Hey, how’s it going? I’m Andy Jones and this is episode 105 of the Photography Side Hustle podcast.
I was told my intro on last week’s episode (104) sounded like a bad Sylvester Stallone impersonation. I listened to it, and I did sound a bit bunged up, but in my defense, my allergies were dialed up to 11 last week and I really struggled to do the recording.
So hopefully this week I’m back to my regular old man with a British accent impersonation.
Ok, I received another voice message, this one is from Christopher in California.
…
Thanks, Christopher.
So he wants to shoot 6 to 10 marathons and running events a year that have up to 1000 competitors.
Plus he wants to offer Portraits and Commercial shoots to local businesses. The end goal is to make $1000 - $2000 a year. Which really isn’t much over a year, I would think $1000 a month is doable.
The first thing you need to do in this situation is take control and make it as simple as possible.
Christopher said he has been hired by other photographers, event organizers that post the images on their own site, and organizers that want him to post the photos.
Being hired by other photographers is ok, but they are using your skills to make profits for themselves.
Event organizers that post your images on their website are using you to make profits for their organization.
The best way for you to make good profits for yourself is to be in control and post the photos on your website.
So how do you get these organizations to give up control of selling the event photos?
The simplest way is to offer them a share of the profits. Offering them 25% of the profits or 15% of the gross income. Most clubs and organizations don’t make much money from posting event photos on their own website.
This is because they are selling plain vanilla photos.
As for working for other photographers, unless you are working as a second shooter for the experience, I wouldn’t. If you can learn how to make your own products in Photoshop, you can step over your competition.
When an organization is deciding which photographer to hire, and your competition only takes photos, your products with the event branding will win every time.
So this is the point at which you need to decide what products you are going to sell.
When I was shooting events I offered the following …
The reason I offered 8x10 prints is that I used a Shinko 8x10 printer at the events. If you are selling after the event the photos can be any size.
Hardly anyone bought a plain vanilla photo. They always wanted the event logo and their name on the print. The biggest sellers were the Magazine Covers, but that was when I was shooting kid's sports. Adult runners would probably want the text and logo option.
When you approach the organizers of an event and they can see all the options you offer that they can’t offer, they will be more willing to let you do the selling.
At this point they aren’t just hiring a photographer, they are improving the image of their organization with your branded products.
So how do you present what you shoot on your website?
Christopher said he also wants to offer portraits and commercial work to local businesses. So in his case, he needs to keep events and commercial work separate. On the same website but in separate sections.
For the events section, you need a portfolio and galleries that allow customers to choose what they want and pay for it.
In the Portraits and Commercial section, you need a portfolio and your rates.
When you send a potential customer to your website make sure you send them to the correct section. If they are a local business, send them to that section. They need information about your commercial photography, not next month's marathon.
So how much money could Christopher make shooting running events that have 1000 competitors?
Well, he said he wants to earn $1000 - $2000 a year. That really isn’t that much. If he sold to only 5% of the competitors at $50 each he would take in $2500. That’s 50 sales at $50 each. I think if your products are good enough you would make way more sales than 50.
Whether you work for another photographer or shoot the event for a flat fee for the organization, you are spending the same amount of time shooting at the event. The same amount of time as you would if you were in control of selling the images after the event.
Take control of the whole process, because that’s where the money is. You should be the one hiring a second shooter, and making even more profit.
Ok, that’s it for this episode.
If you need help with anything you can find me on the Facebook Group of through Messenger.
I’ll be back next week, talk to you soon, bye.