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need some advice
Recently I attend a local SCCA sanctioned solo event (aka Autocross). I received an email from a participant asking me to send him a high res image that he liked. I was wondering what is the most polite and professional way of asking him to purchase the download instead of me giving him it for free. Thanks for you help.
-Michael
-Michael
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Depends on a few things I guess, not the least of what you make out of the opportunity.
What doors would you like to open?
Track access, mention on the organisation website, rights to set up a stand at the track free of charge???
First you have to know what you would like.
2ndly, talk to the guy. You can sound him out and then suggest something like " Normally I charge $xx for a pic for that kind of usage but I am happy to sponsor your site/ organisation with pics from the events for your promo/ website/ whatever in return for track access/ official shooter status/ mention over the PA i'm there/ mention on future event programs" ...... whatever.
I do this at virtually every event I cover. I have never paid an organiser to cover an event yet. I always donate some prints and images to the organisers for their promotion.
I make it a point to ask if there is anything in particular they want other than I might do ( organising committe / staff shots are a popular and easy one) and that goes a real long way.
-IF- you think there is potential with these events, get in on the ground floor, market yourself and milk the opporunity for ongoing benifit in the long term. As far as i know motorsports is Tough, but you would know the potential market.
It seems to me you don't have a lot to loose if your interested in persuing this. The value of the sale of the image is neither here nor there and not going to break you if you give it to the guy and things don't pan out. OTOH, if your smart, the lifetime value of the opportunities you create from this one image by not selling it could very easily be worth many thousands and what's more, worth something you may not be able to buy as far as getting your foot in the door.
You can sell it to the guy and make $X or you can SPONSOR them with the image and make many times more -IF- there are things you'd like to persue in this feild.
I have seen this situation a lot. Not me as the photographer, but with a group of friends that participate in SCCA events. Most of the time a smaller resolution picture with a REDICULOUS watermark will be supplied for free...then a larger watermark-free picture can be purchased.
Jarboe Doggart Photography - jarboedoggart.com
just limit the size to be pretty small, then do not "right click protect". this will allow someone to right click and save the small watermarked version...or go through your cart to purchase the full size un-watermarked version.
Jarboe Doggart Photography - jarboedoggart.com
If you join (usually like $85 a year) and get to know them, they will let you shoot anytime you want and possibly if enough workers available, supply you with a spotter. Spotters are a necessary evil at SCCA autoX events, even if you shoot from the sidelines. Just part of their rules. You might make your shots available to the webmaster and newsletter editor of that particular region which helps cement the deal. The reason I know this is I've shot both regional and national SCCA autoX, club racing, and pro events for quite some time. I'm now a contributing photographer for SportsCar magazine with several covers to my credit and had quite a few shots land in Racer magazine among several others. I've also sold tons of pics along the way to drivers, teams, etc..
So I wouldn't give it to them the shot for free. Your time and experience is worth something unless you are just starting out and feel you're not that great at it yet.
Hope this helps! Lemme know if you have any questions.
AutoX to me is harder to shoot over racing in the essense of making a great looking autoX shot over a great racing shot. They both require skill obviously, but in autoX, they don't go that fast and in a huge lot that can have lots of distracting background issues. The more you can get closeups, showing the car leaning, the look of the driver through the side window, with a cone or two in shot to denote some sort of interest, the less they look like a car sitting still in a parking lot. Plus the rapid acceleration deaceleration, brake stabbing and changes of direction can make it hard to snag cool shots and have them in focus as well as the shot framed well. So picking your shots in advance is a huge plus. I generally walk the course and figure out the lines and depending on the sun, figure out where my best shots will be on the course for the morning and afternoon. Having a bit of reach is also a plus as you can get in close, without getting actually on the course or worse, within the course as I never want a car to come up behind me while shooting my desired shot. (ack!) Also keep in mind wacky angles of your camera can help quite a bit making cars look more dynamic in the slower turns, bus stops and boxes.
Get your Website address out there for the other drivers to see. Even spectators to see your website name.
SB-700 SB-600
AF-S DX 18-135/3.5-5.6G IF-ED
AF-S VR 70-300/4.5.6G IF-ED,Tamron 70-300Di Cannon Powershot Pro1 GreatLakesexposure.com
Do you have a website? If so why not include it in your signature? Also can we see the image in question?
I am of several thoughts here. Are you a professional? Do you want to be a professional? Are the images professional quality? Are you just trying to make a few extra $$?
If the lens your using can't produce sharp images why would someone be interested in buying an unsharp print? If your going to sell images I believe one must be able to use adequate gear, and produce good quality images. This will take gear, and practice.
If your just starting and the images are so so I might be inclined to provide a smaller image for web and email use at no charge.
I tend to think in terms of quality first..............I will put in the time to learn and practice. Then I will go into business more and look at marketing etc.
Not the other way around.
Just me thoughts.
Sam
Here's the shot in question:
Not perfect I know, but its something that he was proud of and nobody else caught him in the air :-P
Here's the shot that was purchased a few days ago:
Is the open wheeler a Lola?
You touched on something that I have read here a lot with racing photography and that is that people don't have the money to buy prints OR, would rather buy car parts. I have argued that myself but this seems to be the consensus of those that have done a lot of it so maybe something you should keep in mind.
The other thing is there always seems to be a stack of people wanting to take racing pics and happy to give them away so they can get themself track passes etc. They are happy to trade pics for access and involve themselves in ways that allow them to be close to what they can't afford otherwise.
When I was up at Bathurst the other week there was a bunch of guys with 1d'S and a variety of white lenses all taking pics very seriously. My mate went and had a chat with them and asked if they were shooting for a site or publication and they looked surprised and said no, they just liked to get good shots of the cars because they were into the sport.
They may not have the skills in the actual shooting but if they have spent that sort of money on gear you can bet they have had plenty of practice and are probably on forums reading how to do it right and therefore would have a very decent standard at least. Now if they are friendly with the drivers or know someone, you are going to have to get something pretty good to compete.
Maybe autocross is different but the first thing that would come to my mind is if there is no one doing already, why not? I think it would be Naieve to assume that no one has Discovered the sport yet. I'd be more thinking they tried and it wasn't worth their while.
That said, you don't know what they did, what they offered, pricing etc.
If your camera does Video, perhaps this may be worthwhile for you to look at? I am just going into it myself atm and am seeing the possibilities in event work. It would be good for the drivers to be able to see their drive and any mistakes they made and it may work better than stills for you.
With a decent laptop or desktop, you could produce the DVD's in the car park from under a pop up shelter and have the finished product ready for the drivers to take home. I am offering it on a pre-booked/ paid basis so I only have to cover the people that want it.
If your only going to do stills, I'd still go the prepaid only route and go for mass sales. Maybe $20 or less for a disk of all the pics you take on a run. Might sound too cheap and i'll bet all the people that are big on theroy but never actually sold event work will carry on about your rights and useage and all that good in theroy, not so smart in practice stuff but the aim of the game is to put $$ in your pocket. A whole bunch of your precious artwork is worth Zip when all it's doing is sitting on the HDD of your computer.
If you think outside the square with Vid or bulk images on a Disk, you may have something that the drivers will part with their cash for.
I'd suggest do your homework first and just go ask people what they want and like. I do it every opportunity i get and you always learn stuff that you would have never thought of in a million years or discover that what you were thinking the benifits or advantages of are at odds to what the clients do and are irrelevant to them even if they are important to you.
You might find that when you show them the shots taken with the lens you have now and run through PS, they thinit's excellent and you can use that to earn some money to put toward something better.
I am trying to tap into the youth soccer business and was over shooting a friends child recently. I ran into a co-worker and told her I would shoot her child also.
I gave pictures to both families.
The original family has brought me a ton of business. I had not heard anything from the co-worker or from anyone on her team so I asked her if she liked her pictures. She said “yes, we loved them. The ones you took that had other kids in them I GAVE to the other families. So I shot myself in the foot.
In the future, I will make myself very clear that the pictures I “give” away are not to be given away to potential customers.
@Kitkos I guess you just chalk that down as a learning experiance :-P But it might come back around if they are not all on the same team for next year! I was thinking of shooting my little cousins softball games next year so I'm interested in your other learnings. Thanks for your help!