Financially it's a good idea to get a few unique photos from each event so you can offer them to different papers. Double up on the photos and you double up on the money. It's not something I've done in the past but now that I'm getting more confident and competent, it's something to consider in future.

Of course if one paper has commissioned you to do a photo then it would be unprofessional to grab a second photo for another paper, but if you're doing it on your own initiative then it's fair game.

Earlier this week I went along to a local indoor bowling club to do a picture of the prize winners in the mixed doubles competition. We started with a simple line-up of the winners and runners-up (other way round in the photo) which I thought would work well for the Ross-shire Journal as they seem to prefer these more traditional line-up photos. Lighting was about as basic as it gets: One flash on the camera, gelled to match the ambient tungsten lighting, or at least to get somewhere close.
Bowling club winners and runners-up
For the North Star I had an hour to set-up another photo while the bowlers played their next game. For this shot I decided to do just the winners and position them in front of a large red curtain as a handy backdrop. Lighting set-up was a flash into silver brolly positioned to camera right, and a snooted flash to camera left, slightly behind the subjects as a rim light. If I was going to nitpick then I'd point out that the rim light didn't catch the man's arm at the left of the frame and it does get lost a bit in the darkness of the curtain, but I think it's a nice picture all the same. Chances are the paper will crop tight on the sides so it won't matter anyway.

Bowling club winners