Team and Individual Sports Photography...A Unique Approach
Little before and after
This week we wanted to share our approach to our team and individual sports photography program. First of all...how we started. Year's ago (almost 20 now) I was a full-time teacher and coach. I had always had in interest in photography and felt like I had a creative eye. Well, one year we had the photographer come in to shoot my youth wrestling program's team and individual. As I'm watching him work I thought...this is easy...I want to get into this. Well, just like most crafts I severely underestimated how much I didn't know. Next year I decided I was going to do the youth wrestling program's photos. Heck...I had a decent camera :). So I made some basic order forms and printed them off, handed them out, then here came photo night. I took the photos with my "good" camera then got home. I was prepared :) I had a "photo printer" from Walmart that I thought would do the job. I quickly found out that it cost an arm and a leg to print on a home printer so a few hundred dollars later I had printed out these "professional" prints. Looking at them....they were HORRIBLE! I learned all about refunds and humbly tucked my tail in between my legs and called the real professional. I gave all the prints to the parents with their money back and rescheduled a real photography night....however....I got the bug. Did a TON of research on equipment, lighting, workflow, professional labs, etc. and now have built one of the larger independent athletic photography company in Indiana. I can say with complete confidence that we are one of the best in the business from quality of creative products to lightning fast delivery.
Here are a few things that separate us from most:
1. Everything is custom! I take great pride in providing custom templates for all of our schools and leagues. Whether you have a league of 20 kids or over 1000, we believe that those kids deserve something special. That is what we deliver. Months before we take a single photo, I spend hours on Photoshop creating, refining, and perfecting templates for each school, league, and team.
2. Amazing staff and organized workflow. The mantra "you can't do it all by yourself" could not be more true with how we approach athletic photo nights. We realize that photo nights are not the favorite for leagues and schools so we try to make it as fluid as possible. We do this by providing a staff that is well-trained and efficient. We have some leagues where we are shooting 36 teams an hour without skipping a beat. This is because we have a rock star group that knows how to navigate through a photo night.
Custom banner design for one of our accounts. Guerin Catholic Golden Eagles
3. Lightning fast turnaround! We typically have all photos back in the player's hands within a week of the photo shoot (never more than two weeks). Parents want to wear those buttons to games...not the awards banquet after the season :) This is a testament to the tireless work ethic of our staff and owners.
4. EQUIPMENT, EQUIPMENT, EQUIPMENT! We have the best equipment available from camera bodies to lighting. We do this to make sure we deliver a stunning product when it is all said and done.
5. SUPPORT OF LEAGUES AND SCHOOLS! Let's face it...extra money helps. We support our leagues and schools for letting us have the privilege of shooting for them. With all of our leagues we design a program that is valuable in the ways they need it. Whether that is a percentage of sales, discounted plaques for sponsors, free coaches' photos, etc. we take care of those who take care of us!
If you are interested in a company who provides and stellar service and product feel free to contact us below: