Capturing Success:
Revolutionizing Sports Photography Through the Lens of Race Photographer Scott Flathouse
Scott Flathouse’s introduction to the world of race photography was not conventional. Hailing from Austin, Texas, he initially saw success on the other side of the lens—competing passionately in track, cross country, cycling and triathlons.
However, after an injury in 2011 curtailed his competitive endeavors, Flathouse was relegated from the course to the stands, where he found solace in a growing passion: photographing the skills and achievements of athletes.
“I shifted to photographing friends and family at races as a way to stay involved in the sport,” Flathouse said. “I took advantage of offers to work events as a contract event photographer as a way to hone my photography skills.”
With a firsthand understanding of the incredible journeys of endurance athletes, Flathouse has transformed his injury into a passion, and his passion into a lucrative business. Today, he captures hundreds of events each year across the US, often managing upwards of tens of thousands of photos per event.
Here’s a look into how he gets it all done.
“GeoSnapShot makes the sale as much as the picture does. It really has been a game changer for my business. It has enabled me to do a lot more than what I would have been able to do otherwise. "
Scott Flathouse, international race photographer
– "SPEED MATTERS IN THIS BUSINESS"
As a successful race photographer capturing tens of thousands of images per event, he was losing hours each day to tagging images and trawling through files to locate photos of particular athletes.
Flathouse’s struggles centered around delivering photos promptly, a challenge amplified by the clunky and time-consuming nature of existing photography platforms.
His dissatisfaction only grew as he faced the arduous task of manually cataloging thousands of photos to meet the demands of sponsors and participants eager to share their race experiences on social media.
“I was having a really difficult time delivering those photos,” Flathouse said. “Then at some of the races I would go to, there were various sponsors and vendors and equipment manufacturers who would ask if I had gotten their sponsored athlete and if I had any photos of them. It was very difficult for me… one of the things I despised doing was just going through photo by photo and trying to find individuals by [searching through] thousands of photos. It just was not a good use of my time.”
Enter GeoSnapShot: marking the beginning of a transformative journey for his race photography.
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- "IT'S A GAME-CHANGER"
“GeoSnapShot has been a game-changer for me,” Flathouse said. “It has saved me a phenomenal amount of time.”
After rigorous research into various photography platforms that he hoped would solve his problems, when he found GeoSnapShot, Flathouse was skeptical.
“So, I ran a number of tests where I would pick the same athlete from different events—I would have the photo of an individual and I would run it against my catalogs from different events in different years—but even then it would find their photos,” Flathouse said. “It was amazing. Even with things like swimming… I don't shoot a lot of swimming because it's very difficult to identify individuals because of the water, and caps and goggles, but GeoSnapShot worked even [in those conditions]. I was amazed at how well it worked. The technology itself works very, very well.”
Flathouse also found success with GeoSnapShot’s AI-powered bib-number identification technology—a must-have for participants who would rather opt-out of facial-recognition searching.
“It picks out small numbers, [and] it picks up Sharpie numbers on people's bibs, as well as large numbers,” Flathouse said. “It picks out numbers in vertical and horizontal formats and backwards and forwards and it is just remarkable how well it works.”
Now, Flathouse can find athletes in seconds—a revolutionary change from the hours spent previously pouring over thousands of files.
“Before, I'd have to go search through my catalog or send [athletes] a link and let them search through it themselves,” Flathouse said. “I would never know if they found their photos.”
“Now,” Flathouse said. “Athletes can easily search [for themselves]—and that translates to sales. Clearly it does.”
– "A CENTRAL SOURCE OF TRUTH"
As a central source of photo-sales data, GeoSnapShot has also played a pivotal role in crafting Flathouse’s ongoing business strategy, bolstering his choices around which events and opportunities are the most lucrative to continue to pursue.
“I'm kind of a data nerd junkie,” Flathouse said. “I like to see when sales are being made, and then I like to see the numbers and watch when they start to tail off and grow. And so [GeoSnapShot’s] features around that data, and its presentation of the data around sales and sales volume and frequency—I appreciate that.”
As for his cut? GeoSnapShot’s unique sales model aligns with his vision.
"I'm not paying a subscription; I'm not paying to use the platform,” Flathouse said. “It's paid for through the sales, and my ability to set pricing wherever I want allows me to build in that percentage."
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– “KEEPING ATHLETES SMILING"
GeoSnapShot has proven to be more than just an efficient photography platform for Flathouse, it’s also become a reliable partner in customer service management.
The GeoSnapShot team handles all transactional interactions between Flathouse and his buyers, and when technical issues arise or customers express dissatisfaction with their photos, GeoSnapShot proactively notifies him.
"The customer service piece is another huge advantage to GeoSnapShot,” Flathouse said. “When a customer complains about some technical issues, like maybe the photos they got were not what they expected, GeoSnapShot is really good about letting me know about that.”
– “CREATING AN EPIC EXPERIENCE FOR ATHLETES"
“I have a sense of the commitment, discipline, and challenges that go into training for endurance events,” Flathouse said. “So, I strive to create images that are as epic as the events themselves.”
But Flathouse’s commitment to ensuring that the incredible accomplishments of athletes remain as epic in memory as they were on the track extends far beyond the moment he clicks the shutter.
He’s intent on giving athletes the greatest experience possible, finding and purchasing his photos of them—and, in his own words, GeoSnapShot “just makes it easy.”
“It makes the sale as much as the picture does,” Flathouse said. “It really has been a game changer for my business. It has enabled me to do a lot more than what I would have been able to do otherwise.”
