Interesting comments and of course, people are prejudice with their brand of camera. Can't believe someone would think of wedding photos not being good if not shot with Canon. How silly is that? There are probably a million weddings shot in last 10-20 years with Nikon and people have been extremely happy and probably same with Canon or Sony. I am for skill, experience and certainly the camera lens quality can factor in but don't think people should knock the other brand.

Jamey- thanks for the info. Are you in the Lake Norman or Charlotte area? I am doing a lot of sports photography and looking for some tips if you are close enough to get together for coffee sometime. I am retired and basically just doing this part time and hoping to get into a high school to do their sports. I have been doing a lot of neighbors and friends club teams. Are you a Nikon guy or Canon?

Dale

Awesome- thank you. I will check out the Sport Photography Forum.

Dale

Thank you

I just received a 15 day trial for smugmug. The photos are great and the menu is nice. Looking for some advice on someone who has used them to sell photos. The $200 rate for that premium is a lot if I don't sell a bunch of photos and I am not sure how many people would go to the site for my animal-zoo-bird photos.

The basic and other plans don't seem like an advantage to me. I just started a part time photography business and I did purchase some prints from them for a really good price just to see what they are like.

Please advise if anyone has any recommendations.

Thanks

I have the Nikon Z6 with some Nikon lens I use with the FTZ adaptor and a couple of Z lens. I am very happy with the FPS and shoot lots of bird photos and action sports photos with it. Not thinking of the Z9 yet since I haven't had this one long. I think someone replied to you to stick with what you have and be happy with it unless you have a ton of money or need to switch to Sony. I think some people have to be happy with what you have even though I might love the best or most expensive Nikon D6 I don't have a need for the best and most expensive.

I think your first response from the Canon guy pretty much covers it all. I just did the same thing in adding another HD. Remember to go into disk management and name the drive- E- F etc The computer should do the rest other than copying all your photos to the new drive.

Are you being paid by the school? $400 seems a lot for what- 2 hours of work? Are you shooting in RAW and editing each one or just giving them the digital copies of individuals and group? If so and no editing, I would say what is your fee per hour- at $50 per hour that's $100 and maybe go to $200 max unless there is more to this.

Excellent- thanks for the really good info. I am now more confident going back and see if they approach me again. I appreciate the time you took to share this information too. Good points about the hired photographer and how you handled that.

Thank you for the really good feedback. All is good to know. Other than parents with cell phones I have not seen any other photographer with DSLR except for one college girl practicing for a friend. Basically that is what I was there for to get better with sports action shots and get my neighbors 3 kids on 3 teams which I have done. When I started my business the intent was to just make enough to offset my costs- paper-ink etc. So when my neighbor got her 8x10s of her kids others saw it and a couple of other mothers on this team asked for photos and asked how much they owed me. So although there were some money transactions, I don't think I took anything from the soccer club. In fact, their web site said nothing about photography. It did have one comment about asking coaches for photos for the club so they were encouraging that. In fact my neighbor sent a few of my photos of her son to the club. I didn't know that until recently. I think the other reason is the club is trying to protect the kids or from some nut taking them and posting them somewhere they shouldn't. So if that were the case, they would tell all parents on cell phone photography either.

I did have the parent with me when the guy approached me and I told him that. He knew I was only near one field while there were several other games going on. My neighbor said she thinks they are stricter with parents when they have these tournaments, 3 on 3 etc for some reason.
Right now, I think the key is the town rec and what agreement was made regarding the public land. Either way the soccer season is almost done but all this info is good to know as I plan on doing other sports that could involve parks and leagues.

I agree with you as a parent photographing children, but you have to remember there were all kinds of parents using cell phones at various games so they can't disallow me because I have a better or bigger camera. One comment earlier mentioned the issues of surveillance camera's by stores- towns, door bell camera's and so forth, so children are photographed all the time when on public property. If I were posting the photos of kids on internet or with newspaper that would be another story and would need consent but I have not done that. Just took photos of one or two families at their request.
I have since checked with the local police, town rec and local FBI friend so I am good to go on public property and intend to return to the soccer fields as needed.

Thanks again George- i will check this out. Seems like the Supreme Court won't back someone taking photos for fun or their own use but if its communicative- back to the parents or for a business etc then the photographer is protected.

Yea- I know numerous parents take photos with cell phone at sidelines of the field however they don't have a zoom or provide capable photos someone would buy or enlarge for the most part. Part of what I do is fun and challenging and part is experience and maybe making a few bucks from those that want photos of their athlete. So I won't be using my cell phone.

Yep- good idea I plan to contact the local guys tomorrow.

George,

Thanks so much for the detailed reply and all good info to know. I am also 30 years retired federal officer so I want to do what is right so I am researching to see who owns the land/park. I am guessing the town and would be surprised to see if they leased or designated the land to the soccer club but who knows. I am new to my photography business since retiring a 2nd time last year so I want to make sure about all the legal issues. I plan to contact the town and town rec department to see what the stipulation is for the soccer club if any. I am also contacting the local PD in case they have a legal expert or someone who knows about this since I know most of them and trained many. I realize that if I pushed it the first time and stayed I would most likely know the officer and explain I am not selling or posting these and believe it is public land but decided to do more research first. I would be surprised the soccer club has any legal paper regarding the land but who knows. I just want to make sure if I have a right to be there and take photos that they don't abuse their power and tell someone to leave.

I was aware of national parks and of course certain places that have restrictions on public property so I am learning about all the legal stuff too in addition to my camera's and shutter speed..LOL.

We are in Davidson and Huntersville NC so I am fairly sure about the state laws and requirements about privacy and photos. I think most states are similar although I read NJ and Georgia want to have laws to ban all photos of children. Maybe they didn't think about city and business surveillance camera's but I think Georgia amended it to only include sex offenders.

Anyway, thanks again for your thoughts.
Dale Callan