Senior Sports Photography
Opportunities always appear to be much greater as they are passing you by. Case in point: While high school team and individual sports pictures have changed very little over the past 20 years, the athletes and their styles have most certainly changed. I noticed a tremendous opportunity when I asked a couple of seniors to show me their school sports pictures. I was completely in shock with the lack of effort the photos showed, and that gave me an idea. Unafraid to go after an opportunity when I saw one, I soon secured my first high school sports contract, which turned out to be a great decision.
Photographing high school sports has two major advantages. The first is the amount of sheer profit. The second is the relationships you are able to build with the rising seniors who can send you more business.
I recently photographed a football team of 70 people. It took me just two hours to photograph all of them. Each image was in the same spot, in the same pose. The average order was $41 a person—you do the math. Once we come back to the studio, there is minimal processing to be done. H&H Color Lab has a brilliant ordering program that makes things so easy. For this shoot, we worked only four hours total. The orders come back from our lab in alphabetical order in individually wrapped packages, so all we have to do is drop them off at the school.
