Freelance sports shooting..?

I was just wondering how you guys would approach a small town newspaper (only one) about said topic? I have no idea if they would just turn me down and say they have that taken care of or dont pay for photos, but cant hurt to ask.

Any tips?

If I get shot down, which is a high probability, what do you guy recommend for shooting football, hockey etc, then approaching parents about prints? Just get a smugmug account and forward them to pictures of their children? Is there legal implications regarding taking pictures of minors in Canada?

I have no idea where to start, so any advice is mucho appreciated.

You are kind of all over the map in what you are proposing. What are you really trying to do? Shoot a bit for fun? Make a living at this?

I'll suggest that there is not a hell of a lot of money to be made in action sports photography in most areas. What money there is to be made is mostly at the younger ages and really mostly shooting the T&I stuff and not the action. That said, some folks do shoot action and I see these kinds of approaches:

1) The newspaper. Most papers around here have a few guys on staff. I'm sure they'd be willing to take my work too, but I doubt they pay much and I just don't have much interest in sending them pictures.

2) Guys shooting on speculation. These guys show up, hand out cards and then try to sell prints from a website. Realistically I don't think they make hardly anything and I suspect they mostly shoot for fun and the offer of sale is pretty much just a justification. The big problem with spec shooting is that you have to overcome a lot of parental inertia. The parents have to imagine how good your work is, they have to be bothered to keep your card, visit your site, wade through the pictures to find their kids etc etc.

3) Shoot on contract. That's what I do, basically because I got started shooting for friends and neighbors. I shoot the entire team for a fixed rate with set deliverables. I sell from a website too, but that is just above and beyond and not a big deal. I can make $60 to $80 / hour working this way including my processing time, but not depreciating my equipment. For this last reason, this isn't really a way to make a living. For me I do this because I enjoy it, and I strictly limit how many teams I'm willing to shoot for so that it doesn't take too much of my time. It's fundamentally a hobby, so I have to limit my time even though I make money at it.

JeffreyG is spot on.
As far as small town newspapers go; They wan't to give you credit for the photo, not payment. Or parents are more than happy to give them photos.

Talk to the newspaper people and see what develops. The worst they can say is 'No'.

They have people that take pictures, and then write an article about said picture. WTH are they going to do with a picture and no article?

Shooting for the papers isn't going to work. All they need is one or 2 shots to write an article on. How much are you going to make from them? Shooting spec is doable if the sport you are shooting normally does not have photogs taking photos. Two, sometimes, the weather conditions as well as access areas aren't so easy for the GWC to capture amazing photos, especially if you don't have the equipment to produce amazing shots. Three, the sport is so not main stream (cycling for an example) that few people understand what is going on. Let alone knowing enough about the sport to capture amazing photos. Facebook is a great social networking site to inform and update to your potential clients about your new photos. Team and commercial contracts are the way to go. This depends on the budgets of your local teams.

FYI, it isn't easy to make a living in photography in general. I doubt that it would get easier to become a professional sport photographer, that you can make a living doing it.

Just give them a call (don't email). They might tell you're they're not interested... don't be surprised if they do. I haven't seen your work, so I can't tell you if their decision will be based on your skill or not, but more than likely they will turn you down because they don't have the money in their budget to pay stringers for prep sports.

You're probably better off working for yourself shooting prep sports if you're trying to make money and not just trying to get your name in a newspaper.

People these days are making decent money selling photos to parents and whatnot. There's not a lot of money in freelance shooting prep sports for newspapers.

My best tip is to just give them a call, tell them about yourself, ask if they freelance out prep sports and if they'd be interested in taking a look at your stuff.

Like I said, don't email. That won't get you anywhere.

Don't feel bad if they're not interested. It's not that big of a deal.

I agree with JeffreyG. I shoot HS sports and for each team, I start with the T&I, which is profitable. But I was given the T&I work because I go to the teams home games. For me it has grown into T&I, sales of action shots to parents via web site, sale of a slideshow for the teams annual banquet along with posters or enlargments that they give to the seniors as gifts. The extras help when sales to individual parents is light. You don't shoot action alone strictly for the money. Sales can be great one year from a team, and poor the next. I can't even say that one sport is better than another (other than for T&I)
One year, a small dance team was my most profitable for action shots, the parents couldn't get enough and I only shot them because I was already on the sidelines.

Well I don't need to make a living off of it, my wife and I are taken care of in that department. I just wouldn't mind making a bit of money or getting acknowledgment for my work.

I will probably just end up shooting local sports and selling the pictures to the parents. What would be a good site to use that the parents can view the pictures but not download them without payment?

Also whats T and I?, lol.

I think the newspaper is not an option as well, the editor uses a 10D +kit lens, and is the primary writer and photog for the paper. /ugh Dont think they would spend a cent for pictures or stories.

T&I are team and individual photos.
You'll make more money with them vs. freelance action photos.
When doing T&I I make an arrangement with the school or league to do the work.
We sign a contract which gives me exclusivity. I also do action photos for the events as well as donate a percentage of profits back to the school or league.
The donation is an enticement for the client to help drum up business since they have an incentive too.

If your paper regularly uses freelancers they will have an amount that they pay already so they probably won't listen to your suggested amount (unless its lower than their normal rate, I'm sure they'd love that). I make a flat day rate when I freelance for my city's paper.

Don't shoot on spec and expect to make any sort of money (or gain the respect of too many other photographers).

Shooting youth sports for parents will only make you money if the parents have money. I see so many people decide that they're going to do that and they get all excited and then they go shoot kids whose parents don't have any money. I have a pretty sweet deal worked out with a lawyer in town to shoot his kids and that pays really well fairly regularly.

Bottom line is: there's pretty much no money in sports photography.

Thanks for all the advice.

Thing is, I am really not in it for the money...I would never consider shooting a wedding if I made 10k per shoot...

All I really want to do is shoot, and help the community, as there are no T and I and no action photogs. I have a 70-200 and a 85 1.8 along with a 7D, so should be good on equipment... plus I can write it off.

So ill try and do T & I, and see if there is interest in action shots (there is a TON of money around here). The thing I worry about is people will just view the shots on a webpage then just download and print themselves... (please recommend).

I would also like to try and sell stock photos, because I spend time in the Rockies every year then go abroad for a week or 2 elsewhere vacationing. Also where I live there is an amazing amount of wildlife.

So stock photos and sports photography, I have decided on liking and perusing the 2 parts of photography that make no money? lol.

You have to have a watermark across the center of the priint. Kids will still steal them for facebook but there's not much you can do about that. Just make the watermark dark.

As others have stated, shooting on spec and then hoping people will order online is pretty much a loosing battle in the vast majority of circumstances. If you want to give it a try, sites like Zenfolio or Smugmug allow you to set up galleries that people can order from.
If you plan on shooting youth games, I would urge you to speak with the event organizers first just to make sure that there is no conflict.

jra wrote in post #14241645
As others have stated, shooting on spec and then hoping people will order online is pretty much a loosing battle in the vast majority of circumstances. If you want to give it a try, sites like Zenfolio or Smugmug allow you to set up galleries that people can order from.
If you plan on shooting youth games, I would urge you to speak with the event organizers first just to make sure that there is no conflict.

I agree. It takes some ingenious networking, knowledge of the sport, and amazing photography skills just to make your effort worth while. It helps a lot if you are really into and even play the sport. It can break down many invisible barriers. For one thing, your first 1 or 2 months you may not even be noticed. You may feel out of place considering that you just show up and start shooting. It helps a lot if you personally know couple of the athletes. Here, you aren't just shooting some strangers doing their thing. You are trying to capture some amazing moments of your "friends" doing what they love to do most. They will spread the words for you. If there are message boards where the local athletes talk about the sport, you can get involved there.

For this reason, I find it difficult to shoot other sports. I tried our local HS basketball. I felt so out of place. Even when you don't get any sales at first, at least, you should enjoy the experience. If you don't even enjoy shooting the sport, you won't be motivated enough to continue shooting.

Also, don't be a Facebook photographer and using Facebook alone to distribute and share your works. You need a business website to handle prints and downloads in various resolution and print sizes. You need someway to handle payments. Yes, it costs money but not a lot. I use Smugmug. It is only $150 a year. If you can't make back $150 of sales in a year, even in a month, you are not making a headway in your sales strategy.