Shamrock Cares - How We’re Giving Back to Lowell
Free to Download Photos From All Sports/Activities
Thanks to the support of LHS parents through Shamrock Gold, we are able to get out to photograph programs who don’t partner with us.
We prioritize our program partners, but we know that student-athletes from non partner programs deserve to have photos as well.
Shamrock is built upon the foundation of giving back. That’s our main mission after all.
“Shamrock provides free to download high quality photos of LHS students in their respective sport, performance, or school activity, allowing any family regardless of income to have memories of their high schooler’s experience.”
It is an interesting business model, and one I came across after many different trials. Watermarking is the traditional format of high school sports photography. This was my initial business model. What I found was with the accessibility of advanced technology, there will always be parents, students, and other photographers providing unwatermarked photos. They’re great photos too, we have amazing photographers at LHS. While I think watermarking remains viable, and I use this model for a select few albums, this challenge helped lead Shamrock to what it is today.
Our business model is giving away a free product. Sounds crazy right? That’s why team contracts, tips, purchases, and media days are so critical to our mission. We’ve got some amazing partners at LHS from football to wrestling to boys lacrosse, and many others!
Even teams that do not opt to contract with us, it’s our goal to get to at least one of their events. We email each sport coach prior to the beginning of the season to allow programs specific opportunities for coverage.
Highlighting Student Photographers
Elevating student photography is at the core of what we do.
LHS students are creating their own photography pages on Instagram particularly at a high rate. There are more than a dozen legitimate student photography accounts at LHS ran by LHS students. Classes like digital photography and yearbook have helped contribute to this trend.
It is our goal to help highlight these photographers and give them experiences they couldn’t do on their own. Through allowing students to collaborate with us on media days, bringing them into our Graduation coverage team, and sharing their photos through our 1,800+ follower Instagram account, we try to elevate Lowell student photographers whenever we can.
The last two years we’ve spoken with Lowell’s yearbook class on how to improve their photos, and always welcome students who need camera help to talk to us at any sporting event.
Partnering With Lowell Classes and Programs
Working with classes like LHS Yearbook and Red Arrow Report helps strengthen school coverage inside the halls of LHS.
Classes like Red Arrow Report and Lowell Yearbook aren’t just allowed to use our photos, we encourage it. These photos help these LHS classes elevate their services.
We have a high level partnership with Lowell Athletics and Lowell High School and are honored to be a welcomed guest at events. We’ve provided coverage of everything from the Michigan Supreme Court case at the high school to senior honors night.
Pink Arrow photos have been provided at a volunteer level and we’ve been working with Pink Arrow in some form or capacity in photography since we started taking photos pre-Shamrock in 2017.
