Comment by PaulHoule
4 hours ago
I've been doing photography for a long time but over the last few years had phases where I got bored of it and tried something new.
I had a long time when I was bored and carried the camera in my pack but never took any pictures, then one day I looked out at the sports center out my window and decided to start shooting sports.
Posting photos to socials I found flower photographs were popular so I take a lot of them and find ways to not get bored. (Maybe I will start focus stacking one of these days)
Since the beginning of the year I have been "going out" as a character who is a bit like a Disney cast member who gets photos like
https://mastodon.social/@UP8/116326541009492328
from people who recognize my character. Like the Disney cast member it works better when people have seen the movie so i hand out these tokens
https://mastodon.social/@UP8/116086491667959840
which spread virally around a university campus, particularly among Chinese students who recognize the huli jing and all the time I have experiences "that could only happen in a manga" when, for instance, somebody who's heard the rumors is waiting at the bus stop for me. Laugh but all my marketing KPIs have an extra zero on the right!
Same, but not the same. I've also been doing photography for a long time and when I had kids I added some gear & skills to shoot them playing sports. After a few years of this I realized since I was already there I might as well shoot the whole team, or both/all teams, since everyone's families would value the photos.
When I was laid off at the end of last year I decided to formalize this and now have a side gig (real, insured business) where I shoot local youth & high school sports for free, but make a few bucks (to cover my equipment costs plus spending money) doing portraits, headshots and team media days. It's proven fulfilling, mostly because since I do the events for free I tend to receive a lot of goodwill and word-of-mouth referrals. Far more than I can handle given my day job.
That gig is something I tried to do w/ my daughter's sports for the past 5-ish years. I loved shooting her games and distributing the photos both teams. It was so much fun.
I had a nasty altercation with a parent last fall and now I can't pick up the camera w/o getting PTSD-like symptoms. I'd love to know how "pros" handle dealing with that kind of thing. I had a similar situation years ago w/ a guy who got in my face for shooting on the street at a festival. My solution there was to just stop doing it.
It depends on the type of experience that altercation was. If it was you being confronted about photographing their kid without a model release, that's one thing, but if it was a more general unease of a photographer being present at the event, that's different.
For the latter, make sure you don't need a media credential (you probably don't) and get one if you do.
For the former, if your kid is competing, the odds are good that you already are acquainted with their teammates' parents so you can just ask directly, especially if you intend to share your album with them afterward.
My experience is that, with littler kids, if a photographer is not in the parent sideline/area, parents may wonder who they are. With older (high school) kids, they expect some media coverage so that part isn't a big deal. What they do care about is being able to reshare your shots to their socials or use them for other personal reasons. Depending on the high school or club, you may or may not need a media credential. If not, it's usually up to the coach (for high school) to decide whether you're allowed on/next-to the field/track/court. It's helpful to build a rapport with the coaches. It's also helpful to be able to show that you're a legitimate business and not just some rando.
In my case, I do events for free and provide full-res post-processed albums via Google Photos. This is a labor of love because I know athletes and their families (not to mention yearbook staff!) appreciate it. Maxpreps, SBLive and others contract with local photogs to cover events, too, and those sites aggregate and host the albums... but downloads average ~$20/image. It's not hard for a decent local photographer to favorably compete against those freelancers. Then it's also easier for me to upsell on portraits and media days. Media Days for school teams I typically charge ~$35/kid. For club teams it's usually $50/kid. For that they get a guaranteed 3 poses each plus leftover time for fun poses. Unlike a lot of commercial photogs, I charge this flat rate per athlete instead of a booking fee + per-image download or print packages. My experience is that they really just want digitals most of the time anyway, and even if I net less I don't really care because this is just a labor of love where I can cover my expenses and earn some spending money (~$10k/yr is acceptable given the time I'm putting into it).
Make up an official-looking "Event Photographer" vest, hat, lanyard with "Photographer Pass" on it, etc?
People generally ignore or even help workers with a bright vest, carrying a ladder, etc. So I imagine you would get a lot less suspicious looks doing something like that versus looking like an Average Joe.
Maybe with a polo shirt and embroidered made-up photography company logo and name on it.
You need to be extremely careful about taking photos of children without explicit permission from the parents.
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Insect macro photography is an interesting and challenging niche within photography. Trying to find insects and then get a sharp photo, when you have less than 1mm depth of field, is quite a challenge! It also opens up a whole world that you wouldn't normally see.