Event photography is huge, and I am going to show you the markets that will pay you the most for your time. But first some advice: When you are taking pictures at any event you reallyneed to stay on your toes. It is not a very relaxing form of photography but it sure is exciting.

You have to keep your eyes roaming about constantly to make sure you are not just capturing what every one else is looking at but also their reactions to what  they are seeing as well. Reaction shots sell the most in any event photography situation.

So don’t just shoot the bride coming down the aisle; shoot the grooms reaction to seeing her in her dress for the first time as well. Don’t just take a picture of little Billy hitting a home-run; capture his parents screaming in the stands as well.

How to Get the Prints to Your Clients:

Before talking about the different ways to make money with event photography, let me just say how easy it can be to offer prints to your customers. I never handle prints anymore.

There are services online that you can use to upload the pictures from the event and then charge whatever you want for them. The customer gets on that site and orders different sizes of different pictures and the company will accept the credit card payment and print and ship the pictures for you! So all you have to do is upload the pictures and you are done.

The service I use is called Printroom.com, but there are others like Smugmug.com and Photoreflect.com as well.

I highly recommend using a service like this because then you can just concentrate on taking great pictures.

Here are some ways you can tap into the huge market of event photography:

• Wedding Photography – This one is pretty obvious but it has to be
mentioned. Many photographers make their full time income from
shooting weddings. I have shot dozens of them in a very short period of
time so I really had to start turning some of them down since I wanted to
focus on other things besides wedding photography. But you can very
easily charge between $2,000 and $5,000 per wedding and just shoot on
weekends. $20,000 a month for weekend work is not too shabby.
If you want to learn more about how to make the most money out of your
wedding photography I can highly recommend a product called
PhotoBizforU. The easy to follow guide will step you through everything
you need to know in making money with wedding photography.

• Amateur Sporting Events – This is another huge market right now. This
includes everything from tee ball, to little league, high school basketball,
football, and any other sport that children play at their school, church or for
a league. You can either be paid by the parents of the kid you are to take
pictures of or sometimes coaches will want to hire you. I have done some
team portraits at the YMCA before. If you are being hired by the parents
of the player you will want to focus the pictures on that one player, but if
shooting for the whole team it will take a little more work and you can
charge much more.
What’s the best way to get started with shooting sporting events?
Just bring your camera and the biggest lens you have to the game and
start snapping pictures. Keep that business cards on your pocket because
you will be passing them out like crazy. I have drummed up all kinds of
business using this method. If someone comments on your camera or
photography just tell them where they can see the photos online. You will
either gain a potential customer or client. Either they will buy some of your
photos of the game, or they will want to hire you to take pictures of some
other event. Either way, it’s a win win, as you gain experience shooting
sporting events and also get some good publicity too!

• Birthday Parties – There are parents willing to spend big bucks on their
child’s birthday party, so this is another great opportunity. Be sure to
capture all kinds of expressions as well, especially if it is a young child.

• Baptisms – I have been paid very well for doing some church baptisms.
These are very special occasions for the parents so they will usually buy a
lot of photos from your site afterwards

• Business Special Days – I remember doing some photo work for Chic-
Fil-A when they had a big promotion. It was a lot of fun and there were a
ton of people there. They had face paintings and of course the Cow was
doing all kinds of crazy things so I had to be on my toes during that whole
time. Big days are great for businesses as they can have some of those
pictures in the paper or just use them in their newsletters.

• Graduations – You can often charge as much for a graduation event as
you would for a wedding, depending on how much work they want for you
to do. Often you will not only have to cover the ceremony and get some
nice professional shots but also a graduation party and shoot in a more
photo journalistic style.

• Baby Dedications – When photographing a baby dedication in a church
you will want to be careful not to be too intrusive. Use a telephoto lens as
much as possible and stay out of the way. Of course if the parents actually
want you up front and close to all the action you need to do that. They are
the bosses and you are the employee for that day.

There are all kinds of events you can make money from, so keep your eyes open and always be willing to offer your services to an even that is going on. You may even have a singer or musical group want to hire you to get some great shots for their CD cover or website.

The key to a successful even photo session is to make sure you have a meeting with the clients before the even takes place and go over all of the boring details. Make sure you know what they are looking for and what they expect of you. This puts you at ease as well as the clients. You don’t want to have to guess what the client wants and then hope you get it right. This will just lead to more frustration for you.

The sports event photography market can bring in tons of money. So if you like sports this may be the perfect way for you to start making money with your camera.
There can be a lot of work in trying to get off the ground and running in shooting sporting events and that’s why I think you will love this ebook I have found called Sports Photo Success.
From my contact with the author of this book I know it will be a huge help in giving you some direction and some step by step instructions on making money in this very lucrative market.

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