When Jon and Sheri of Jon Ogden Photography first came to us looking for a new lab, they were very much newbies in the industry and were looking to begin building a solid business they could move in to full time. We have enjoyed watching their skills, marketing and success grow over the past year and are proud to call them Fotoworks PROs.

With tough economic times upon us, it’s time for all of us to take a look at our current business structures and see how we can expand. One of the great areas that’s available for professional photographers to expand into is sports photography. Unlike family portraiture where print sales are often unsteady and unpredictable, sports photography (especially sports portraits) are an almost guaranteed sale as each athlete wants the traditional wallets and 8×10 to pass out and hang.

It takes a lot of skill and practice to become exceptional sports photographers such as the Ogdens. Shooting indoors at competitions and learning to use studio lighting can take a lot of trial and error. But for those of you natural-light photographers, sports photography might be a great add on to your business as you’ll already have an understanding of lighting in uncontrolled environments such as outdoors or in sports arenas.

I see the possibility for major benefits of branching out into this area. One in particular, is that as the scores of athletes, parents and relatives visit your website to see the shots, they’ll be able to see galleries of your other work as well. — SIDENOTE: Don’t forget to watermark your images as Jon Ogden has. You want your clients to have to buy the images – which means you need to be dilligent in making sure they can’t steal them! — My thoughts are that if done right, doing some sports photography will introduce your studio to lots of new potential clients. As the word gets out, your sports photography could also lead to other local events such as school dances, proms, pageants, conventions, parties & festivals.