Getting that first League Sports Job

I am trying to get a contract for my city's sports teams. I have all of my

pricing together and I am ready to meet with the city, but I want to have

samples of the products that I can offer available. The only problem is that

this is my first league sports job. Does anyone know where I can get a sample

picture set to use to create a set of products?

I imagine that you would want to use your own sports photos, those that you actually photographed yourself, to create a set of sample products and/or portfolio. Although technically you can use other people's photos (with permission, or stocks,) but I don't think that's an ethical route to take, IMHO.

Shoot high school sports, college sports, little league sports, any of that. I don't have a field pass but I get some pretty good shots for a portfolio.

Wilson is spot on, as usual. Do as Michael suggests, go to some of the league games and shoot from the side lines. Most city leagues don't care if you're there with a camera shooting. If you're worried about being labeled as a deviant, go talk with the coaches during warmup and ask for permission to shoot. If approached, have a business card handy and provide it. Above all be honest.

 

Print samples of the products using your own photos. I got my first swimming gig by taking photos from the bleachers and printing them off, then showing the swim club president my work compared to the guy that they were using. I got the gig. Also, get used to rejection. Some leagues have long standing deals with big firms. Others use the guys that give them the best "rebate" or "donation" (polite way of saying "Kickback")

 

Good Luck!

 

Dave

I agree whole heartedly with Wilson. In fact, your post scares me a bit. You want to use someone else's photos to pitch for a contract with the city's sports leagues? I looked at your website which appears to be geared to portrait work. Are you looking to just shoot team photos and player portraits, or providing action shots?

David brought up a good point also, giving prints to the teams. I do that now and they really appreciate it.

I am looking at getting the contract for the player portraits. The league manager has seen my pictures and he is satisfied that I can shoot portraits and provide quality pictures. Now he wants to see what the memory mates and other products I can provide look like. I don't want to show him an empty memory mate and I don't want to stick a family portrait in the memory mate. I am also looking at offering team yearbooks based on the pictures and I want to show a sample of what that would look like. None of these are things I can do with sports candids nor are they things I can effectively do with the studio portraits that I have now. I am planning on pixelating the pictures that I use and/or stamping a watermark across them, but I just want something sports related to drop into the holes on the memory mate and other sports products.

Chris -

 

If that's the case, which I suspected it might be after re-reading the org. post, I'd suggest talking to one of the teams in the league and have them do a "sample shoot" with you. 30 minutes max. Give them some pictures, everyone is happy.

 

If that doesn't work, then I'd suggest going the stock route.

 

Dave