Olympics Photography-How to capitalize on an awesome opportunity?

bradracino · Jan 31, 2010

Hey everyone,

I was just recently (yesterday) invited to attend the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, and being a photographer I naturally jumped at the opportunity. I will have a huge advantage being that I'm accompanying a very famous personality and I'll have front row access to a lot of the games, the US teams, etc.
What I'm wondering is, I've never worked for the AP or sold any of my photos to stock agencies or anything along those lines... so what should I do before this trip to capitalize on this opportunity? Should I contact an agency, set up an account somewhere... I'm really lost as far as this process goes... I've always shot weddings, events, models and some work for television stations. Any advice??

Thanks guys

SpeedTrap · Feb 1, 2010

I think you should just go and enjoy. There are going to be some of the top shooters in the world there with gear most of us only dream of, I am sure they have it covered.
Shoot some for yourself, but I would not bother trying to sell them.

KmH · Feb 1, 2010

Read the back of your ticket.....carefully.

If you aren't accredited, I'd expect them to restrict the type of gear you can bring into the venue.

c.cloudwalker · Feb 1, 2010

KmH may be right but it really doesn't matter because I agree with SpeedTrap. Unless you think you'll be able to shoot at parties where the media is not invited but you will through your friend. Which of course means that if you were to get a newsworthy photo there you may not want to sell it so as to not embarrass your friend...

Now, if you can/decide to shoot for sales, just put them up on flicker and title them right so that someone doing a search can find them easily. But you will need to do some reading on rates for news photos if you don't want to just give them away.

Keep in mind that this is hard news. Although sales could be made later, most sales will happen right away or won't happen so the photos need to go on Flicker asap.

Your first job though is to figure what and how you can shoot if anything.