Photographing Groups - Playgroups and Dance Groups

Playgroups and Dance Groups

Photographing dance groups and playgroups can be extremely lucrative. The vast majority of participants are children. You will find that their parents cannot resist buying photographs of their children.

On investigation locally you will find a number of various styles of dance schools and many playgroups. Most dance classes take place at night or on a Saturday morning. There are also associated competitions and exhibitions, which provide photo opportunities, with the potential for extremely large reprint orders. Playgroups generally meet during the week, although I have come across a few who meet at the weekend.

Don't Try To Do It Alone!

Do not attempt initially to advertise to individual parents. Approach the dance school or playgroup organiser with the proposition that you can both benefit from photographing the children. Call them, arrange to meet, remember the personal touch will be your key to success.

This offer could include helping with publicity photographs, framed pictures for decoration of the premises or as is often requested a one of payment or donation to allow you to set up stall. It would be helpful, although not essential, to show some samples of your work.

Publicity Material

Do not assume that children will inform their parents!

You must publicise your service. After you have arranged a mutually convenient date for the playgroup or dance group shoot you should set about ensuring that all parents are made aware that you will be there on that date.

Provide the organiser with a publicity leaflet, which he or she can send home with the children or their parents who arrive to collect them.

This leaflet should initially inform parents that you will be present on a particular day and that you would like to photograph their children. Say that you will be providing a minimum of two proof shots from which they can choose one or more to be enlarged as part of a package deal of reprints.

I have found from experience that this method i.e. giving the parents some degree of choice, results in a larger number of reprint orders, than taking only one shot.

Do Not Hard Sell!

In this first publicity leaflet you must make it absolutely clear that parents will be under no obligation to buy, if you do not you are in danger of losing custom before you have started. You do not have to hard sell; once parents have seen the shots of their children they find it difficult not to buy. Your most effective selling material will be the finished prints of their children!

Keep Paperwork Simple.

You must design a form for recording the names and addresses of the children against relevant image numbers as they are photographed. This should be as simple as possible, it may have to be filled in quickly, I once photographed forty-eight playgroup children within a one and a half hour period!

You should also design reprint order forms, which will allow ease of ordering both special packages and reprints at normal prices. It is a good idea to print both sets of prices on the same form, this has two purposes. It will highlight to the customer how much they are saving on your normal reprint prices, it will also serve as a reminder that the package deal prices are not what you would normally charge for other types of work. You do not want to be associated with doing a 'cheap job'.

Even if your orders will be placed and delivered by hand ask for the full name and address and telephone number to be written on the order form, this will provide you with accurate information and give you potential contacts for any future promotions. Remember this is about building long-term relationships.

I hope you have found this Ezine Article useful.