Attn sports shooters: what are your best sellers?

I shoot college sports in mid Michigan (rodcannon.com) and my sales figures, from best to worst, are as follows:

women's hoop
men's hoop
football
softball
women's soccer
baseball
volleyball
men's soccer
track

That's in the order of the amount of money they bring in. Listing by number of sales per sport would be roughly equivalent. I know the list would look different if I did it on a sales per game basis. (Football would probably be No. 1, for example.) But that's irrelevant to me because I can't just shoot 20 football games instead of ten.

I teach high school (yeah I know, lucky me) and I'm the yearbook advisor. We sell unused sports photos on shutterfly. Football sells the most. Cheer is number two. Not too much of anything else.

For me it's...

HS Football
Girl's Fastpitch Softball (Summer tournament)
Cheerleading
LaCrosse
Field Hockey

IMCA
Motocross
Baseball
Football

youth hockey... miles ahead of adult/senior hockey

non-hockey season is my slow season... some ball here and there, some soccer, some tennis and golf... rock climbing once... diving is picking up...

then hockey season starts... I'm in an arena on most saturdays before 6... home about 6 hours later and I'll have shot 2-3 diff kids per game, 5 games in a row...
take a nap... process pics... start posting/emailing parents...
some days, a friend of mine comes... he does 'sales' while I shoot... hands out business cards/flyers to those that come ask for them... some days, everyone wants to see what's going on, and on those days I can't shoot and answer those questions... I'll get a good 10-20 new calls/emails per week... parents asking about availability, etc.. for when I can go shoot their kid at a sport, etc...

and I hate when a parent wants me to shoot their goalie son...

It varies from school to school. The toughest sports to shoot with the least competition do well. I get a lot of sales from volleyball.

I have been concentrating on softball and volleyball for the past few years mainly because I like those sports. The girl's sports are so overlooked that I love to offer a "professional photographer" for their action shots. Those girls work just as hard, if not harder, than the boys but they always get put on the back burner. It's just not fair.

Anyway, I have found that the best sellers are the shots that mom and dad can't get with their point-and-shoot. It's nothing to get a great quality digital photo of someone sitting still. Why would anyone pay $3.99 for that when they can take it themselves and have it printed at Wal-Mart for $.39? If you want to sell photos from games then you have to have photos that mom and dad can't get. To do that you need better equipment and better skill than the average point-and-shooter. Get action shots or hope that people don't bring their own cameras and are willing to pay for your time.

If you hope to make a living shooting action shots, wake up. Only a handful of people in the country can do that. I have the luxury of shooting what I want to because of another income.]

Good luck!

So very dependent on many factors.

For T&I Football had less kids but more income and less profit than soccer. Can't figure that one out except parents in football ordered differently and got the less profitable packages more so than soccer I'd have to assume. Both those sports blew away baseball & softball T&I just because there's a lot more kids. Football also includes cheerleaders.

For action ranking by income...

Baseball - that was HEAVILY influenced by being named official photog of a national event that parents bought like candy for there kids being selected to it. Also some other teams I shoot for that did good in sales after having great seasons (wins does affect sales at times).

Wrestling - again heavily affected by being official photog for States through another company and a big tournament at my home town school I used to wrestle for.

Football and Soccer were way behind, and in that order. Though football is still going so can go ahead of soccer even more. Volleyball was a couple but not much, only shot one game. Softball was non-existent pretty much.

cevad wrote in post #6733208
I have been concentrating on softball and volleyball for the past few years mainly because I like those sports. The girl's sports are so overlooked that I love to offer a "professional photographer" for their action shots. Those girls work just as hard, if not harder, than the boys but they always get put on the back burner. It's just not fair.

Anyway, I have found that the best sellers are the shots that mom and dad can't get with their point-and-shoot. It's nothing to get a great quality digital photo of someone sitting still. Why would anyone pay $3.99 for that when they can take it themselves and have it printed at Wal-Mart for $.39? If you want to sell photos from games then you have to have photos that mom and dad can't get. To do that you need better equipment and better skill than the average point-and-shooter. Get action shots or hope that people don't bring their own cameras and are willing to pay for your time.

If you hope to make a living shooting action shots, wake up. Only a handful of people in the country can do that. I have the luxury of shooting what I want to because of another income.]

Good luck!

I've coached 17 seasons now, 13 of them with girls and they are MAJORLY over looked compared to boys sports - though not always - but often. There's reasons for it, the guys bring in more fans usually (not always), and get more coverage so people tend to give them more than girls. Unfortunately there's times when it's people who should be trying to help both (like the AD or school admin) who ignore the girls working as hard or harder which irks me big time when coaching them and knowing what I put them through Luckily though I've only dealt with it twice and never will coach there again.

Believe you are 100% correct in selling what mom and pop can't get. It's the basis of any professional photographer - you supply what they can't, simple as that. WAY TO MANY "pro" photogs offer as good or just slightly better images than they can get and of course that hurts sales. If you work in pro sports then you really have to blow away the competition of 4-5 other shooters that are trying to sell to the same client.

What recently put a smile on my face was listening to parents at a banquet when they were talking about the composition of the images (I had a proof book), and happy as hell they noticed! I heard a lot of comments like "I would never think to do that - or take it from that angle", etc. Then asking how got them so isolated (bokeh), etc, etc. This of course helps sales knowing they didn't get it or anything close to it.

Also very right on shooting action shots, T&I do a lot better but yet again you really have to offer something that mom and pop can't get in there back yard. I had one parent insist on showing me there images in camera with there P&S this year. The parent bought a package, but took there own over my shoulder pretty much and insisted it was just as good. Never heard from them again after they received the package - fact is it wasn't. I don't mind them ever doing that cuz they see the results side by side. Next year will be a bit different as I have a planned setup they won't be able to get into, so they'll have to go to the side and do it.

Snowcross tops my list. Mom and Pop cannot get trackside, so they cannot get the clean looks I can. After that, I'd say MX, but its not even close $$$ wise, as too many parents are wandering out where they shouldn't even be for insurance regs, and one of these days, one will get smucked, and then maybe it'll get better.

If I could become official track tog at the local dirt track on Friday nights, it could rival Snowcross for myself as far as money.

One last thing I forgot to mention but has already been stated... a winning team is more likely to have much better sales than a team doing poorly. I wouldn't pick and choose on this factor alone but keep it in mind, I have had better sales from playoff games than regular season games.

Also, pre-HS and travel teams do better in sales than HS. The younger they are the better they sell. Probably because it's "newer" to the parents and by the time they get to HS they are more worried about saving $$ for college. I don't know. Just an opinion.

As far as the mom with the P&S snapping behind my back, I would love to have a spontaneous seizure and smack the camera out of her hand but I just grit my teeth and move on. Just try to stand up and get in her way as much as possible. Make it a game. If she gets good shots then God bless her. I'm not gonna lose sleep over a $14.95 package! LOL

Again, have to agree with cevad - the younger ones parents buy more often as by the time they get to high school it's old news and has to be something "more" usually (playoff game, celebration, whatever). Travel teams pay a lot to play so shelling out money for images is nothing to them usually.

As for winning, I remember early in my basketball coaching - we didn't have a team photog and it was this teams first year (7th grade, no youth program for b-ball). This group had never won a game - 0-12 in soccer, 0-12 in volleyball, 0-12 for softball, never won youth games in any sport, nothing. I knew this because we started 0-3 and they kept harping on it. So we finish the season on a 7-1 run of course being there first wins, the next year we lose our two top scorers and finish with the same record - both years I never heard the comment "it's been a good year (or winning year) so we have to buy pictures" so much in my life. Every parent wanted them, and every parent bought them. Last year we were not expected to win one game, we went 3-9 and competed in most games - to the parents, big success - everyone bought. The other team, 0-12 blown out every game, half bought. So how, even if losing, the team plays matters at the younger levels as well.

Ok, end of story time, just shot a game in 12 degrees and still not thawed out - brain or body.

SMP_Homer wrote in post #6731331
and I hate when a parent wants me to shoot their goalie son...

why?
I don't understand.

tomd wrote in post #6741100
why?
I don't understand.

Didn't see that before and also curious - goalies are almost always the easiest to shoot!

I shoot HS sports at 2 schools,different towns and the top sellers at each school are totally different, but so are the parents.

I've found some stuff is a real hit or miss. I've found the hardest thing can be actually selling to the parents as advertising usually isn't allowed at the games.

State track meet this past spring, made around $850 after all costs (hotel, gas, prints etc). for 16 hours of work. Not that bad at all.

went to the state cross country meet this year and only made about $175 after all costs... even though I emailed every coach there and took over 4,700 photos.

I was hoping to make around $5-600 to fund a 30/1.4 and a new camera bag, but that didnt happen.... I'm wondering if it would be inappropriate to followup with another email