Team photos with on-site printing

[rwgt0su]

My wife and I started into photography about a year ago doing small things like engagements, small events and pet photography. We were approached by someone who got us into several sporting tournaments this summer for doing team photos with on-site printing that includes custom made graphics pre-made with the tournament director. We've done 3 softball tournaments so far and we just don't seem to be turning the profits we expected nor the profits the tournament directors expect.

We basically take all the team photos the first day, go home and edit them; come back the second day to finish photo taking and to start selling; third day is strictly selling. We never get orders the first day because the parents want to see the photos (we give them business cards and info where to find our booth). Second day we get sales but very few. Third day when teams start winning we start selling 3x more than the day prior. We have an online store, but we may only get a couple orders a few days after the tournament ends. We have a printer that sites in a van usually within 50ft of the booth that we try to setup near the main entrance. I know there isn't any issues with our product or pricing based on all the positive comments. In fact we got invited to other tournaments including a state tournament due to our quality and "uniqueness". We thought maybe our exposure wasn't good enough, so we hired 2 more people for our last tournament to walk around and talk to parents individually on the second day prior to or after each game (not to interrupt during game time). I also had these people giving the coaches a free printed sample to try to stir some excitement. However that resulted in almost no noticeable sales (actually we lost more money due to the hired help and the additional prints).

One thing that has been difficult is these tournaments typically have 2+ locations at least a 5 minute drive away and then the fields are sometimes spread out with 3-4 entrances. So we've been trying to focus on just 1 main location with our booth that has a single main entrance.

Does anyone else have suggestions on what we are doing wrong? Is this type of business model outdated due to everyone having smart phones? Or are we at the wrong tournaments with the wrong types of crowds? We are willing to try anything so that we turn a profit.

 

[tirediron]

By team photos, do you mean a photo of the whole team and nothing else, or are there images of individual players and/or photos of the games in play?

 

[rwgt0su]

By team photos, do you mean a photo of the whole team and nothing else, or are there images of individual players and/or photos of the games in play?

Just photos of the entire team. No individuals or action shots of the games.

 

[tirediron]

Hmmm... to be honest, I don't see that as a stand-alone product. If you could combine it with a player portrait and an image of that child in a game, I think you'd have a much more saleable product.

 

[rwgt0su]

These tournaments are usually 50+ teams with 9-12 players each. It would be impossible to have time for individual shots. Do you think we should take individual and action photos of some of the bracket winner games maybe on the second and third day? For those photos, no editing I assume as that too would take a lot of time?

 

[tirediron]

I don't see it as impossible, you'd just need to be set up for it; basically a photo-booth style set up. Walk up, fill out a form, pay your deposit, snap, snap, snap, carry on.

I'm NOT a fan of the SOOC approach. I would use on-line galleries and ordering. It would be challenging to set-up, but once you had everything in place, I think it would flow smoothly.

 

[rwgt0su]

Hmmm... that's an interesting thought. So basically have them place a request, then photo the game for maybe 10 min? And if more time allows just hit up some other games even without a request. That would reduce games that we would need to attend.

I'm actually a full time software developer, so the Web gallery and online ordering wasn't an issue. I have bulk uploading with categories already in place for the team photos, so it wouldn't be difficult to add another subcategory for something like this.

 

[tirediron]

IMO, the team photo is an add-on to the player photo. Most parents would be interested in buying a photo of their child over a team photo, but if you advertise the player photo for say, $25 and the team photo as a $15-18 add-on, you might have more luck.

 

[gsgary]

You need to be shooting in jpg only so you can quickly edit on site and you need a dye sub printer so you can print there and then, this is how I used to do it, it's no good giving them a card they will forget or loose it

Sent from my SM-G903F using Tapatalk

 

[KmH]

Typical T&I (Team and Individual) photos are paid for in advance.

Often T&I shooters offer 2 or 3 'packages' that include a photo of the team and several different size photos of a single pose of the individual.
Poses for the individuals are fairly standardized.
Succsessful T&I shooters often have the packages printed and packaged by professional print labs like Miller's Professional Imaging.

 

[Designer]

I'm not a professional photographer, but I am a potential customer.

As a potential customer, I would want the prints right away. And as a potential customer, I am not expecting fancy time-consuming editing that I probably couldn't see any difference anyway.

Hiring sales representatives would be a non-starter if you had asked. Especially since you didn't pay them on a commission basis. Well, at least you found that out.

As Keith has written, be paid before the event.

You should develop some flyers to hand out to all the team members about two or three weeks before the event. collect the orders and make a list of everybody who needs an individual shot.

Send the files to the printer right away, and if anybody wants edited enlargements, they can pay now and wait for the mail. Every team member receives a complementary print of the team shot. Believe it or not, this will be your best advertising. Paper and ink. Take plenty. It's still cheaper than trying to run a radio ad or something.

The professionals will have issues with some of my suggestions, but what do I know, I'm just a customer.