idea of the day

joshhuntnm

I just signed up for a PRO account and am thinking of ways to make a little cash on the side to buy a few more lenses. Here is the idea of the day.

Kids sporting event: take pics of every kid, post online, pass out business cards to parents inviting them to check it out.

Questions:
1) Any legal/ ethical problem doing this. I had in mind to get permission from the coach, but not get every parent to sign off.

2) Anyone tried this? Is there any money in it?

Mulder32

Tried this with little success
Taking pics of minors is very tricky business. If you can line up something with the league where they pass out a "permission slip" in the beginning of the season where you know you have the OK would help, but I know wouldn't be easy.

You defintely want to password protect these galleries. Parents don't want just anybody to view pics of their children. You can put the password on your business card (maybe leave a blank space where you handwrite it in).

I have tried something similiar to this and found I did a lot of work for almost no results. Plenty of people would visit the galleries, but very, very minimal sales. My prices (I thought) were very reasonable. I don't want to rain on your parade, just want to give you my experience. If you keep at it, maybe you'll do better. If you enjoy doing it, then great, but if you're looking at it as a money generator, you'll probably be disappointed. At least you'll build up your portfolio in the process! Good luck!

Angelo

Josh:

I invite you to scan the pages of this forum for more information. There are actually many members here who already do just this as a business model and many a discussion has ensued dealing with successes and difficulties.

Good luck

LUCKYSHOT

Josh

Most of the pictures I post online are of kids sporting events, I shoot other things, parties, portraits, weddings, but they are usually exclusive shoots where the client doesnt want pictures posted online.
As far as kids sports goes, I am licensed, insured, and incorporated. Make money and Uncle sam wants some. I always get an agreement with any league I shoot, It usually involves a sponsorship. or a cut if its a tournement.
Fortunately for me I have met a lot of people and made some good contacts but it is not easy, definately rewarding though if you put a lot of effort into it and you get the shot people want. I also password protect any event involving small kids or if the league wants me to I will.

Good Luck
Chris
www.longislandimage.com

qsjewl

I just wanted to offer up my thought about this. At my son's school, they have a photographer (usually a parent or teacher) that takes pictures at all the events; field day, winter choir concert, book fair day, donuts with dad, muffins with mom, etc. At the end of the year, they display the pictures of ones where there are only a few students in the picture. The students (or parents or teachers) can purchase the pictures for $0.50 a picture.

Maybe you could do something like this, if it's a local team you photograph regularly. You could print some pictures and display them in a small flip album style book and charge $1.00 each.

The other thing you could do that my son's wrestling team did was....the coaches purchased pictures of the boys during the season from the photographer and at the banquet, they presented the action picture with the certificate or trophy they handed to the players.

just a thought...not sure if it would be worth the effort, but it has worked for us in the past.

joshhuntnm

it seems if you had to pay for printing a bunch with the hopes of selling a few it would really cut into your profits. I like the model of getting them to look online, but then, I am sure seeing the pic right there and allowing the to buy them on the spot would really help too.

qsjewl

actually, we've never had any pictures that weren't purchased and we print tons. It's something about seeing them up close, available right there that gets them to purchase. The kids want pictures of them with their friends, so, like I said, we've never had any left over.

You could give it a try once and see if it's worth it. You never know!

joshhuntnm

qsjewl wrote:

actually, we've never had any pictures that weren't purchased and we print tons. It's something about seeing them up close, available right there that gets them to purchase. The kids want pictures of them with their friends, so, like I said, we've never had any left over.

You could give it a try once and see if it's worth it. You never know!

fascinating. Thanks for sharing. I will look for a place to try that.

Matthew Saville

joshhuntnm wrote:

fascinating. Thanks for sharing. I will look for a place to try that.

I've talked with other children's event photographers who also confirm that online sales are nothing compared to good-ol' on-the-spot business. Photographers who used to make thousands selling in-person at events now make mere hundreds after giving online sales a try.

In theory, it's an awesome business model- Just show up, shoot, hand out cards, and then watch the money come in without you having to lift a finger. (Assuming you shoot perfect in-camera images, or need no more than a couple hours of optimization before uploading to the web...)

But in reality, humans have two contradictory traits- they are lazy, and yet impulsive. They are impulsive when they see something in front of their eyes that they want. They are lazy when they see something online that will still be there for another few days / weeks / months...

So, as a children's theater photographer I have to do as much as I possibly can to get people excited about going online and ordering prints. I'll run a slideshow of the images during intermissions, and if I CAN I'll bring my mini photo printer and whip out as many prints as I possibly can on the spot. I'll give away the group shot for free, or a little collage promo print with the gallery URL on it, and finally I'll run a "25% discount for the first 7 days" sorta promotion, or something, in order to encourage print sales. I COULD remove galleries after 90 days like some photographers do, but I get so many people requesting prints from really old events that I just leave them online forever... I definitely forefit a few hundred bucks per event by doing so, but at least I'm a "nice guy" to all my customers...

=Matt=

joshhuntnm

Do you use one of those $100ish printers? I thought about getting one of those when I have an event to actually try on. I think I would have to chage a dollar a pic to make it make sense to me. The Epson printer actualy has as optional battery.