Covering Sporting Event's

i wanted to ask.. what is the normal protocal for covering sproting event for most of you.

Do you Charge a fee to come and offer a certain number of photo's? If so what is the gong rate just to how up.. do you charge extra for locations out of a certain milage.

Do you just show up for no charge and hand our cards for parents to visit your site and buy later.

Do you show up at no charge, take photo's and offer then on site..

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If you just show up how do you know what parents to focus on and/or which teams.

Lastly
Poster's and/or Collages How do you offer these to parents at location unless you were already hired by parents.

I know there are similar posts but i did not see all these questions asked and/or all the details covered.

I was asked bya parent for a sport's photo's from my pix and i only have 1 photo's of them.. These parents didn't want more than on kid on there they just wanted theirs. So i am trying to understand how you guys handle these issues and/or what the trend is on this locally.

All these parents know I am a student to this industry but are pleased so far with the photo's in my gallery. its located at www.haasports.info

Thnx for your responses in advance.

I have a few ways of doing it. I string for newspapers and cover high school events for them. I send in a few photos for that particular event and they purchase what they like and pay me on a per photo basis. I also put the photos on my web site where the athletes, parents, etc., can purchase them from me (I use Shutterfly for the printing and mailing).
I also contract with companies where they pay me an hourly rate to cover an event and get photos of each athlete, the action, the fans, cheerleaders, etc. I upload the photos to their site and they sell them to whoever wants to but them.
I also have a deal set up with a couple of professional sports teams - indoor football and women's softball, and they pay me on a per game basis. After the game I put my photos on a CD and give them to them. They use them for their web site, trading cards, programs, posters, etc.
If you're just starting out try contacting a local weekly paper that might need a shooter for high school sports. It's a great way to get out, get some shots and make a dollar or two for your efforts. After a while you'll get to be known by parents and they'll start asking you for some photos. That might be the time to set up a web site and use a service or to even begin printing at home.

I know our local paper does not want to buy photo's they want them given and then they still sometimes dont want to cover event's. Its really bad for the local kids trying to get known. There are not many local sports photog's up here I talked to a guy in Savannah that has to come here to cover sometimes. And he not in the leauge of most you guys. he point's shoots and uploads no edit at all he does not even know how to edit.


I am trying to figure out what to do and what to charge to cover an event using video and photo's.. and how to get out there. the funds are used to support my own team's efforts so that is why i want to get out there for now.

ItzBitzHair wrote in post #5339666
he point's shoots and uploads no edit at all

Just as a quick side note, have you ever shot sports on a deadline? You dont have any time to go though and edit the images. Editors (at least mine) want them uploaded to them so they can decide with the page layouts how they want them cropped, etc... Plus they usually want me to start uploading 10min after the game ended, and in that time you have to determine keepers, write cutlines, etc. So it is not necessarily a bad thing to not edit your images depending on your situation.

ItzBitzHair wrote in post #5339666
I am trying to figure out what to do and what to charge to cover an event using video and photo's.. and how to get out there. the funds are used to support my own team's efforts so that is why i want to get out there for now.

When you say "cover" an event, what do you mean? Like to sell images to the parents? the paper? Also, what is your team? Like the team that is playing (the one you are shooting)? And how are you associated with them? I know those seem like dumb and picky questions, but each answer can give a different response to your original questions.

well this guy has no deadline and his photo are not in the same quality level as pro's here which means they need to be edited. that is why i made that statement i am not talking about someone with awesome photo's like you guys.. i mean someone with crazy shots, blur's and on and on.... but that is not where i am going with this.. iam referring to structure of getting set up and out there...


2nd when i say cover an event i mean this. When i got to a game i know is happening in the area i am not covering the event. iam there and just taking pix..

covering an event is being ask to photograph paid or not the event.. but i am trying to set upself up in a way that cover IS me getting paid.

My team is that i have 2 aau girl bball teams and we operate on fund raisers.. my photo's is a way i am trying to raise money for them.. photograping no only our team but any other playing in the area.

I looked around on their website a bit, and i am assuming that this league is almost what "club" leagues are like here? But do yall have tournaments? If so, that would be your best bet for making money. You have all the parents in one place watching their kids play. You can do these sales many ways, on site or online. If you search for either of these, you will be able to come up with whole threads on the topics. If you don't have tournaments, contact the coaches and see if they would like you to come out and provide the service to their team and sell pictures to the parents. In both situations, make sure you are in contact with the people who can make the decisions about it, some photography companies submit bids and sign contracts to have the rights to shoot the league and or tournaments. Just make sure you dont step on toes.

yes we have tournaments.. aau is all tournament play if you are referring to us.

we will do about 8 more which is a 3 game guarantee. and my parents know about me its getting other teams to is where i am going with this.

bigjon0107 wrote in post #5340226
I looked around on their website a bit, and i am assuming that this league is almost what "club" leagues are like here? But do yall have tournaments? If so, that would be your best bet for making money. You have all the parents in one place watching their kids play. You can do these sales many ways, on site or online. If you search for either of these, you will be able to come up with whole threads on the topics. If you don't have tournaments, contact the coaches and see if they would like you to come out and provide the service to their team and sell pictures to the parents. In both situations, make sure you are in contact with the people who can make the decisions about it, some photography companies submit bids and sign contracts to have the rights to shoot the league and or tournaments. Just make sure you dont step on toes.

ItzBitzHair wrote in post #5340299
yes we have tournaments.. aau is all tournament play if you are referring to us.

we will do about 8 more which is a 3 game guarantee. and my parents know about me its getting other teams to is where i am going with this.

Like i said, search for things on "on site sales" or something along those lines. It is basically where you set up a table and have a printer there and print contact sheets and have them order from those, or have multiple computers set up that take orders, there are tons of ways to do it. And the parents will notice you if you have some signs out. The only problem than would be is if you have to be with your team the entire time. You could also look into online sales where you could take pictures and the pass out business cards with the website on it for the parents to order.

The only problem i see, is that it looks like they have a photog, or at least someone that uploads their photos to the site. As bad as they may be, this will largely cut into your sales. Free always wins.

WHo has a photog

bigjon0107 wrote in post #5340390
The only problem i see, is that it looks like they have a photog, or at least someone that uploads their photos to the site. As bad as they may be, this will largely cut into your sales. Free always wins.

It looks like the league does. On their website they have a spot for photos from the events/games. And they are quite large and easy to get a hold of for prints.

on who's site are we referring too... I was asking about covering events in my area.. I did not post a site.

bigjon0107 wrote in post #5342070
It looks like the league does. On their website they have a spot for photos from the events/games. And they are quite large and easy to get a hold of for prints.

I thought you were talking about taking pictures for other teams in your AAU league. I was referring to the AAU website, they have the photos on there i was mentioning