motorsport photo idea

[badgerbaiter]

i'm toying with the idea of starting a website where amateurs and pros can advertise themselves and their photos in one central area
i was thinking the site would be a good place for everyone to post their photos of events immediatly after the races, and be a good place for magazines, websites, teams and fans to get a bargain.
it would also have a forum specifically for motorsport photos and discussion.

what do you guys think of the idea? its up for discussion before i make a decision to start it off

[DWA]

Would have thought that it is a non starter on grounds of cost and server space. You would be up against JEP, LAT, Getty , Sutton, XPB.CC, DPPI, etc. re media sales. All of these provide high res downloads which costs a lot of server space and therefore £'s. Most of the higher level professional motorsport is covered in depth by these outlets. For the lower end of the motorsport ladder sales are not as extensive as some would believe, and most classes/championships have regular photographers providing the required service.
With regard to a forum to discuss motorsport photos you have just posted on probably the largest motorsport photography forum I have found !!!!!

[redshoes]

Server space and bandwidth would definately be an issue if you were serving high-res images. The other option is store low-res images and let the customer contact the individual photographer directly for the high-res copy/print.

How do you see the site being funded? Take a percentage of any sales or charge photographers for storage space. If you take a percentage but allow customers to contact the photographers directly how do you track what orders have been made. If you handle directly then think about invoicing and payment - media sales will not use PayPal or other credit card payments.

Then there's the whole copyright mindfield. Non-accredited amateurs shouldn't be selling pictures, accredited photographers should only provide images to the publication who backed their accreditation application. Yes I know in practice these things do happen.

It's an interesting idea but as DWA says, I can't honestly see it being financially viable.

[badgerbaiter]

i was thinking it would be more of a place for the smaller pros to advertise themselves in one place, rather than a photo agency. at the moment all the small fish are spread through out the big pond.

the forum part would be somewhere for everyone to share their photos (hosted on their own webspaces, but displayed on the forum).
the forum we are posting on now prefers people not to share their photos, so it leaves quite a gap in the market there

but, i'm only thinking out loud, so cheers for the feedback

[badgerbaiter]

Originally Posted by redshoes

How do you see the site being funded? Take a percentage of any sales or charge photographers for storage space. If you take a percentage but allow customers to contact the photographers directly how do you track what orders have been made. If you handle directly then think about invoicing and payment - media sales will not use PayPal or other credit card payments.

Then there's the whole copyright mindfield. Non-accredited amateurs shouldn't be selling pictures, accredited photographers should only provide images to the publication who backed their accreditation application. Yes I know in practice these things do happen.

It's an interesting idea but as DWA says, I can't honestly see it being financially viable.

i wasnt really thinking of it being a business as such, merely a free place to advertise yourself and chat. with photos hosted on the individuals own webspace there shouldnt be a problem with bandwidth. i already have a server that would be capable of hosting the forum, and i cant imagine the forum going too crazy to begin with.

[redshoes]

So aside from a forum, it will be simply be a list of links to other photographer's websites.

What are you offering that isn't available via Google, or even looking at the profile of posters to this forum?

[badgerbaiter]

Originally Posted by redshoes

So aside from a forum, it will be simply be a list of links to other photographer's websites.

What are you offering that isn't available via Google, or even looking at the profile of posters to this forum?

i'm thinking that it would be a place to go to see all the latest photos from events on the forum, then use the links in the posters sig to contact the photographer or go to their site.

i dont really want to comment much about this forum, because its a bit rude to come in and make comments about it, but this forum is about motorsports in general and not a place to easily find a photographer. i think there is a place for a forum thats only about motorsport photography and nothing else.
i dont really know how i would go through a list of profiles on this forum and know which ones are photographers and which ones are selling photos i want.
trying to find a photo i want on google isnt easy either. if i wanted a photo from GP masters the day after then google wouldnt be up to date to point me in the right direction (amongst other problems)

[James North]

This sounds a bit like http://www.f1-photos.net/

But you do really have to be careful with copyrights and credit etc. It is possible you could get yourself into some deep hot water.

[gungadan]

Originally Posted by badgerbaiter

i'm toying with the idea of starting a website where amateurs and pros can advertise themselves and their photos in one central area
i was thinking the site would be a good place for everyone to post their photos of events immediatly after the races, and be a good place for magazines, websites, teams and fans to get a bargain.
it would also have a forum specifically for motorsport photos and discussion.

what do you guys think of the idea? its up for discussion before i make a decision to start it off

Well I think it's a nice idea if, as has been pointed out, fraught with problems. I'd vaguely thought of something similar but from a more commercial point of view. In the end I'm far too lazy to do anything about it and was doubtful if there was a way of actually generating revenue.