thinking of putting out an ad...

gerk86

seeing as ive invested so much in my gear i thought it was time for IT to earn me a little money by placing a "photographer available" ad in the local paper. The idea is to shoot sports exclusively (dont want to ruin someones wedding lol).

Have any other amature photographers here done this? How should the ad read? What are the pitfalls, problems etc and finally, any advice?

thanks

elven

Not direct advice really but someone was talking a couple months ago about being able to put ads like this on ebay as well. Might be worth checking out.

You absolutely must provide examples of your work, before anything else. That's about all I can muster up to say just now

Borderfox

What sort of gear do you have and do you have transport? What sort of sport do you like? Maybe try covering local sport and build a portfolio from there, unless you cover events for newspapers I dont know where the money will come from. Event photography has good money in it but the hours are long and you consistency rate has to be +95%.

rymus

Id do it... if I had more time on my hands to talk to the waves of time wasters you'd get calling. I can well imagine many many phone calls going along the lines of "you want how much?", "shur I can get my nephew to do it for quarter of what you want"

In line with what elven said, what I'd provide is a website address so people would actually have to actively take an interest in visiting to see your work and get in contact with you. Posting "Photographer Available - Call 087 1234567" is a recipe for extreme short term hair loss.

City-Exile

No one is likely to pay you to take pictures of their sport, when there are so many people doing it for free. You'd be better off getting in touch with local sporting clubs, covering their events & trying to sell the pictures to the papers.
If you're lucky, some of the participants may request prints, which could make you some pocket money. At best, it would cover the cost of your petrol.