Jim,

The problem I see isn't with the parents, but the working photographer who is trying to survive and keep his family fed, they are the ones who you would have a problem with, by undercutting them your taking from their business. Believe me, single parents, low income parents and so on hire pro photographers. I had a struggeling sngle mother hire me to shoot her daughter before a prom and she paid $250 on the spot for time and prints without a problem, meanwhile, her daughters boyfriends parents are well to do and didn't pay a penny. Needless to say they didn't get a single print either. If they want them they will pay the same rates as everyone else. When I was a track photographer I had a couple of women who bought every single print of their husbands that I had each week, spending as much as $100 a night, and some nights more than $200, and these people were not even close to making $20,000 a year but they bought pictures and put a race car on the track each night, and had kids to feed.

Another thing thats a potential problem is low res vs high res, even a half descent low res file can make a half descent 8x10. When you give a file you have no clue how many copies they will get made of these. Even if you give them a paper stating they can print 2 or 5 who's to say they won't get 10-20? Sports 4x6's go for between $3 and $15 each around here depending on the sport, and CD's where the photos cannot be printed go for $25-$75 while those you can print are from $50-$200. Again, it depends on the sport, and again when you undercut the working pro it's going to cause problems for them and thats not a pretty sight when they catch up with you.

I had one local "pro" (used loosly) come up to me at a game once and tell me I had to leave. He started such a scene that the game had to be stopped. He ended up being told to leave because he refused to to listen to anyone. He, without asking why I was there just assumed I was taking business away from him, and he refused to listen to the fact that I was there for the paper.

JS