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|| SportsShooter.com: Member Message Board
Experiences with MaxPreps
Eric Dituri, Photographer
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Clovis | CA | USA | Posted: 7:19 PM on 04.06.11 |
| ->> I was wondering if any fellow photographers have had experience shooting/posting with MaxPreps. It looks interesting, but I understand that photographers only benefit when photos are sold (you're not paid to shoot). How are photographers evaluated as to if they are worthy of posting on MaxPreps? Any information would really be appreciated so I don't go off on a wild goose chase researching MaxPreps. Thanks! |
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Ethan Magoc, Student/Intern
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Eric Dituri, Photographer
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Clovis | CA | USA | Posted: 7:53 PM on 04.06.11 |
->> Ethan:
Thanks for the direction. I'll check out the links. |
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Harvey Dunn, Photographer
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Southlake (Dallas) | TX | USA | Posted: 11:23 PM on 04.07.11 |
| ->> Send a message to Todd Shurtleff. He's a member here and is Maxpreps' Director of Photography. |
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Chris Pondy, Photographer
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Anthem | AZ | United States | Posted: 12:55 PM on 04.08.11 |
->> Great organization with good standards and great people to work with. Although you don't get "paid" per assignment, you do get 80% of procedes of images sold. If you can market yourself and like being around high school athletics programs this is a great fit. It all depends on the time and effort you put in and how much self promotion you want to do. This is not necessarily a press gig, it is shooting with the idea that people want to buy action photos of their kids, not what will go on A1 tomorrow morning. I would also say that it depends on how well known Maxpreps is in your area, so not only are you promoting yourself, you are promoting Maxpreps as well. Communication is key with other photgraphers in your area to ensure that folks are not doubling up on games. It is not a competion between photogs as much as it is a network to get the name out.
Chris Pondy |
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Doug Holleman, Photographer
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Temple | TX | USA | Posted: 2:36 PM on 04.08.11 |
| ->> Unless your in one of those areas where Maxpreps is well known and used, and the coaches are actively involved with the team sites and linked in with the fans, you're better off going on your own. You'll have to do all your own promotion anyway, so Maxpreps really doesn't do much for you. And you can probably get a much better cut of the sales by setting up your own storefront, and you can adjust your own pricing. They do little to help promote you, other than sending you some cards to hand out and a shirt with a logo on it. |
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Louis Lopez, Photographer
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Fontana | CA | USA | Posted: 3:35 PM on 04.08.11 |
->> It's an 80-20 split, 80% goes to the photographer and Maxpreps fills the order. and you can promote your own business through the bio page and peolple call to request your services for more than just sports.
it's a good deal... |
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Tim Gangloff, Photographer
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Knoxville | Tn | USA | Posted: 3:02 PM on 04.12.11 |
->> Here's my take.
A very good organization that in some areas has great market presence and not so much so in others. Not so much so in my area. While I got accepted as one of their photographers, I never really pursued it, so take this information knowing that I have as of yet not really pursued creating and uploading galleries.
Previously, they had some ridiculous (in my opinion) requirement for low ISO images (ISO 800 and below??), even as cameras got better. I have heard they may have somewhat relaxed this policy, but not sure. This meant that for most high school football and basketball, you had to strobe or flash. I prefer to not flash football and can not always strobe basketball.
They also require your images be cropped to their exact aspect ratio which is supposed to be a one size fits all so that they can make 4x6, 5x7 or 8x10 prints with no loss of limbs in the crop. For me, this would amount to a bit of extra work in that I keep all of my crops at 2x3 ratio and upload to my site (which has a proof delay). I would essentially have to rework all of my images in lightroom with this crop to post to their site. I guess I could do all of my images in their aspect ratio and upload those to my site instead of the 2x3 I do now. Perhaps I need to rethink that one.
The next thing I had to factor was would the extra time in creating galleries for their site result in a proportional increase in sales to account for the extra time to do so. In my area, Maxpreps is not so well known and many of the schools I cover know me and my site. It's easier for me to give someone my site and maybe quicker for them to navigate.
Maxpreps apparently does a nice job in helping secure ID cards, advertising shirts and handouts for spectators to aid them in finding the site and the game's images online. I don't advertise as much as I probably should and this is definitely a plus for their shooters.
I can't remember exactly, but I think the 80% figure quoted was 80% of the net sale, not gross sale (80% x (Sale price - Print Costs), which should be taken into account if you are doing a cost v. benefit analysis. |
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Eric Dituri, Photographer
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Clovis | CA | USA | Posted: 2:54 PM on 04.14.11 |
| ->> Thanks to all of you who have taken the time to weigh in on my question. The comments have been very helpful in giving me direction. Thanks again! |
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