Photographers at Sportives

[Banjo]

Having done my first ever Sportive i thought i would order a picture from the official photographers website. £9.75 for a 7 x 5 print I could just about accept but an additional £3.50 for postage was going one step too far for me.


Am I out of touch with prices or is this taking the P.

 

[dodgy]

If I was working a living as a sports photographer, I would charge as much as I think the market would sustain.

 

[BrumJim]

Bit expensive. I paid £8 for my 9 x 6 sportive photo, and £2 p&p. Wasn't cheap, but was a very good photo of me.

One option - don't buy. Second option - get your wife, partner or friend to take a photo of you instead.

 

[Arch]

It'd have to be a very special picture of me, or a very special event, for that money - but I'm mean. I tend to just download the thumbnail from the website as a momento....

I guess photographers have to earn a living, and to many people that sort of amount is nothing.... Seems a bit steep though.

£3.50 for postage seems a bit much - for a stiffened A4 envelope and a large letter stamp?

 

[HLaB]

I really like the Ken Laidlaw (Borders) Sportive photos were included as part of the entrance fee and it was no dearer than other sportives

The Etape Caledonia was a rip off for photos IIRC

 

[jimboalee]

I always stick my tongue out at photographers if I see them pointing their Box Brownie at me.

 

[Alembicbassman]

A 7x5 digital print costs about 5p

That's one hell of a mark-up even taking into account costs.

I have a Nikon D90 digital SLR and can get great sports pics, you don't need £1000s of pounds worth of kit unless you're shooting for Time Life/National Geographic

 

[Chamfus Flange]

Memory of the pain is enough for me.

 

[ASC1951]

I always stick my tongue out at photographers if I see them pointing their Box Brownie at me.

That doesn't often happen at my end of the peleton!

I was once snapped near the top of some race up Alp d'Huez, where I was not going at all well, and did something similar. "C'est pas gentil, ca", said the man with the Brownie and I did feel rather ashamed when I had calmed down.

 

[TVC]

Is it cheaper to just buy the image data and get it printed at Boots?

 

[craigwend]

This is the range of options from the sportive I finished last week...



Purchase options
Prints are made by a professional photographic laboratory on Fuji photographic paper; we do not use inkjet printing. Note each image is cropped, optimised and adjusted for quality before the print is ordered from the laboratory. Prints are sent to you by first class post, in a board-backed envelope. Larger prints are sent in postal tubes. If you purchase a digital file, we will email you the JPG file (approximately 3-5mb) as an attachment.

20"x30" photographic print (£25.00 GBP
12"x16" photographic print (£16.00 GBP)
TWO A4 photographic prints (£18.00 GBP)
A4 photographic print (£11.00 GBP)
9"x6" photographic print (£8.00 GBP)
Digital download: Large JPG file (£5.00 GBP)


Considering the last one in the list for myself from one of the two photo's of me from the day (the other I've got sunglasses on and paired with a stranger)

as Arch

i've downloaded the thumbnail,

Though think a fiver is not terrible for the jpg / picture which I can the do with as I like & print as many times etc.

Like most things in life are a 'rip off' if you know the real price, though costs are never actual costs or we would never buy bikes

 

[Crossers]

A 7x5 digital print costs about 5p

That's one hell of a mark-up even taking into account costs.

The cheapest way that I found recently was through www.sportsunday.co.uk only £3.50 for a high res digital imagine and like Alembicbassman says, it's only 5p to print it yourself. Plus you then have your own copy.

I did the Cheshire Cat and paid £8 plus £2 p&p for one and didn't get a digital copy. The only downfall is that they (SportSunday) can't be at every event I guess. So whoever takes the Photo's will charge as much as they think they can get away with.

So credit to sportsunday for trying to keep the cost down of what can be an expensive day out once you have taken in account the entry fee,fuel & accommodation etc.

 

[Broadside]

They are hideously overpriced. They attempt to make the most money out of the fewest customers possible. If they dropped prices to a fiver for a print or maybe £10 for all the non-watermarked jpg's then I would buy them for each Sportive I ride - Sprotivephoto.com would now be £40 up this year so far.

At their current prices I cannot bring myself to buy anything from them.

 

[benb]

So how does one get to be a photographer at the event. I'm a keen photographer in my spare time, and I think I'm reasonable.
I'd definitely be cheaper than the ones above!

 

[Banjo]

So how does one get to be a photographer at the event. I'm a keen photographer in my spare time, and I think I'm reasonable.
I'd definitely be cheaper than the ones above!

As there on public roads theres nothing to stop you but the "official"photographer will have a link from the organizers website you would need to stick flyers under peoples windscreen wipers or find another way to enable people to contact you.

The photographer at the Merlin Sportive wanted £22 to email you the file or £13 to post a 7x5 .I would have liked one but not at that rate though I do believe they donate a percentage to the charities supported by the event.