May be working at a photo studio

[hpulley]

Sadly the moral of the story seems to be stay in school and don't quit your day job.

[flauri]

What do you have to gain here. You said you looked everywhere for work and there is nothing. If this company is a reputable one, you can gain valuable experience in all aspects from the business side of it to the shooting and everything else in between. If you can learn from this...and you turn this into a positive experience, it may be worth more to you than $8.50 an hour.

Frank Lauri

[Karl Johnston]

There's some slight satisfaction but the pay is horrible! I shoot home games (10-20 per season) for 6 teams and all I'm guaranteed is $265 for the season even if there are not any action shots sold from a game. That $265 is for the slideshow.

How much time goes into creating the slideshow? Photographing the teams? Going out to the teams, staying there, preparing the proofs on the computer, doing the processing...How long is a season ? Taxes...? accountant ?....etc.etc.etc.

more importantly can some random kid go out and do 10-20 per season right off the bat with no experience or will it take them time to build up a portfolio, network, find the clients, secure the contract, get paid?

[hpulley]

10-20 games total I hope... not the 90 games it could be for 6 teams. 15 games maybe 30 hours is $8.83/hour... not including time to prepare the slideshow.

[mritchy]

Originally Posted by Willie

Would you roll out of bed for that if you had no other source of income?

That's got to be a hell no. Why waste the time? I'm young too and I wouldn't get out of bed for that. You make more waiting tables at your local Olive Garden. Oh, and that's in cash every day. Wait tables, save up, get some gear, and go out on your own.

[TheBrick3]

This is why 99% of photographer's don't become professional. Given the option of doing something fun and high profile or something not fun and low profile for the same amount of money, you go with the former everytime. Not to be rude, but if you could get anyone else to pay you, say, $10/hr x 40 for the summer then we wouldn't be having this talk.

[Highlight_Photography]

Originally Posted by musicmaster

I interviewed with a photo studio that concentrates on sports. They were looking for someone to do office work (with scheduling, uploading prints to the lab, minor editing-if needed, sorting through photos etc) for $8.50 an hour. He said there would be no set schedule and I would be working 30-40 hours per week

He found out that I also shoot and had wanted me to shoot as well, some action, mostly team photos and individuals. I asked about pay for that, and his response was same $8.50 that we pay the other photographers, plus travel expenses. I almost laughed because the company doesn't own any equipment... but seriously.

So what do I do? I don't have a summer job (I applied everywhere). I have no interest in shooting for $8.50 when the company is making hundreds off of that one hour shoot, but the general office stuff seems okay.

Don't let people take advantage of you. Yourself just like everyone else has themself plus family to look after, for $8.50 you might aswell go get a job at your local McDonalds

[Mike R]

Originally Posted by Karl Johnston

How much time goes into creating the slideshow? Photographing the teams? Going out to the teams, staying there, preparing the proofs on the computer, doing the processing...How long is a season ? Taxes...? accountant ?....etc.etc.etc.

more importantly can some random kid go out and do 10-20 per season right off the bat with no experience or will it take them time to build up a portfolio, network, find the clients, secure the contract, get paid?

Thats why you do it for reasons other than the money. If money is the only reason, find another line of work. I put the slideshows together for each team as the season progresses and ProwShow Producer makes it easier. In most cases, shooting action shots will lead to shooting the T&I, which are very profitable. I mentioned the slideshows because when action shots sell poorly, you at least are generating income by producing the slideshow. Then you can sell additional copies of it ($20-$30 each) for the team to give the seniors as a gift, along with an enlargment action shot of each. The larger the team and the more seniors on it, the more profitable it becomes. My marketing skills S**k and I was able to accomplish this. I can only imagine if I was good at marketing.

Getting your first team is the most difficult thing. Then, when other teams see what you did for the first team, they will want you.
It seems as if each part of the country (world) is different on how things are done with contracts, kickbacks etc..

To get that first team, you need to determine who is responsible. Is it the AD? the Booster Club? Team parents club? Then you need to approach them with your propsoal. Are you going to offer a kicback? .

It's getting more difficult because many teams have a DWC (or Mom) who may not have the proper gear but is giving the prints or files away and in this economy, it's price over quality.

Be sure to have the proper gear, knowledge and confidence before you start.

[CanonGolfer]

I did some work for a guy here in Tucson shooting sports team shots for youth. Pay was decent (20$ per hour) but it was 10+hrs a day (on the weekend) of the most mundane, posed studio shots of children in their uniforms you can imagine. I still might consider it when the going gets tough and I don't have any weddings or shoots to do but it's really not the most fun thing in the world....better than $8.50/hr though. The main reason why I did it was because of the kids.

[sspellman]

The low wage of $8.50 for office work is reasonable, but is far too low for skilled photography work. Tell you will be happy to work in the office, but require a higher wage to contribute your photography skills. Make sure that the studio does not have a conflict with you shooting freelance assignments on your own.

-Scott

[Rubi Jane]

I shoot sports and hire freelance photogs to shoot for me (saves all the hassle of managing them as employees plus I don't require them consistently). For a seasoned shooter I pay $75/hr, for someone starting out I pay $25/hr and realize I may only have a 50% keeper rate at best. The key here is I can email the participants directly and direct them specifically to their images. Sales are good for on-spec shooting and I only have to process what I sell.

For tournaments or T&I where the margins are tighter I can only afford to pay $20+/hr. At the end of the day, my shooters probably make more than I do on an hourly basis.

We have no idea how old you are, your experience level - but judging by the comment of not having a summer job I'd guess you're a college student. If you're interested in learning the business take the office job, you'll learn heaps from it. If you want to shoot for experience then do that but don't expect to maintain copyright if you're hired to work. You can ask to use the images for your portfolio and I expect they'd allow that.

Don't chastise a company for paying a certain rate, they're in business to be profitable. What you have to figure out is if the combination of monetary compensation and experience is worth it to YOU.