Pricing little league baseball team action shoots

I searched for this topic it has been 4 years since it has been talked about just wandering if things have changed

I had a little league baseball team ask me to take pictures, I told them sure it was 50 dollars an hour, I mean 50 bucks for a team is cheap that less than 5 bucks a kid, and then gave them package prices
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PKG1
4 -4x6 copies of one photograph
1 print 5x7 team picture
12 trading cards approximately wallet size
10 pictures saved as 5x7 on cd (log into the sports page after your pictures are taken to choose these)
$30 plus tax
---------------
PKG2
10 -4x6 copies of one photograph
1 -8x10 team picture
18 trading cards approximately wallet size
15 pictures saved as 5x7 on cd (log into the sports page after your pictures are taken to choose these)
$40 plus tax
---------------
PKG3
10 -4x6 copies of one photograph
1 -5x7 team picture
1 -8x10 team picture
18 trading cards approximately wallet size20 pictures saved as 5x7 on cd (log into the sports page after your pictures are taken to choose these)
$50 plus tax
or told them they could go on my website and order them from there where they could order posters, Wallclings, and things like that. for the 50 every one gets a Team photo. They wanted me to do it for free give them each a team photo and wanted me to put each kid’s picture on CD and then they would pay 30 for the cd. Is this the new business model for action photography shots? I not sure if I am falling behind on the time. Is everyone just throwing the pictures on a cd and giving them for one lump sum.

I'm not a pro, but the phrase that caught my attention was "they wanted me to do it for free" -- So, are you sure any offer will have an impact?

Perhaps this would be better placed in the Sports Talk section rather than Photo Sharing Sports.

...or in the business of photography section. I didn't notice where this was posted.

I think your price is very low and your packages are overly generous for what they are paying. Are those prices typical for your market area?

I shoot sports team and individual pics (not action). If you're interested in seeing my sports order form and prices, you can download it from this page: http://www.jeffwhiteph​otography.com/Packages​.html

jwhite65 wrote in post #15813575
I think your price is very low and your packages are overly generous for what they are paying. Are those prices typical for your market area?

I shoot sports team and individual pics (not action). If you're interested in seeing my sports order form and prices, you can download it from this page: http://www.jeffwhiteph​otography.com/Packages​.html

Agree. Way too cheap

Yes prices are low, on PKG 3 .... who wants 2 team photos? I would make the 8x10 a single player shot.

Now when my dad coached baseball 5-7 years ago, the photographer was never paid by the team just in orders from the parents, so he would show up and take the pictures then hope parents handed him order forms (a side not he would shoot like 12-14 teams in a single morning on "picture day").

As a parent your packages may make me think twice and order something. I have not ordered dance pictures from my daughters dance shool since the first year. She still has to go to be part of the class picture but we do our own before the "official" shoot. Even did this before I had a decent DSLR and still got better pictures then the official photographer would (and its a big name dance photography studio, who also does the videos for the performances).

I would agree that your packages seem too cheap. As far as pricing, I would agree with the above sentiment, the team doesn't usually pay for this (at least in my area), the money is made from parents' orders. The key is to make sure the parents pre-order before shooting anything. If you shoot and then hope for orders, you'll almost guaranteed to not make enough to cover your time.
I'll also add, the photos you're putting on a CD, do you plan on making them all different photos? If so, that sounds like a nightmare trying to discern who wants what. Also, how would you even know that you could capture that many different and unique photos of action? (what if the kids sat on the bench most of the game?) IMO, you would be better served making your packages all one pose with a team photo....in fact, I would suggest that you forget about the CD and make it a couple of 5x7 prints.

I just remembered... There's a guy around here who shoots team photos I think the same as what they are asking you to do. He will show up at least an hour before game time and take team and individual photos. He will also take whatever other photos they want - families, buddies... anything. When they take the field to warm up, he goes on the field and takes mock action shots and then he stays for the game and takes more photos.
He gives each person who paid a 5x7 individual and a 5x7 team photo. He also gives them a disk will ALL the photos he took that day (SOOC). He does this for $25 / kid. I don't know what stops just one person from paying and then passing the disk around.
As far as I'm concerned, even if every kid buys ($300 for a 12 person team) it is still way too cheap considering the time he has involved.

pbisfun wrote in post #15812267
They wanted me to do it for free give them each a team photo and wanted me to put each kid’s picture on CD and then they would pay 30 for the cd. Is this the new business model for action photography shots? I not sure if I am falling behind on the time. Is everyone just throwing the pictures on a cd and giving them for one lump sum.

Are they saying $30 each? Or $30 total?

jwhite65 wrote in post #15815410
I just remembered... There's a guy around here who shoots team photos I think the same as what they are asking you to do. He will show up at least an hour before game time and take team and individual photos. He will also take whatever other photos they want - families, buddies... anything. When they take the field to warm up, he goes on the field and takes mock action shots and then he stays for the game and takes more photos.
He gives each person who paid a 5x7 individual and a 5x7 team photo. He also gives them a disk will ALL the photos he took that day (SOOC). He does this for $25 / kid. I don't know what stops just one person from paying and then passing the disk around.
As far as I'm concerned, even if every kid buys ($300 for a 12 person team) it is still way too cheap considering the time he has involved.

Yes but to some $300 for a Saturday morning worth of work its great. If its just a hobby for him right now, he could have a new L lens by the time the seasons over And he is home before his wife even gets out of bed lol.

wow this thread has been helpful! I am looking to start something up as I was asked too and was going to start searching pricing.. but you gave me ideas..

i too agree that while they want it for free and someone out there would take them for free... you set it yourself and they will know where you stand.

there is the free photographer section and even if their pics are horrible people will complain
then there is the charge for my work and it is great and they will come back when they see the free work

jwhite65 wrote in post #15813575
I think your price is very low and your packages are overly generous for what they are paying. Are those prices typical for your market area?

I shoot sports team and individual pics (not action). If you're interested in seeing my sports order form and prices, you can download it from this page: http://www.jeffwhiteph​otography.com/Packages​.html

Not really the packages were done up because a friend in the next town over asked me to shot the team his kid was on after seeing some of my work. I gave them my prices list, they said the last lady just charged every one 30 dollars for a CD with their kids pictures on them and a picture of the team. I told him I would send him something after seeing the packages I made up just for that team he said well all the parents said they never heard of anyone charging to shoot the game. And then they said they just wanted a team picture and a posed picture of each kid and all the pictures I take at the game on a cd for 30 dollars. I told my friend cool catch you later.

jwhite65 wrote in post #15815410
I just remembered... There's a guy around here who shoots team photos I think the same as what they are asking you to do. He will show up at least an hour before game time and take team and individual photos. He will also take whatever other photos they want - families, buddies... anything. When they take the field to warm up, he goes on the field and takes mock action shots and then he stays for the game and takes more photos.
He gives each person who paid a 5x7 individual and a 5x7 team photo. He also gives them a disk will ALL the photos he took that day (SOOC). He does this for $25 / kid. I don't know what stops just one person from paying and then passing the disk around.
As far as I'm concerned, even if every kid buys ($300 for a 12 person team) it is still way too cheap considering the time he has involved.


Are they saying $30 each? Or $30 total?

I do something simaler I charge the team 50 dollar to come out. I then take a team picture and take pictures as the kids warm up I then stay for an hour of the game and take pictures. were we differ is I don't put pictures on a CD they go to my website and buy the pictures and they are shipped to them.

the way the lady did it was she just put the pictures of the kid you were buying on the CD that way you can't hand them to every one and she charged 30 a CD.

I find if I don't charge somthing to shoot the game they look at the pictures and tell me how great they are but never by. if you charge a littel upfront they have all ready invested in the pictures so they buy.

Rather than packages I'd take the approach of selling teams a disk or download of images. Pre-sell the CD and get paid, shoot the team in action, burn images to disk or upload to Dropbox for them to download. No fuss with printing, packing and delivering packages. The team can share the cost of the disk among the players and team/parents can make their own prints.

A lot of this depends on the past experience of the parents involved. I would guess maybe the higher performing leagues maybe more interested in a pay per print or game approach. For this league the mark has been set by the previous photographer. I would really doubt you will get the parents on this team to go for a price per picture model. You can try, but probably a parent or two will just share their pictures with the other parents.