Guidance needed!

[TomRobinson]

Pete,
Sorry for being unclear. I am selling the portraits prepay, not the action shots. I have done action prepay in the past, but it is only possible in a sport with jersey #'s such as football. It was a problem juggling the schedules of everyone that prepaid so I've abandoned that approach. Its hard to get parents who don't know your work, to give up cash for the great action shot that may or may not happen. I don't feel comfortable taking the cash until I have the shot in hand. Then they'll see what there getting, and eveyone is happy. I'm still searching for the best way to market this. I would like to here from anyone who has done this.
Tom

[bobw]

Greg

How did you do at the Outrigger Paddle Race event on the weekend.

Bob.

[PeterWolf]

Greg,

I am curious too. How did you do? We had a pretty successful event in Gilroy (the garlic capital of the World).

It started out raining, very dark and gloomy. Only about 1300 of the 2200 bike riders showed up. 200 went back home after going only a few miles. The rest were in for a treat.

It turned out to be a beautiful day with white puffy clouds, lush green pastures and CA poppies blooming in the sunshine.

We took nearly 2000 photos and they are up and posted with sales coming in, in droves.

The following day we took another 2500 some photos in San Luis Obispo at a Criterium and those photos will be posted as well in a few more hours.

Another of our photographers wasn't as well prepared to cover a rainy Duathlon at the Camp Pendleton Marine Base near San Diego and decided not to risk his D1 equipment in the rain.

How do you folks handle a rainy day? Do you shoot anyway or call it quits. I am equipped with a powerful flash and an umbrella to handle most anything. Some of my shots with dark, gloomy rain clouds and a brightly colored bike rider in the foreground look quite good.

Peter

[R01AND]

Well...
It went pretty well for it being my first time doing an event of this size. As it turns out I was unable to print onsite so I've had to rely mostly on the internet for previewing the images. The participants that attended the awards party had a chance to see the images on my laptop. People were really stoked at seeing themselves in action, and we managed to get some prepay sales, though not as many as I'd hoped. Participants expressed interest in the website, but I'm afraid I may have lost potential customers due to the time it took tio get the images posted (2 days). Not only did it take us too long to post the images, when we finally did they appear too dark. This is my fault as I did nothing to the images by way of brightness/contrast. The truth is, I'm in way over my head on this. For instance, I am only now figuring out how to do batch conversions. Talk about learning how to run before you can walk. I can see how onsite printing would help sales, but my one p400 is simply not up to the task. Having said all that, I had a lot of fun and learned a great deal. By the way, my contact through whome I got the contract was extremely pleased. He wasn't sure what the response would be, but he seems very pleased. So much so that he has asked me to cover their next 4 events. I have also got a contract with the Hawaii Bicycle League to handle their 5 anual events. I got into events (a week ago) because my other freelance work was barely paying the bills. I have to say its a hectic experience compared to the other jobs I've taken, but I can see real potential in it. Now I just have to spend all my free time learning how to do it the right way. I want to thank all of you for your priceless input and keen insights. You guys are great. Take care for now.
Greg

[PeterWolf]

Greg,

Where did you post those images on the WEB? I am sure many of us would love to get a peak at your work. Don't be embarrassed, we've all been there and many of us are still there

By the way, you shouldn't have to do much tweaking to the images before you post them. We don't do anything to the images accept create thumbnails and put a watermark on them.

We are still open to posting your images for you if you like.

Peter

[petehalsted]

Thanks for the clarification, I thought you had found a trick to the market that I had not.

We do thumbnail proofs and produce 5x7 and 8x10's on site for action. We are still honing the process, we learn something new with every shoot. But were fairly pleased with the results so far.