Looking for Motocross photo sales suggestions

[MX HotShots]

Newbie to the forum! Good afternoon everyone! I have been involved in photography for over 30 years, I do not consider myself a professional however I have entered a few competitions in my lifetime and never took less than runner-up and multiple first places. I guess you could say I have a knack and I for photography...anyway, looking for advice on how to get started selling my motorcross photos. I have been involved in motorcross photography for about five years now but it was always strictly for fun and I just ended up giving a lot of my photos away for free. People are constantly asking me at the track how much I charge and since it was just a hobby I would bless them with some of my shots but I'm really looking into doing this as a sideline business...Looking for a suggestions as to how I should go about selling my photos at the track or online after a photo shoot. Any recommendations would be deeply appreciated. Thanks!
Rob - MX HotShots Pro Action Sports Photography
[email protected]

 

[MX HotShots]

 

[MX HotShots]

Current equipment – Nikon D 500 , Tamron f2.8 70-200 mm lens

 

[Destin]

You essentially have two options, both of which I've tried at sporting events.

1.) take photos, hand out business cards, sell online after the event. This is the easiest, but also the least effective. It can be done alone, or you can pay someone to hand out cards while you shoot. This method will get you some sales, but in my experience not all that many. Also this method has the lowest cost of entry as all you need are business cards and a website. Shooting motocross this way I'd make maybe $100 per day, which works out to about minimum wage.

2.) invest in a laptop, display screen, and good quality on location photo printer. Display your photos in a booth or at a table at the event, and sell them on location. This method has a much higher startup cost, and renting the booth/table space can get pricey. But it will get you more sales, as people are more likely to buy when it's an impulse decision. They also can't just screenshot your photos and steal them as easily this way.

Ultimately, selling photos from sporting events generally won't make you a ton of money and is often not worth your time. I still do it via the first method, but also make money selling the photos to the media, etc. Even at that, sports are still mostly a hobby for me, and are not the profitable part of my business

 

[ronlane]

@Destin pretty much nailed it. I have shot multiple motocross and sprint car dirt track sessions. I have walked around the pits and passed out cards to my site and have only gotten a few hits doing it this way.

I have seen the track photographer do the second option with display and prints and booth and it is a much better option. (It typically does require 1 or more additional people that can download images and print them. Also, if the images need processing.) This is where learning to shoot jpeg and getting it right in the camera comes in extremely handy.

 

[Destin]

@Destin pretty much nailed it. I have shot multiple motocross and sprint car dirt track sessions. I have walked around the pits and passed out cards to my site and have only gotten a few hits doing it this way.

I have seen the track photographer do the second option with display and prints and booth and it is a much better option. (It typically does require 1 or more additional people that can download images and print them. Also, if the images need processing.) This is where learning to shoot jpeg and getting it right in the camera comes in extremely handy.

Good catch, forgot to add that the second method requires an additional person. There is money to be made the second way, but it's very risky as you have alot of overhead and really don't have any idea what kind of results you'll get.

I also agree that doing this is the ONLY time I'd shoot in jpeg.

 

[ronlane]

@Destin, it's not the only time that I would shoot jpeg, but I shoot for a paper and it makes it more cost effective to cover highschool sports. (But with those, I shoot raw + jpeg and edit the raws for my site to sell to the kids and parents)

 

[Destin]

@ronlane gotcha! I shoot for a local publication as well, but I edit and post on my site first and then the article in the publication directs them there to buy photos.

Because of that, I shoot all raw simply because the photos go up on my site before the publication's site.