If you want to specialise professionally as a sports photographer, selling sports photography through your website can be a very interesting and profitable business option that can help you make a living from it. That’s why, in this post we are going to show you how you can make your photo shoots even more profitable and we are going to introduce you to 7 colleagues who already make a living from sports photography.
In this article you will find many of the answers you are looking for right now on how to sell sports photography online and make it profitable.
Selling sports photography through your website can be a great business if you have the right tools.
In sports photography, the professional has to know the dynamism of each event and be very attentive to every crucial moment of the competition in order to capture those unique moments that sporting events always provide. Whether it is a relay race or a rugby match, the sports photographer has to know very well the type of game he is going to photograph in order to know how to anticipate every moment and capture all the participants in their moment of glory.
Because knowing how to transmit the energy that is released in each discipline is part of the work that a sports photographer has to do on a daily basis. And if, in addition to taking these fantastic snapshots, the professional is able to sell sports photography for a living, the work involved in capturing these images will have been well worth it.
How does a sports photographer work?
A sports photographer is usually hired by the organisers of the event, by some of the participating teams or even by a media outlet to record everything that happened in the competition, including the participants.
A photographer dedicated to sports photography has to know perfectly how the sporting events he is going to attend are going to take place. This detail will be essential to know when the most spectacular moments will take place and thus be able to capture in his images these unique moments that each athlete gives.
Knowing how to control the movement in any sports photo and having the necessary experience to capture those decisive moments is essential for a sports photographer. Because except for very specific moments, the vast majority of the images will be taken when the protagonists are in action.
In this type of event, it is also important to have a good knowledge of the sporting event to be covered beforehand, taking into account a series of prior data. For example: how many participants there will be, where the event will take place, how long the competition will last, where the audience will be located, etc.
Advantages of selling sports photography
One of the great advantages of selling sports photography on the web is that in a single day’s work you can sell a large number of images.
To do this, you can contact the event organisers to cover their competition and offer them a sports photo package. These images can be used to promote your event in other media, on your website and on your social media channels. And you can also make even more profit from the sports session by offering the images to the event attendees. Here the business will be in the competitors as well as in the public, giving them the possibility to buy images of the competition through your sports photography website.
Arcadina offers several business solutions such as customer galleries or public sales galleries where athletes, organisers and the public can buy photographs in digital and printed format on the day of the competition.
7 success stories of sports photographers selling their photos online
As you can see, specialising in selling sports photography can be very profitable if you learn how to get the most out of every sporting event you cover. And for you to see some examples of colleagues who already know very well how to sell sports photography through their website, below, we are going to introduce you to a selection of 7 fellow photographers who have specialised in covering sporting events and who use several of the business solutions that we offer you at Arcadina.
1# Photocrama: women’s and men’s football
Marc is the sports photographer who is in charge of the Photocrama website. This colleague specialises in covering mostly women’s basketball games and some men’s games all over Spain. At the games, both the members of these sports competitions and the attendees can comfortably buy the photos of these exciting games from their mobile devices or PCs.
On their Bangkok-designed website, anyone who wants to will be able to buy their favourite images of women’s basketball, men’s basketball and women’s football sporting events through the various public sales galleries on their website.
At Photocrama, in order to make sure that nobody uses one of your images illegally, they use watermarks, a very good way of shielding your images from fraudulent use. In the following article we explain which ones work best.
Behind the Equipo Deporte website is a group of sports photographers who are dedicated to offering a service with full coverage of the national sporting events they attend: photographic reportage, video of the event, live broadcasting via streaming and sound of each event.
On their Cairo-designed website, as well as getting to know their professional career a little better, those interested in this type of services will be able to see part of their portfolio of athletics, cycling, half marathons, cross country volleyball, football, handball, basketball and rugby competitions that they have covered over the last few years.
The sportsmen and sportswomen and the attending public will find a “look for your photos” section, which is nothing more than an online shop, where the members of Equipo Deporte will upload photographs of the latest sporting events they have attended.
3# Ashai Photo: mountain races
If you want to see the work of a trail running photographer in Spain and other similar sports, on Ashai Photo’s Tokyo-designed website you will discover Lluís, a mountain and nature enthusiast in general.
This sports photographer has attended countless competitions in mountain biking, motocross, swimming, cycling and triathlon and in his “photo downloads” section, visitors will find a short explanation of how to download his images (for a fee).
Another of the options that customers will find in your sales galleries will be the possibility of using the quick image purchase option where interested parties will be able to select a format, for example, 10×15 print, and select all the photos they want from the same gallery. In the following article we explain in more detail what this option consists of.
4# Retratos Tamayo: photographing the world of motoring
Alfonso Tamayo is a biker and photographer, whose hobby began when he was a child and watched his father take pictures with an analogue SLR. After his first years of training, this photographer manages to capture unique moments that sometimes go unnoticed by the human eye. This is the key to sports photography, “freezing” those moments of maximum emotion.
As soon as users enter their Bangkok-designed website, they will find an advertisement in a pop-up window highlighting a discount on sports photo shoots. Undoubtedly, a very visual strategy to encourage customers to make this type of reports. In the following help article we explain how to configure this option from your management panel.
On the Retratos Tamayo website, those interested in booking a photo shoot will be able to do so immediately thanks to Alfonso’s Booking section, where users will be able to choose a day and time and pay for a photo shoot immediately.
5# Fotodeporte Online: dance and youth tournaments
Foto Deporte Online is a website run by photographers who, after years of specialising in press photography, have now decided to dedicate themselves entirely to selling sports photography online.
In their online shop section, you will see a series of galleries where they have for sale all kinds of photographs of: dance festivals, children’s football tournaments, tennis matches, and even images of various dance masterclasses. They are all events with the same business idea. To make a day’s session profitable by offering the largest number of interested people the sale of sports images.
6# Itzalak Photography: cycling competitions
Itzalak Photography specialises in covering all types of cycling races and triathlon competitions in Navarre and the surrounding area. In Itzalak Photography’s photographs you will be able to enjoy both the events of each competition and the previous moments of the participants.
On this website they have focused their business strategy on directly promoting the sale of sports photography through the online shop.
7# La fotógrafa zurda: artistic sports, hockey and others
In Castellón you can find a fantastic sports photographer who also works in other disciplines, such as family photography, she is passionate about sports and seeks to show in each image the effort behind each competition. We are talking about the website of La Fotógrafa Zurda.
In the portfolio section of his website with NewYork design, you can see a sample of his sports photos. And for people who are interested in buying some of his sports images, in “gallery” you will be able to buy photographs of various figure skating, ice hockey and basketball championships.
If you like sports and photography, learn how to sell sports photography with Arcadina
If you know how to sell sports photography on your website, you can build a great business thanks to the business solutions we offer you at Arcadina.
If you want to read more tips to help you sell sports photography and make a living from it, we recommend you read the following article.
Here’s today’s question: what business solutions do you think are the most profitable for a sports photographer at the moment? We’ll read you in the comments.
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