Went to Donington at the weekend to watch the BTCC. I borrowed a friend's telephoto lens (definately going to be buying one of my own now!) and got some really nice shots. There were people there on the day with a stall selling canvases with photos of the touring cars printed on. They were all £50 each, and even though I'm not a pro, I reckon my shots came out nicer than the ones they were selling!

Now I don't plan on setting up and doing this full time, but has anyone had any experiences with the online services that allow you to upload your photos, then they sell/make/dispatch prints to order, and the photographer gets a comission each time a print/canvas is sold?

Any idea if there are any copyright issues? Obviously the pictures are all mine, but the cars are covered in sponsor logos etc.

This is the sort of thing:

There are a few sites which can do this including Deviantart, Alamy and Getty to name just a few. You could also consider getting some of your own images printed and mounted or printed onto canvas and selling via Ebay, stalls and maybe even your own website etc (this would be my suggestion), however It is a very competitive market out there.

Finding somewhere with reasonable print costs is important if you want to be able to sell at a price point where people are willing to buy. For canvases try Snapmad, there quality really is superb for the money although the turn around is usally around a week. For prints I would suggest DSCL as they really cannot be beaten for quality against value for money.

There is also the more expensive option of purchasing equipment where you can print onsite on the day of taking the shots. This is the route that I use for my events photography (although not motorsport at the moment) but the total outlay of equipment can run into the thousands and im probably guessing you dont want to go that far. (Maybe you could team up with someone who does this and make a cut of the sales that way).

Copyright wise there shouldnt be too much of an issue although it would be wise to check terms and conditions of the race track for the events in question to make sure.

Hope this helps

Dazz

Cracking shots by the way. Great panning technique.

Ta thanks, that is helpful.