SargentRay Offline Upload & Sell: Off
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Rick Denham wrote:
REALLY! From what I gathered from your post, you work for other people as a photographer shooting minor sports around the area. If I was the person who hired you, and found out you passed along one of your personal business cards to someone, it would be your last gig you worked for me.
As for the comments on your pay, it's the business and it's how stuff rolls in Canada! $150/day is avg for event shooters, so it is what it is.
Hmm yes indeed i suppose it could be viewed like that, but so far it's not what happened. Some people recognize me from seeing me on football fields and want to know if i would also do action shots for their teams. I say "yes gimme a call" and hand out one of my cards, to be honest none have called back so far. Most times when i talk to people either before i start or during a rare occasional break getting something to eat at the canteen, folks will come up to me and ask all sorts of questions about sports photography, you know they think the "pro" will have this one magic trick to allow them to take fantastic pictures. I always try to be polite and invite them to check out the 2 local forums i attend. If the person seems interested i hand out a card too and some of them in the last year or so joined or virtual community and a couple have become personal friends.
I work for 3 regular guys; Guy, Claude-André and James. All sports shooters and all doing big tournaments which i am not equipped to do. I often refer clients to them as soon as i find out the gig is out of my lead, by the same token they will refer clients my way who have little one or two game stuff to do. Not enough money in it for them or they already have a gig lined up on the same date.
last year i did a soccer tournament with guy, it was a 3 day event, photos were taken the first 2 days and on the 3rd day shots were sold under several tents scattered on different fields. I went to meet Guy on the 3rd day to get my paycheck and while we were talking this lady came to us explaining her son couldn't play for the first 2 days so she had no pictures of her kid. Guy was trying to explain he had no shooters on hand that he was sorry. Then i intervened and told Guy i had my stuff in the car. He said do you mind taking a few shots, you can work it out between you 2 ? I said no problem and i went and got my rig and took maybe 50 shots (in RAW for once) of the kid. Gave my card to the lady and showed her the shots through my web site the next day. She bought 3 11x14in prints plus a CD of the best 15 shots or so. I made another 150$ for 20 minutes of shooting and everybody was happy especially since i got the prints done at Guy's lab to start with.
So i understand what you're saying but the goal is really not to steal any of Guy's clientèle, but ore to get everybody working in their own field of expertise, besides Guy is well aware i hand out my cards on occasions, but this only once i have handed out Guy's leaflets when i take the group shots.
As for the daily rate, then i suppose i am lucky to get 300$/day when i work. Personally i am happy i don't work for nothing anymore, i mean like many i started to do action shots with my kids football team. Showing the parents the pictures on the iPad or sacrificing a few of them after the games on the teams FB page. it didn't take long before i started getting orders for prints. This is why 2 years later some parents recognize me on soccer fields since many players play bot sports.
Once i retire i'll have a choice to make; either continue doing sports shooting for theses guys or go solo and do exactly what they do. I spoke with Guy about the possibilities of teaming up with him when that time comes. He's not against the idea hoping he could have more free time by taking an associate. We'll see in 3 years :-)
Here's one of the shots i sold the lady, she was very happy :-)
1-)
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