Looking to grow your sports photography business? In this PPA Favorite Podcast Episode, Alison Carlino shares how Media Day photography has become one of her most successful and profitable services.

Discover how to introduce Media Day sessions to schools, build a portfolio before charging premium prices, create marketing images that attract new athletic programs, and develop pricing structures that increase revenue over time.

Watch the full episode on PhotoVision for even more sports photography business insights.

A lot of them don't, um, so on site before I drive away, I make them say, "This is the one I want." Because if they choose a whole new graphic, we charge $50 to even start the rework on that. Um, and that's just for a mock-up. That's not talking about making the whole team. So they are involved with the organization of the graphic and the choosing of it.

Um, I don't know where I was going with that one, but yeah. It just, sometimes they're communicative, sometimes they're not, and to be honest, that plays into whether we're gonna return to that organization or not. Decent sales and a communicative coach and feeling safe and secure on site as a woman are things that we put into play whether we're gonna return.

And isn't that the luxury of being good at your job so you have enough demand, so you can choose- Now ... not to go back to a client that- Yeah ... isn't serving the needs of the business? That's not a power play, but it's control, right? Yeah. It's opportunity because you're doing a good job of filling your calendar.

Yeah. I know you're passionate about Media Day services. I, I'd never heard of the concept of a Media Day. What is it, and what will we learn when you talk about it at Imaging USA in February? Absolutely. I am in the crux right now of making that lesson plan. I'm recording these live videos on scene, uh, s- because obviously I can't bring the whole Media Day to Grapevine.

Uh, but I'm making a lot of videos on here's what you're gonna learn. You're gonna learn what is it, first of all, 'cause colleges have been doing it, professional teams have been doing it, and it's trickling down to our high schoolers now, and they're asking for this more and more. Um, the, I'll be honest, the first, I would say this is probably my fourth year of doing Media Day.

That's called a standard. Anything they wanted above and beyond, like the colored smoke or the action skills, um, that was something that, uh, we didn't have an additional price structure on until about two years ago. Um, I, I needed to build my base of samples first of all. So I would take just the seniors or just the captains, so like two or three kids, not all 15 varsity, and I'd do the colored smoke with them.

And then I would have some for marketing, and they would have some to show off for our social media, and I would just give them the images, and they would be able to show it. So I worked like that. I'd add it on here, add it on here, maybe for a, a league that w- bought a lot and did really well for us, and I'd give them a couple freebies, you know?

I'm gonna talk to you about not only the gear that's needed for that, but I'm gonna talk to you about how to work the flow. Like, how do you know who goes first and second, and how many poses they get to do in that certain amount of time? Um, Texas has large varsity teams. Uh, so sometimes if you think about a football varsity, there could be 80 varsity.

Wow. Well, their starters are the ones really that should be doing the media day. That's the ones they need all the big, um, hype stuff on, player of the week, profile of the week, captain, senior highlights, that kind of thing. Uh, so we don't do this for all 80 of the varsity. They all may get a head shot, but they're not gonna get all the fun images.

By giving them some of these really cool files, did that help you grow into other sports in the same school or other schools of the same sport because they got a little bit envious of why did West get to look so cool and we didn't? Yes, because that, you know, that tennis team would post what we did, and then the other sports in the spring or summer would be like, "Okay, we have to do this as well."

And then it just got to be where I had enough requests where I said, "Okay, now it's time to put collections down on this and make some money from it," 'cause the, the, the atmosphere aerosol, the fog in a can, that's not free. Yeah. You know, the labor to shoot it, my staff had to stay there longer, so you have to pay people longer to help.