Sloppy's Garage vs. MaxPreps
A couple of months ago I applied for and was accepted as an action photographer for MaxPreps.com. So far, I have posted nearly 20 galleries on the site. My affiliation with them will not affect my work flow or any of the offerings I have on my Sloppy’s website. As a matter of fact, MOST of MaxPreps galleries will also be Sloppy’s Garage galleries. I’ll explain the differences in a moment, but first some reasons why I coveted the MaxPreps credentials.
Exposure is the main reason. I will often shoot one of our local teams against a school where I have zero contacts, say Paramount High School (above). They played in the CIF Playoffs against El Dorado last year. I got some great shots of the Paramount boys but no one ever saw them on my site, and I’m not going to run around trying to pass out business cards. If I had posted the gallery on MaxPreps they would have been seen. If not right away, eventually. I have talked with other photographers and they say they getting orders from old galleries is pretty common, probably because people are still discovering MaxPreps and they search the archive of past seasons. I also get personal exposure as galleries feature the photographer’s name. If someone thinks my photos are the goods, they can contact me through the site for their future jobs. Another big draw was the gravitas that a MaxPreps Press Pass or t-shirt commands. I have already used my MaxPreps affiliation for field access where I wouldn’t have been allowed otherwise.
There isn’t conflict between what MaxPreps sells and what my galleries offer. MaxPreps sells only digital image files. Through my site I sell mostly prints. I do sell plenty of digital files too, but that is primarily pre-ordered and bundled in my Individual Packages.
Galleries on sloppysgarage.com will have a lot more photos than a MaxPreps gallery of the same event. The main reason is MaxPreps prefers straightforward baseball card type shots. I like those too, but I also like some context with my photos and actually frame them that way during shooting. For example, this goalie photo below would be rejected by the MaxPreps editors because the main subject is blocked and the attacker is blurred. But that’s exactly what makes this photo great, in my opinion anyway. If #19 wasn’t in the photo the goalie would just look scared. With #19 in the photo, the goalie looks like one brave dude!
I do like that I can be impulsive, find a game near me, shoot it on my own, and post it knowing it will get seen. I can even visit my Aunt in Washington, shoot a high school game there, and locals will find it. Crazy right? I mentioned before that I like to use my galleries on MaxPreps as an appetizer to the main gallery on MY site. But be warned: many photographers on MaxPreps post too many photos and it can be overwhelming. When I see another MaxPreps guy at my game, I will often visit their gallery later to see what they got. Even with the fastest internet connection and knowing some of the kids, I can easily get bored scrolling through and quit. So while I may not sell a bunch on MaxPreps, I like to believe my smaller polished galleries set me apart there. B
