Help me with a price for an event

i got offered to shoot at a K-9 event. All sorts of events from protection to obedience and possibly some portraits.

I'm trying to figure out how to price it. The people running it want some pics and that should be relatively straight forward, but knowing about the pitfalls of digital I know fully well they could end up in other hands. I could do a straight rate, but my other option I'm considering is to offer something with a split to the promoters that works for us both via an on site session to winners or any others for a portrait as well as to buy the action shots from the day of their dog competing. In this case, the participants will be buying the images and essentially paying for it, which may be more favorable to hte promoter and could possibly work out better on my end.

I could have various options to choose from in terms of packages and deliver prints via mail. if I did this option Id simply offer a percentage back to the event promoters. I shot for some people once who did this with sports: the parents came and ordered that day and they printed the pics. In this case I wouldnt print on site but would deliver via mail. I do have it available to shoot and display the images for the person's choosing that day.

Do you think people competing in k9 events would want to buy pictures of their dogs competing and winning though?

What do you think:

straight hourly rate to be paid by the promoter and offer the promoters files?
Do packages to sell to customers and offer a split.

If I remember right they said about 30 dogs. The promoters want them to use on their Facebook and website and such. What they have right now is very amateur in terms of photography.

Thanks in advance.

Who's offering to pay you? the show organizer? Or are you just trying to find a way to profit from an event you may have special access to?

If the show organizer is approaching you, have they specifically mentioned the possibility or feasibility of selling to the dog owners?

The organizers approached me. They want someone to take pictures and they want to use them on their FB and site. I tried to pry a bit more to see if they were going to sell them or what and he said maybe. In all honesty it sounded like they wanted nice pics but hadnt really thought what they'd do long term with them.

They dont sound real familiar with hiring a photographer

So this is why I thought maybe I should offer to sell some to the clients at the event instead of just a flat rate to them b/c it could work out better for both. But I'm also not sure if the clients at the event would be interested in it.

If the organizer wants you to shoot images for their use, you should charge them accordingly. Whether or not you're allowed to sell images to the participants could be worked out in the contract, but I highly doubt they would object.

Pushing images out to the participants requires additional manpower and a lot more effort on your side, for a possibly negligible gain. I don't know any specifics about the k9 side of events, but I know a lot of people on here have shot sporting events with a very low sell-thru rate to the participants.

I exclusively shoot dog sport events, and my routine is typically that the income comes from the owners, and the organizing function gets free photos to use for their web site, etc. I don't charge a fee for just showing up. But I can tell you that 30 dogs is a *tiny* event, I wouldn't expect sales to those owners to amount to much at all. Personally though I want those organizers to be my best friends, so I try to never need or ask them for money.

Dave

I never heard back so that's what I decided. IT looked like the event would be small, and my rottweiler could use some basic training. i offered to trade him to do some pictures for him if he'd train my dog and I am going to just ask to sell the pictures and keep the money 100% for me. It's a tiny event and from what I gather looking around pet stuff like that isnt big here yet but the PET PHOTOGRAPHY market where I'm at is almost non existant. So I am working to establish myself as the main person, which wont be hard I dont imagine, and I am already getting some inquiries and sessions. But I'd like to get a jump start on getting in with the folks who promote events as well as groomers and anyone I can for future referrals and such. thank you for your help Tracknut. Now when you sell to the owners.... how do you do it?

I shot a wrestling event and they had screens and everything there and the people could browse and pay right there. Is that what I should do? I can do that... or should I not do that and hand out cards and sell via smugmug or something?

What I do is get in good with the event organizers, and get exclusive contracts with them to shoot their events. That contract includes several things, like 1) They get free pics of their own dogs and for their web site and advertising 2) They will promote me to their clients, and (really important) notify their clients after an event that the photos are available at xxx web site. So when the owners are at the event, I am *the* photographer, and they just know it. I wear my logo on my shirt, I look like the photographer, I don't need to wander around handing out biz cards. Personally all my sales are online, after the event. I'm sure I could make better sales if I were selling at the event, but that requires a lot more work and a helper, which I'm not able to do. I just have a small table with my contact stuff and a portfolio of photos (from previous events) that folks can browse.