Express Action Sports

I have a passion for photography. I’m in my early 20’s I really want to own a photography business. Do any of you own a photography business? Did you go to school for it? Any ideas, suggestions would be a great help Thanks for your time!

You don’t need a college degree. What you do need is (a) a good portfolio of your work, (b) a rock solid business plan and (c) enough capital to get the additional goods & services you need to launch and to keep the doors open during the first few months while you’re still building a customer base.

The business plan should identify who your target customers are, e.g. going after weddings in or near your home town vs. sports action photography…you get the idea. Who are they? How many of them are there? What are their buying habits? What do they read and watch (for placing advertising)? Etc. It should also identify your competition: who are they? How many of them are there? What sources of competitive advantage do you have over them, e.g. lower prices, specialization in some type of photography, etc.

It should also explain what you’ve got, what you need and how you’ll pay for it.

It needs to include your marketing plan: How will you reach your customers and bring them back for repeat business? (Hint: personal selling)

I don’t mean for like weddings or small stuff, but like sports photographers.
I took a class in photography last year, and I really liked it, but I dont have any room left in my schedule to take more advanced courses.

First thing you have to do is build a portfolio. That is, get out there and take pictures. If you want to do sport photography, photograph every kind of sport you can, and print out the best. Be really strict with yourself here, and weed out anything that doesn’t take your breath away.
Then approach your local newspaper and see if they’ll take you on a freelance basis. That’s usually the way you start. That means they will call you up to take pix when they are short of a photographer.
Or you can get out and take pictures of community sports, really good action shots, and see if the paper will buy them. Time is truly of the essence here — if there is a game on Saturday, they need the pix Saturday nite to get in Sunday’s paper.
Once they get to know you, they’ll begin to call you (if you’re good enough) and that gives you a line in to a steady staff job when one opens up.
It helps if you can do your own editing too — clean up a picture, and make sure it’s as sharp as it can be.
Good luck!

I plan on making my services available for
-weddings
-action (sports)
-teams/schools/group/portraits
-portraits
-art (abstract photography)

pretty much anything

My first name is Candice and I really want the name to be memorable, and professional.

Thanks for ALL suggestions!

C.J. Photography

Most pro photographers use their name and "photography". They avoid too cute and quirky – because you want to project a professional, solid, established image.

That’s quite a breadth of subjects you plan to cover. Do you have a lot of experience in all of them (but most especially the weddings – because the memories will be so critical and un-redoable) before you hang a shingle out?

I have a sports photography business, open since 2003. We have grown well over the past 4 years but would like ideas on building more business. We specialize in youth sports photography, not just still pics but concentrate mainly on action photos. We do local advertising via new papers, our website gets decent traffic and our repeat business is good. Any ideas to generate more would be great!

Have you considered offering your photos on t-shirts, etc? Cafepress.com is a great place for that. I do weddings and nature photography. I keep the wedding site private and set up 3-4 pictures on a product, let the family do their shopping for a week, then move on to the next wedding/family. Here’s where my nature shots are

http://www.cafepress.com/naturalphoto

Click on one of the photos for an example of the type of products.
The products are of nice quality and you don’t have to do anything but upload the shot. They do all the rest.

I have been asked to do individual and team shots for a local mini football team. Should I charge a sitting fee or should I just incorporate the fee into the packages that I have set up? Do I get the parents to pay for the packages before they leave or do I get them to pay for the pictures once they have viewed the proofs in my online portfolio? Obviously, I have never done this type of photography. I usually do weddings, portraits and action photography. Thanks for all of your help in advance!

Sports are usually done by packages, just like school photos. Prepaid, as a rule, with a money back guarantee.