Sam Niebeling (He/Him)
Owner and photographer
Email: sam@photos-niebe.com
I went looking for a photo to put next to this but the first rule of photography is no photos of the photographer
The History
I am a freelance photographer that takes pictures primarily for the Baldwin Bulletin and some other paper in the St. Croix Valley area. I mainly do pictures of high school sports but do take some pictures of community events and some portraits.
I started taking photos my freshman year, 2019, at Spring Valley Highschool and I am still going. I moved to St Croix Central in 2020 and started to expand into a photography business. Then in my junior year, I requested permission to sell the photos from the Central Games. Unfortunately, this request was denied. The recommendation was made to me that I should start taking photos at Baldwin-Woodville. I got approved by the Baldwin-Woodville School District to sell the photos that I take at game to the public. I was still a student at St. Croix Central and graduated from St Croix Central with the class of 2022.
My involvement with the Baldwin Bulletin started in 2021 and I kept going. Each week the editor picks their favorite photos that they would like to feature and then photos are released to parents. With the Baldwin Bulletin I have been asked to do photos for their other papers that include: The Osceola Sun, Amery Free Press, Grantsburg Sentinel. In late 2023, I was asked to cover all of the schools except for Grantsburg. This added to my list: Amery, Clear lake, Osceola, and St. Croix Falls. I get to their games once in a while but primarily stick to Baldwin-Woodville and a handful of Central games.
I try my best to work with the Districts to support their publications. For instance, I have given a lot of photos to the Baldwin-Woodville School District for their website and their yearbook. River Falls has also received some photos of their Fusion hockey team for their yearbook. I encourage districts to reach out for photos if they are needed. I have also spoke to the yearbook class at Baldwin-Woodville about sports photos and have encouraged them to sit with me at these games and I can give them pointers to help capture the best shot.
I don’t make much in the way of profit for the pictures that I take. When I am doing something for the paper my expenses are covered but not my time. I already self host this site to keep costs down but it takes a lot to run the website in terms of time and technology resources. Photo sales keep this site running and gas in the tank to get me where I am going.
In April of 2024 I finally transformed the company into an Limited Liability Company. This was a step that I knew was coming it was just a matter of when. Since that day I opened up the site to allow for the sale of other schools photos including Amery, Clear Lake, Osceola, and St. Croix Falls including Grantsburg and Webster on occasion.