*U15 Girls Soccer* I need some advice.

Sooo, I tagged along with my sister to her soccer game. She's 13 but plays with the 15 year old girls since there was no room for her on any U13 teams (we just moved from Chicago to San Diego). This is the first time I've ever shot one of her games, and one of the first times I've ever shot a field sport. Shot the game, went home, did some quick processing, threw the photos on my facebook page and told my mom that she can link the photos to the rest of the parents through email. My mom requested that I upload the photo's to the team's shutter-fly so all the parents could view them. I told her that I prefer to host the photo's on my own site rather than somewhere else and my mom got really upset. This is something I've never experienced before.. Clients can often have odd demands, but this is my mom. I don't understand why she refuses to share the photo's with the other parents just because it's hosted on my facebook page. Is it wrong of me to want to host the photo's on my facebook/flickr rather than somewhere else? It's simply to gather a bit more reach on my facebook page and market my portfolio to these parents. If the soccer pictures are hosted somewhere else, I won't be able to do so. Give in and give my photos away for free, or explain to my mom why I want to host the photo's on my site?

Advice would be appreciated.. Pardon the flickr sharpening.

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/chrisloh/797762​3012/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/chrisloh/797762​1675/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/chrisloh/797762​3582/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/chrisloh/797762​2515/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/chrisloh/797762​2817/

Well, you want them to go to your facebook page and "like" it I assume and the first thing that jumps out to me is some photos I would never want to put on a "professional" site (nip slip of you? friend?) along with the sex toy comment and language of friends on some posts that I'm sure parents of 15 year old girls do not want to see and would not appreciate. Keep the stupid stuff for your own page with high privacy settings, this could be one concern for your mom. I know it sucks, especially when you're in your early 20's or so, to try and separate you from your business but you have to.

As for giving them away that's up to you, if you add them to Shutterfly seems you're well aware they'll order them or get them through there and you get pretty much nothing out of it - even on your flickr you're already giving them away free as they can print any size pretty much from those that you posted, the only benefit is that have to go to your page to get them. That brings up the one question you didn't answer, goals with reaching out to these parents - is it to have them hire you for something, to just get more likes on your page, what you trying to accomplish? Figure that out and work backwards to see how you can reach that. Explain this goal and maybe not upset her as much, I'd ask why she wants you to put them on the Shutterfly in the first place, is she tech savvy to know how it works on fb?

As for the images Stacy created with your noggin behind the viewfinder colors seem a little flat to me, but the focus is good, the fact you got down low is good, crops are good, overall some good stuff.

you've got your name on them, it would make more sense to put them where the parents are used to seeing them. that said, they are yours and if you want to be a PIA about your pictures you can be.

Good old BMR. You're in my hood.

Did you try to ask your mom about why she wants shutterfly? I know that all Calsouth soccer teams are given free shutterfly accounts to host photos and to take a cut of print sales if parents want to buy them. Not sure if any teams get kickbacks or the like though. I know my team doesn't.

MJPhotos24 wrote in post #14979967
I know it sucks, especially when you're in your early 20's or so, to try and separate you from your business but you have to.

I appreciate your input, and completely understand. For the privacy of the girls, who are all minors, I'll be hosting the pictures on shutter fly as I had not though about that earlier. My actual website is also currently down, I need to figure everything out with it so I can host photo's there rather than facebook/flickr/500px.

My goal for having the parents visit my page was to network and market my other services. the parents can see that I shoot different events, senior portraits ect.. they aren't likely to see that if the photo's are hosted on sites other than my own.

Thank you for your critique. I see exactly what you're talking about with the colors being flat. I didn't spend more than 10 minutes processing all 200 or so photos, so this is something I'm sure I can fix for the next set in LR.

ajaffe wrote in post #14980103
Did you try to ask your mom about why she wants shutterfly?

I did, honestly, there is no logical reason behind it. (other than for the protection of the players/privacy) My mom mentioned nothing about the privacy of the players. we disagree more or less just to be defiant with one another.. petty arguments between a mother and son. haha.

regardless, they're going on shutter fly now. I don't want to host images of an under aged girl on public sites with out the written permission of their parents.

skwirnmn wrote in post #14981081
I appreciate your input, and completely understand. For the privacy of the girls, who are all minors, I'll be hosting the pictures on shutter fly as I had not though about that earlier. My actual website is also currently down, I need to figure everything out with it so I can host photo's there rather than facebook/flickr/500px.

You probably need a site like Exposure Manager, smugmug, etc. to host. There's some that just do galleries as well on your own server.

One thing to think about though is giving away free now they'll think the others are free as well, you'll get the old "but you did our soccer photos free" question. If putting on shutterfly keep them small and watermarked if you can, not sure the rules they have with that as haven't used shutterfly in years.

Usually doing edits like that it happens.

You do not need their permission to host the photos and display them, it's impossible to get written permission from everyone you photograph so no need to worry on displaying them on your site.

MJPhotos24 wrote in post #14982218
One thing to think about though is giving away free now they'll think the others are free as well, you'll get the old "but you did our soccer photos free" question. If putting on shutterfly keep them small and watermarked if you can, not sure the rules they have with that as haven't used shutterfly in years.

This is true, and I definitely see why most shooters avoid that, but it has always worked well for me in the past. Often time's, I still don't feel that I'm shooting good enough for pay, but a client will hire me anyways. I've never had to reach out to a client and convince them to buy my services.

If the parents like my photo's enough, they will eventually hire to photograph their kids. If not, I'm headed off to Santa Ana for school in less than a month, so I won't be at the games to shoot anyways.

If they decide to ask me to shoot their wedding or something of that nature and expect it for free, I'll share with them what my average pricing is, and decline if they think they're going to get more free services out of me.