Official Racetrack Photographer

[gconnoyer]

Quick brief.....
Last year I shot at the local drag strip, posted photos on my page and sold them. Racing season for 2013 just started friday, and I got talked to about needing to work something out with the track so that I could do this. So me and the track are currently negotiating/making a deal.

I talked to the Head of Digital Marketing through a few emails and on the phone. He is excited to have someone who can produce quality photos for the racers to buy. So instead of JUST shooting the normal test and tune drag racing events, he wants to hire me and my partner on as the official photographers for the racetrack. So now we will be shooting the big national events (minus the NHRA, NASCAR, strict copyrighted things)

As far as negotiating goes, I'm tossing around a few options in my head, so I'm looking for opinions.
1) A percentage split of sales profit.
-I am stuck at 80/20 or 90/10 (in my favor) because in doing option #1, they have nothing to lose (besides $35/mo for the webiste) and are JUST making profit. So the 80% or 90% needs to be divided in half and factored up.
The reason I'm having trouble with this, 40-45% earnings, is that its not a set amount. Its a HUGE time investment with each event being between 4-10 hours with normally the same amount of time editing as the event (if that makes sense)
If they want to do more of something like 60/40 I am going to need a base pay to cover each event or month depending on how they do it.

2) An hourly wage.
-An hourly wage would be awesome. April will have 200+ hours of events so probably 100-150 to add to that with editing everything. This obviously is a huge overhead for them to cover 2 shooters in advance, not knowing how sales will be. But this is the same risk that I am taking when taking a percentage. If nothing or very little sells, I've wasted between 200 and 400 hours for nothing.

3) A base pay, with a percentage split in their favor.
I would love this option, because it would cover both of us as far as loss/profit goes. As far as what exactly the pay and percentage would be, I'll have to figure out based on expenses.

If anyone else has any ideas, opinions or input, PLEASE let me know.

 

[imagemaker46]

If you are a working professional and they want you to be the track photographer why are you even offering a split. The other side of shooting drag racing is your insurance if you are not a registered business. It is a dangerous sport and the risks of injury are greater than most other type of motor sports, as you will need to be down track shooting. I shot NHRA events and while you won't be in that position, I've seen people get hit by flying parts, I've also had a funny car slam the wall just past where I was standing and still have parts of a top fuel motor that hit the guard rail right in front of me. I was lucky. Make sure that you have insurance, and you should have to sign an injury waiver from the track as well. Cover you ass on this one.

 

[Steve5D]

If you are a working professional and they want you to be the track photographer why are you even offering a split. The other side of shooting drag racing is your insurance if you are not a registered business. It is a dangerous sport and the risks of injury are greater than most other type of motor sports, as you will need to be down track shooting. I shot NHRA events and while you won't be in that position, I've seen people get hit by flying parts, I've also had a funny car slam the wall just past where I was standing and still have parts of a top fuel motor that hit the guard rail right in front of me. I was lucky. Make sure that you have insurance, and you should have to sign an injury waiver from the track as well. Cover you ass on this one.

Wise words.

With some motorsports, you can see a wreck coming from a mile away. With drag racing, given the speeds they run at, disaster happens in an instant...

 

[imagemaker46]

If you are a working professional and they want you to be the track photographer why are you even offering a split. The other side of shooting drag racing is your insurance if you are not a registered business. It is a dangerous sport and the risks of injury are greater than most other type of motor sports, as you will need to be down track shooting. I shot NHRA events and while you won't be in that position, I've seen people get hit by flying parts, I've also had a funny car slam the wall just past where I was standing and still have parts of a top fuel motor that hit the guard rail right in front of me. I was lucky. Make sure that you have insurance, and you should have to sign an injury waiver from the track as well. Cover you ass on this one.

Wise words.

With some motorsports, you can see a wreck coming from a mile away. With drag racing, given the speeds they run at, disaster happens in an instant...

I still have the piston connecting rod that hit the guard rail at my knees, came from a top fuel car travelling at over 250mph, I never even saw it coming, but I heard it hit, 2 feet higher and it would have gone through me.

 

[Steve5D]

If you are a working professional and they want you to be the track photographer why are you even offering a split. The other side of shooting drag racing is your insurance if you are not a registered business. It is a dangerous sport and the risks of injury are greater than most other type of motor sports, as you will need to be down track shooting. I shot NHRA events and while you won't be in that position, I've seen people get hit by flying parts, I've also had a funny car slam the wall just past where I was standing and still have parts of a top fuel motor that hit the guard rail right in front of me. I was lucky. Make sure that you have insurance, and you should have to sign an injury waiver from the track as well. Cover you ass on this one.

Wise words.

With some motorsports, you can see a wreck coming from a mile away. With drag racing, given the speeds they run at, disaster happens in an instant...

I still have the piston connecting rod that hit the guard rail at my knees, came from a top fuel car travelling at over 250mph, I never even saw it coming, but I heard it hit, 2 feet higher and it would have gone through me.

Damn. That's gotta' be a sickening, yet relieving, sound to hear that thing hit the guard rail.

And I thought you were going to say "In drag racing, you only get a quarter mile to see a wreck coming"...

 

[ronlane]

Sounds like Imagemaker and Steve pretty much nailed it. However, I will add this thought to what the OP said. You are worried about the risk of wasting your time with no sales. I wouldn't look at it this way. You admit that you have had some sales previously doing it. This will just increase your chances. You do have to take some risks in order to gain.

 

[Steve5D]

And don't be afraid to approach the drivers!!

I shot an SCCA event this past Sunday.

After I got done shooting, I walked around the paddock passing out my business card to car owners/drivers. Basically, I tell them to shoot me an e-mail and I'll send them a few shots. Everything I send, of course, is resized, watermarked (ever so delicately) and not suitable for printing. I also tell them that, if they'd like to purchase a print (or prints), I would be happy to oblige.

Well, on Sunday, I just happened to get some very nice shots of a car being driven by someone driving his first race ever; a real big moment for the guy. He e-mailed me back that he definitely wants to buy multiple prints. The guy is a successful businessman, so I don't think he's going to be putting any undue stress on the ol' checking account by buying a few prints from me.

My uncle has raced cars for as long as I can remember. He's known as "Mr. BMW" by Roundel Magazine, and now owns a large BMW service and customization company in North Carolina. Watching him race for all those years, if nothing else, taught me one thing: The only thing bigger than a successful race driver's wallet is his ego. They want pictures of their cars, with them behind the wheel, whether you can tell it's them or not, and they are more than happy to pay for them.

My little foray out to the track the other day is going to net $350.00 for seven 12x18" prints...

 

[ronlane]

*Booking my flight to Oregon to shadow Steve and learn more about this.*

 

[Steve5D]

*Booking my flight to Oregon to shadow Steve and learn more about this.*

Man, it's easy. Just don't be shy...

 

[imagemaker46]

Wise words.

With some motorsports, you can see a wreck coming from a mile away. With drag racing, given the speeds they run at, disaster happens in an instant...

I still have the piston connecting rod that hit the guard rail at my knees, came from a top fuel car travelling at over 250mph, I never even saw it coming, but I heard it hit, 2 feet higher and it would have gone through me.

Damn. That's gotta' be a sickening, yet relieving, sound to hear that thing hit the guard rail.

And I thought you were going to say "In drag racing, you only get a quarter mile to see a wreck coming"...

That was pure luck. I was working for a magazine at the time and shooting at the top end of the drag strip permission had to be signed off by the NHRA technical person because it is the most dangerous place to be. Feeling lucky and not wanting to press it, I left while they were cleaning up the track, the next car huge engine fire, parachute catches fire and car and chute hit the spot where I was just standing, parachute wraps around the chain link fence. It was the last time I asked about shooting from there. That one scared me. It happened so fast, I couldn't have moved.

 

[Steve5D]

...the next car huge engine fire, parachute catches fire and car and chute hit the spot where I was just standing, parachute wraps around the chain link fence. It was the last time I asked about shooting from there. That one scared me. It happened so fast, I couldn't have moved.

Yeah, but, if ya' gotta' go...

 

[gconnoyer]

Thanks for all of the replies everyone.

AS far as promotion/advertising, last season all I did was walk through the staging lanes and talked to everyone and handed out business cards. This season will be awesome because the track will be announcing over the PA as well as having my information on the timeslips, tickets, and promotion through their website.

To imagemaker,

If you are a working professional and they want you to be the track photographer why are you even offering a split. The other side of shooting drag racing is your insurance if you are not a registered business. It is a dangerous sport and the risks of injury are greater than most other type of motor sports, as you will need to be down track shooting. I shot NHRA events and while you won't be in that position, I've seen people get hit by flying parts, I've also had a funny car slam the wall just past where I was standing and still have parts of a top fuel motor that hit the guard rail right in front of me. I was lucky. Make sure that you have insurance, and you should have to sign an injury waiver from the track as well. Cover you ass on this one.

We haven't ironed out all of the details, I was just trying to get a few ducks in a row. I'm not exactly sure if we will be doing me as a contractor for the track or an actual track employee. I do have insurance now in the case of me just being contracted out.
I haven't offered them anything yet, and their initial offer was 60/40 of sales (in my favor) which I told them there was NO way that I could do that, especially splitting between two shooters, paying taxes, covering expenses, etc...

Since their initial offer was 60/40, I'm assuming that they dont really have a big spot in the budget for this. So thats why I'm a little leary about asking for X amount of money, and then them changing their mind and hiring someone that just bought their camera and just wants to be able to shoot and the track will deal with "ok" photos.

Right now, I'm looking at it like this...
Before they intervened, I was going to be attending whatever events I could, selling photos, and making 100% profit off of that (which isnt a ton)
So my thought behind it right now is, get them down to whatever the littlest percentage of sales they will accept, shoot the events, make the 90% profit or however much, and take the opportunity to get to enjoy two hobbies at once, having track rights, attending big events for free, and possible job opportunities out of it in the future.

On the other hand, I don't want to come out with 200ish hours worked, $300/mo to show for it, and then they just profit off of my time and hard work by doing absolutely nothing extra.

 

[imagemaker46]

Good luck with it all. If you can work out a deal that is of a benefit to all concerned then that's the way to go. What track is it, looks like there are several around your area.

 

[gconnoyer]

Its Gateway Motorsports Park