Selling Photos Situation

[thyme4me]

Well I took the dive and am starting to sell some of my sports photos on Smugmug. My DD is cheering for a football team. After taking lots of photos of the girls, parents kept coming up to me asking to take some of their sons playing. I've done two games now and it's taken off like gangbusters! I even offered a parent an option of making scrapbooks through Blurb and selling them to the team for a fee.
Here is my dilema. One of the coaches asked if I could burn to a disk of some photos so that he could put them in a slideshow as the end of the year gift to the boys. And he wants to use them on the teams website. So should I:

1. Re size the photos to a low resolution but enough to make a good photo for a slide show. If so, 640 x 480 ok?
2. Make sure he agrees not to sell the photos or sell the DVDs to the football players.
3. Ask for a fixed price for the use of the photos. And if so how much?
4. Be sure that the site credits my name for the photos.
Could anyone with experience give me some guidance and feedback? TIA!

[twistedpeppermint]

I am so waiting to read the responses. I right there with you but on the fence on how to proceed.

[MIDA78466]

our school athletic director puts together a slide show to music and sells the CD to the kids for $20 a piece.

[esther_a]

I was interested to see what others had to say, too! I don't take photographs for others so I wouldn't know about prices. But I have done slideshows, and I would have thought that 640x480 was not big enough. Ideally it will be the same dimensions as the screen it will be displayed on. For example, my screen is 1920x1080.

[KerryMac]

Kris, here's my 2 cents:

Think about what you want to get out of this experience. Are you considering taking your photography further? Getting into the business? Then you may want to use this opportunity to create exposure for yourself in your community. You could spread a lot of good will by contributing the images to the coach in a file size that is appropriate for a slideshow and website (typically small file sizes will do) but making sure that your name is included on both the slideshow and on the website as the contributing photographer.
Take control of your images. It wouldn't be too much work to prepare a CD yourself and offer it for sale for a nominal fee. It would be a good way to advertise!
In addition, it would be a great time to get some cards printed for yourself to hand out when someone asks if you'll take pics of their kids playing. This sends a message that you are serious about your photography. And helps to get your name out there.
So I guess to answer your questions, I wouldn't charge the coach but I would make sure you are given credit for your contributions. Give small files that are adequate for the end use. And do ask him not to distribute copies.
I did a lot of this kind of thing when I was starting out. It was great fun and super experience and gave me some good exposure. And, I loved being on the field with the kids!
Good luck!

[thyme4me]

Thanks for your input Kerry. It's good advice and I appreciate you taking the time in helping me figure out what to do.
I guess the sticking point for me is if he decides to do the DVD and gives it to all the players for free then what about my clients who purchased the photos? Doesn't seem fair does it? I can't really do the DVD because I've only been taking photos of 2 games and not the entire season.
Oh the joys of doing business! Thanks again Kerry

[geekgirl415]

just thinking out loud, if you charge the coach a minimal fee, that would solve the parents buying them issue- and it's better to start with a minimal fee than not to and need it later (when you get really big and famous!).
Even if it's $5 to the coach, no one has to know how much your "contract" with him is.

and GOOD LUCK! EXCITING!