Hi George. Printing on site is a dicey situation. When it works it is good. When stuff happens,well you know what rolls down hill. If this is what you are feeling I say go for it. Just know what you are getting into.
I shoot some school sporting events and my print sales are never that great. You have to capture the right child at the right pose whose parent is willing to buy.
When I do shoot I shoot for particular people,and I take orders later.
Ed

Hello Ed,

I would only be shooting events like family reunions, birthday parties, etc. At this point I have no plans to do kids sporting events. The only way I would do that is if it were sponsored by the league and I would have to have a guaranteed sale minimum payable in advance. In fact that is what I would do for these events as well.

I guess what I'm looking for in the way of advice is more about the workflow, i.e., software recommendations, how to take subject information and at what point pre or post shot, etc.

Here's an example; when I worked for Lifetouch several years back as a traveling photographer we shot digitally with the Kodak DCS 760 (Nikon F5 body) on to CF cards. We would download the shots immediately after each set onto a laptop into a presentation software and burn to CD using Roxio DirectCD. We would then do the sales presentation storing the order into the presentation software and somehow the software would match up the order to the CD (I remember the really long order numbers). We would then fillout out the order information with the customer's contact information and print out the order confirmation with thumbnails of the selected poses and print sizes and take the customers payment. However we did not print on site. The CDs would be overnighted to the lab from that location. The order would printed at the lab and shipped to the customer.

I am wanting to do something like what I just described except print the order on site. I don't remember the software we used then and besides it was probably propietary. Is that kind of software available now and from what companies? What printers are available and what is the most economical method of printing.

Happy Memorial Day,
George

P.S.
I am not looking to make grand works of art. I just want to capture and produce as decent as possible photograph on location to commemorate the event for the customer at a fair price and make a little money.

Hi George.
You will need a laptop to run photo shop or other imaging software. That is so you can crop to size and maybe adjust white balance. Printer(s).
Everything else is pretty much as you have done before.
Shoot, sell size,print, package,deliver on site. Just make sure that you have AC power on site to plug into. That isn't always the case when the family gathers at a outdoor park.
Ed

George, Show the person that is buying the photo the image on the laptop. Agree that person likes the photo. Agree on the size and price. Collect the money at that time. Print photo at agreed upon price. Put the photo in a folder of appropriate size. Give finished product to the person. Photoshop is the program that I use,and many other photos use that print on sight. You may want to do some very quick editing of the photo at that time.
Ed