Youth hockey photos ages 5-18

I have been shooting youth hockey for a couple of years. I know the technical

details on how to capture great shots in poor lighting. I will be shooting a

weekend long tournament this year. I need to shoot and print on site and sell to

parents. I will have a helper to run the laptop and printer. I have no idea how

much parents are willing to pay for an action shot of their kid. Anyone doing

this that can give me a price idea? Thank you.

I use p440's to produce 8x10's they sell for $30 each, I'd preffer to lab print them but when you must print on site I don't think you can beat good dyesubs I really like the new copal that prints up to 6x9 it's super fast and good quality and perfect for churn and burn volume gigs.

I usually run a bank of printers 2 x p440s and a copal 6x9 (also does 6x4)they are networked to laptops (4 in toatl for the print side) and can pump out fairly quickly. We also run 3 x 42 inch lcd's for preview screens these are networked to laptops aswell and produce dockets for orders, the customers pick the shot clicks on what size and hit order this produces a docket which they then give to my order girl who accepts the payment and puts the image into the right print que depending on size. This system took me ages to set up and a lot of $$$'s especially because i had to get the software built but it did pay itself off pretty quickly, it's definatley a four person opperation and I only use it on big events where volume comes into play such as formals, and grandfinals where there is enough teams playing to justify the set up.

We shoot hockey aswell but I don't print onsite we still preview but it's not worth the extra $$$ to employ the extra staff etc. when there are only two teams playing per hour on one rink the volume just isn't there so for this type of thing I preffer to set up my preview station and push my memorabilia stuff it has a way higher margin which compensates for the lack of player numbers and really is much more porfitable.

If your using inkjet forget about selling any type of volume on site, to slow and it's an inkjet print.

Have fun it's not as easy as people think to get this system up and going. feel free to cantact me if I can be of any help.

The stuff below is what we push at hockey due to small player numbers.<div></div>

The pricing depends on the market, the scope of the tourney and the quality of the shots. At MN tournaments, I've seen the prices go from $5.00 for a 4x6 to $12.00 for a 4x6 and everywhere in between.

Go to a few tournaments in your area that other photographers are covering... check out their setups and costs. (Research the competition!)

As for the setup, It's a question of how much you want to invest vs. how much you can make back and how quickly. Again I've seen varied setups from a single computer with a remote display to a 10 computer wireless network w/file server. I've seen onsite printing with inkjets and dye subs,etc... Plus, I've seen day delay printing... (print Day 1 shots on that evening a Costco, sell them on Day 2).

Again it all depends on the market, demand and quality of the photos. The more expensive shots tend to be from the groups that have more equipment (i.e. the 10 PC / Wireless Network guys charge $12.00 for a 4x6 and the single pc guys tend to go for the $5.00 per 4x6)

The examples above are great for individual shots where you do some Photoshoping and creation of the photo, but for action shots, those aren't what I'd sell or expect as a parent. Hockey mom's around here (MN) tend to buy those shot's as a team package, but during games / tourney's they want the photo of their kid scoring the winning goal or stopping th puck!

Good Luck!

Dave

Mark, you're still using the Phantoms logo?!

I know a wedding/Mitzvah shooter that uses a Fujix pictrography 3500, which are dirt-cheap used; and cost about $2.20 per 9x12 print. Best of all, it's a real silver print.

Hey Dan, I didn't do it and I asked them about it after we spoke last apparently there is a difference but I can't see it. They are the Penrith Phantoms from NSW Australia and that's the logo they supplied it to me so I'll run it until I'm told differently, I told them so its on there heads. I think that could even be the same pic i showed you last time.

Funny you should mention the Fujix 3500 I bought a used one second hand for chips as well but it's to big and bulky to carry around now it lives in my garage. Produces pretty ok results and is at a bargain price.

Packages are a good way to go with these smaller events aswell but don't do them onsite.

Thanks all.

Mark, you are already where I want to be in a few years.

David, this sounds pragmatic for the arena I am talking about.

I'll post my results later in April

Thanks again.