On site photography and printing at hockey tournaments

<p>Hi there,<br>

I've been asked by my local hockey association to "set up" at a local tournament to take action shots and print on site for customers. I have seen these set ups on my journeys as a hockey parent, but I am wondering what is the bare minimum required for the venture to be successful. I have the camera gear, but I am wondering about how to display shots, print, etc. Also, any software needs. Thanks for your help.</p>

<p>Before tackling software choices, suitable printers, etc ... think about some larger logistical issues. <br /><br />1) Are you running a one-man show? Meaning, will you be needing to shoot and print and cashier at the same time?<br /><br />2) Are you able to accept credit cards, or is this strictly cash/check? Hint: credit card/debit card acceptance is a giant plus when it comes to impulse purchases. This usually means good clean cellular/internet access - which can be challenging in some indoor spots.<br /><br />3) Can you be assured of a secure place to set up, stable power?<br /><br />4) What's going to be the venue's requirements for your carrying of liability insurance? <br /><br />5) Are you set up to collect and remit sales tax for your city/county/state as appropriate?<br /><br />Not trying to be a wet blanket, here - but this is one of those activities that's almost impossible to do half way. To make it worth the trouble you not only need to sell enough images at high enough prices, you need to have very well-oiled machinery when it comes to display/printing (and very quickly). Typically, this also means redundant hardware to cover yourself in the event of trouble - both on the camera gear side and the IT side. <br /><br />Most rigs that I've seen serving a tournament-style set up involve:<br /><br />1) At least one shooter. He's either got a runner dashing CF cards back to the table, or he's using a WiFi rig, with direct transfers. The CF card shuffle is more reliable, but disruptive if there's no runner involved.<br /><br />2) Multiple touch-screen based workstations that allow parents/kids to paw through well-organized galleries of shots (usually, labeled by team, or game, or <em>time</em> if necessary). Software that provides for this, and can add images to the shopper's order, which is then queued up for cashiering, and then for printing... is highly specialized, and requires some comfort on your part in running a local network between the computers and printer(s), as well as a shared internet connection for card processing. <br /><br />OR:<br /><br />You print everything, as fast as you can, knowing that only some of the prints will be sold, the rest trashed. There's a lot of waste, but it cuts down on the complexity of the IT rig. Your prices have to reflect the waste, or have to reflect the extra equipment and helpers, either way.<br /><br />OR:<br /><br />Show a few images, sell what you can locally, and have EVERYTHING ready to go for online sales before the sun goes down ... and have cards to give to parents so that it's completely clear where they go and what they have to do to purchase prints and have them quickly delivered. Include the option for them to simply buy a direct download of a decent quality JPG. Remember that these are kids, so parents will want to see that you've got codes or passwords involved to prevent the event's images from being publicly viewable.<br /><br />Yeah, it's a lot of work, to do it right!</p>

<p>Almost forgot to send you off to check out <strong><a href="http://www.expressdigital.com/products/epsdarkroom.shtm">ExpressDigital Darkroom</a></strong>.</p>

<p>Dane -</p>

<p>Check out Photo Parata (miltonstreet software) - Sam has put together a good / easy to use program for viewing / ordering images of events.</p>

<p>The points that Matt made are all valid -</p>

<p>1. I always use a runner...too many variables plus cost / reliability of setting up a wifi for shooting and loading directly to a server.</p>

<p>2. My basic setup is a laptop or desktop as a file server and then 3 - 4 viewing stations for parents to view / order images. Touchscreen would be a nice to have, but at $600 + per setup - it's cheaper to get laptops ($200 approx) and a mouse - $19.00 ea...</p>

<p>3. You need someone to watch / run the booth while you're shooting...you can't be in two places at once - I've tried and it doesn't work... the booth person needs to be a combo sales person, tech wizard, and photo expert - especially if you're set on doing on site printing. And those people (unless they're your kids) like to get paid... Not a good idea to ask / beg the team / league for volunteers either... While most have volunteer hour requirements - stop and think about it for a minute - Does the t-shirt guy ask the team for volunteers to work his / her booth? nope...</p>

<p>4. You need to publicize the fact that you're doing photos - the t-shirt / hat / apparel guys have it easy - they have physical product to sell / show to the customer. You have images...</p>

<p>5. Onsite printing adds a degree of complexity to the sales - especially at hockey tourneys... Very few, if any, youth hockey rinks are set up with photographers in mind - so whoever is manning the booth is going to have to be pretty good at photoshop or whatever your chosen tool is to edit shots. Also - there's the ongoing debated between dye sub and ink jet for printing... Most dye subs - cost over $1,000 and limit you to a single size per package of printing and none of them really handle 8 x 10 (except for the $2,000 plus models)... Plus now you've got to find an assistant (who really would like to get paid) to do the printing....</p>

<p>6. Another worry - one which I just experienced this weekend - is that kids are incredibly tech savy...I was shooting an event and was just checking out the "User" experience on one of my computers and I noticed the girl next to me taking photos of the screen with her iphone... Not that I'd want an 8x10 off of that, but she just wanted an image for her facebook profile - so quality wasn't important...</p>

<p>One note - I've been posting events online for 3 plus years and NEVER yet have had a parent complain about the images of their kids being online without password protection... At bigger events - it's probably safe to say that you're okay - but check with the event organizer and make sure - If it's a smaller gig - like a preschool or private function then they get the password treatment, but for public events like hockey tourneys, baseball games, etc... they're open to the public. Keep in mind the KISS principle...(Keep It Simple Silly) - if a parent goes home to order - and they can't remember the password - odds of ordering go down to nil pretty quick.</p>

<p>The other challenge - if you still go forward with this is MWC - Mom's with cameras... You've got to be prepared to offer something that the parents can't get with their DSLR from the stands... there's not a good way to prevent or stop them from shooting from the stands....</p>

<p>Dave</p>

 

<p>Matt and Dave both have it right! </p>

<p>I run a very similar shop for small sporting events. I am the only photographer, have a card runner, and another man running the viewing station as well as printing. Here's how we roll:</p>

<p>Actual example: Weight Lifting competition.<br>

I take a photo of the name of the lifter shown on a display screen, I then take photos of said lifter until his turn is over. The lifters keep coming and the entire day consists of a few hundred of them. They also alternate back and forth so every time one comes back onto the platform, I take another shot of the display to get the name. Every 20 minutes or so I pass off to a card runner who then hands the card to a another employee manning the booth. Our booth is just a 4x8 table that we've set up running Aperture on 3 screens. 1 Screen is for our card reader/printer. He downloads the cards, tags the lifters with metadata (just names the pics of the lifter using their own name making it easy to search) and then when people come up to the booth, we ask their name and show them their pics. Then we print on demand using an epson 9900 :)</p>

<p>There are flaws in this, and we know it, it's not our typical market so we don't feel comfortable investing in software/touchscreens. But for us this works quite well. Although keep in mind some of the things Matt said as well especially liability insurance, we go in with $4M worth so we're usually set. We're also set for credit cards (very important). And after the event, we post all our pics up online into an online shop (another $900 setting that up as well).</p>

<p>Hope that's helpful, good luck!</p>

<p>Dave</p>