Kiddie Portraits

Will_Mass · #1 01-11-2005, 07:10 PM

Hi All,

The main (only) thrust of my relatively new business has been Event Photography. Recently as I've been looking for other souces of revenue, in the off season, I've had some discussions with a company that sets up appointments and sends photogs out to daycare centers to shoot the kids there. Then, at a later date, the shooter goes back to sell the photos they've shot to the parents. I'm wondering if anyone here has ever done this kind of work. Either with a company like this or on your own.

Assuming one has or can easily get all of the necessary equipment and already has the merchant credit card accounts, what would be the point in working for them? What are the pitfalls? (I can see several for the shooter in their business model.) What risks would one assume in trying this on their own? Again I see several obvious ones.

I've learned when you're starting something out there's many holes you can fall into. I've been in 'em all. I'm just trying to avoid a few new ones.

Thanks, Bill

JoyPetersKurtz · #2 01-11-2005, 08:57 PM

Don't know if this is something that would help, but it'll be inspiring in any event.

Not Your Typical School Photos

YEAR I

http://www.zuga.net/forums/showthrea...p;pagenumber=1

Year II

http://www.zuga.net/forums/showthrea...t+your+typical

Eric_llasenko · #3 01-12-2005, 11:55 AM

Daycares can indeed be profitable - you just better be sure you have a LOT of patience and are really exceptional dealing with children first, or you will quickly go stark raving mad. (or close to it!) [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

We shoot digital tethered (great to know if you got an expression or not) and then print small,stamped proofs for parents to order from. Simple lighting, background, and poses are key as these are little ones who cant handle more usually. Family combos (brother/sister,etc) sell well, so shoot them indiv and with siblings if they are at the school also. 2-3 "poses" (more like expressions with little ones) work well for giving parents a choice and parents here from all economic levels seem to love hand poses - praying hands,fist on chin etc. - nothing that would win any awards for technical merit, but its cute and the parents like it, so we always try to shoot it. Also be aware of kids ages - infants are super tough and require a special baby poser (available from Denny Mfg.) and extra safety precautions - given my choice, I prefer schools with older kids over infants as they are less work for better expressions, imho.

Liability and insurance are two big considerations - you need to be well insured before stepping foot into a facility in most cases. Also, a certified criminal background check on yourself is a good safety and marketing tool as centers are rightly super paranoid nowadays.

Assuming you have the skills and gear, marketing is the only thing I would think some franchise company would offer, and when it comes right down to it, you are selling YOU and YOUR TALENTS, so why not do it yourself and make a lot more money??

Start small at first, then work your way up. Daycares are always looking for fundraisers (15-25% of sales is standard here in Florida daycares) for the business and they are also looking for better service often as the "big guys" tend to overpromise and underdeliver as a practice. Give them personal service better than they can get elsewhere and spend some time hitting the pavement on sales calls to qualified leads, and you should be on your way. It is a hard job to be sure, and as I said earlier, if you do not sincerely love dealing with kids, forget it totally as kids are the ultimate BS detectors and they will make your day long and hard if they sense you are not genuine.
Good luck and happy shooting!

Will_Mass · #4 01-13-2005, 07:29 PM

Joy & Eric,

Thanks for responding. I'd forgotten about Zuga. Unfortunately the links in the above post were deadenders (I think part of the url is missing) and I couldn't find the info Joy wished to impart.

Eric, Thanks for the input. My line of thought closely followed yours. Since most of my work is action (equestrian events), I'll have to see if I can borrow my neighbor's kids to use as lab rats. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img]

Let's see what happens!

Thanks, Bill

Eric_llasenko · #5 01-14-2005, 01:05 PM

>> My line of thought closely followed yours. Since most of my work is action (equestrian events), I'll have to see if I can borrow my neighbor's kids to use as lab rats.

Just be sure you get their parents to sign a commerical use model release at every shoot so you can legally use those images for samples, marketing and promotion.

We do that with several neighborhood kids every time I need to test a new background or set-up and have built a nice little stock file of fully released kid images to use on our flyers, brochures, biz cards, website, etc.

We dont charge the parents for shooting and they sign a release every time with no problem, so its a win-win for us both. I do sell them prints at reduced (still profitable) rates and have given them email sized files to share online with family members and the occasional free inkjet print. Works well - now they are even bringing along cousins sometimes! [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Lars_Paysen · #6 01-16-2005, 07:42 AM

Here are those Zuga URLs:
Cheers,
Lars.

Year 1
Year 2

Paul_Smith · #7 01-17-2005, 05:02 PM

Will,

I've replied to your PM via e-mail at support@ as you don't accept PM's

regards
Paul

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