I have been asked a lot lately “why are you giving away your photos?” First off I am not giving away anything. I am simply donating the profits from my sales on my website for all the Tides Soccer images back to the Tides Soccer program. So why am I doing this you ask again?
Both my wife and I are Tides Alumni (class of 87 for me and 8x for my wife). I also played for the Tides way back in the day. I was not very good and I only played JV but I once wore the Tides uniform. I have 3 boys (’08, ’12 and ’17) who have played for the Tides. When my youngest graduates they will have played a combined total of 12 years for the Tides. Needless to say we are a Tides family.
I have been shooting my kids playing soccer since I picked up a Nikon D50 back in 2006. In recent years I started getting requests from other parents for photos of their kids. Of course being the nice guy that I am I starting taking requests and giving away this photos. After a few started getting prints made and really nice prints made from my photo’s I thought to myself that I am leaving money on the table. So I setup a Smugmug website and started charging if anyone wanted prints or downloads of the photo’s I take.
Taken at a playoff game, one of the most popular photos I sold.
Last year (2014 Boys Spring season) was my first year charging for prints. I started with the Tides parents and told them I would give back 100% of my profits. At the end of the season I wrote a check to the Gig Harbor Sports Booster for $350. All from the photos sold online.
This is year two of the project and I hope to raise the bar on the donations and I have set a goal of $400 by the end of the season. Interested in supporting a good program? Here is a link to the 2015 Boys Season http://www.golazophotography.com/GHHS-20142015-Season/Boys-Tides-Spring-2015