we shoot the pre race, setting up the karts, the kids horse playing around, those father/son (parent/child) shots that you don't get anywhere else.

So out of the 15-20 of those shots, 1/3 are the fun candid, another 1/3 is class racing... getting all the karts coming around a corner or starting off the line. The last 1/3 are the individual kart/car shots.

This arrangement works fine... but lately the more tracks and events I do, the harder it is to circle back around and get the track owners photos to them. When you take 250-600 photos a race, it takes time to go through that race, pick out some good shots that represent the event for that day, resize them to a smaller size/resolution for the web (done via batch in Adobe). Then zip them up and mail them to the owner.

One easy solution is to say... "don't take so many shots". Well... the other unique thing I do for my customers is I provide custom collages. That is taking several photos and putting them into one big picture. So the more pictures I have to work with, the better the collage is. And honestly, I am working on cutting down the pictures and taking better quality shots.

[/FONT][FONT=&quot] ** Here comes the question part that I would like some input **[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]So the question is... do other photographers do the same thing… that is offer a few pictures to the owners? Or are there other things that I could do that would keep me getting in free to the tracks and still promote their tracks as well as my business?[/FONT]

Shay Stephens

First off, never apologize for the number of photos you take to get your job done. An artificial limit on the number of shots taken is pointless and only serves to stoke the egos of the elite set. Would anyone in their wildest dreams harp on a writer who tosses x number of pages away to come up with a novel? Or would we laugh at how many twirls and jumps an Olympic skater makes before going to the Olympics? Never. So take as many photos as feel you need and want to take, and do so without the slightest bit of embarrassment or remorse.

Now as far as the track people go, I do this myself. I provide photos to venues I find myself shooting at. They are allowing me to shoot on their property and in thanks I provide them with photos I took. This is on the basis of me being there for some event or project outside their need. If they want to commission me for something custom or special, then it is for pay, just as if I were to show up there for a meal, I would be expected to pay for it.

The photos I provide are the ones I want to provide. My workflow is not hampered by this. So if you are experiencing difficulty, perhaps you can alter the volume or frequency of the photos provided. What does the track really need or want. I would talk to them explaining your problem and talk out a solution that would work for both of you. You never know, they may not want or need the number of shots you are currently providing. Talk to them.