MY FIRST YEAR IN HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY

Like most of the genres that I photograph, high school sports portraits happened by accident. It all started with a conversation with an ex-neighbor and friend, Eric Ginkle, who is a local JV basketball coach. It was a casual conversation about coaching and photography, you know, the things we love and like to talk about. I mentioned that I may be interested in photographing athletes and getting into sports portraits and he offered the opportunity to come into the school to work with some of the varsity basketball seniors. The rest, as they say, is history…

During that initial shoot, I had no idea what I was going to do when I got there so Trey and I just showed up with 4 lights and a truck load of modifiers. Strip boxes, 7’ umbrellas, beauty dishes, soft boxes, etc. We were just there to play and create. We worked with 4 seniors and created some basic portraits as well as some composite portraits. For those that are unaware, the composite stuff is where I cut them out of the background in photoshop and place them into a different digitally designed background. We had a few different light setups for moody and dramatic portraits plus some light setups to work with the digital background that we were going to use. I think all parties were happy with the results because that’s when the phone started ringing.

Within days of releasing the images to the players and coaches, I was asked to come back and photograph the entire boys and girls basketball teams. I had no idea how to go about photographing that many people at once, individually. I’ve never been a “volume” photographer and, in fact, am very much against that practice. I’m a “quality over quantity” guy. What was I going to do? I’m not setup for this. So, after much thought, stress and freaking out, I decided to just stick with the composite style photos for that many players at once. I will be able to flow through the players faster and get consistent lighting for each person, etc. It will also make post-processing faster since everyone will go into the same background. I just need to retouch and add names. I was dipping my toes into “volume” territory but still had a firm grasp on quality control.

A composite from my very first sports portrait shoot!

Ok, so now that my first team shoots are out of the way, what do I do? Crap…I didn’t get any contact info from anyone. How do I get these images to the students and parents? Some of the names are missing. I’ve never had to cut out hair like this from a background. EVERYTHING IS WRONG AND NOTHING IS WORKING!!! Another freak-out moment that I turned into a learning moment. This is when I realized I was in over my head and had to change some things immediately. I realized that most coaches don’t care if you are there or about what you are doing. You are interrupting practice time. They have no desire to help you and their job is more important than yours. I said “MOST” …some coaches are amazing and so helpful. So I had to figure a lot of this stuff out on my own. How do I get the correct info from the athletes? Names, email addresses, etc? How do I contact the parents? The rosters and info from the schools is full of typos and is of no use. How do I organize shoot days better? I am still figuring all of that out to this day. I just try different things with each shoot and keep what works and throw away what doesn’t. I have many things in place now that give me a much smoother experience, but I still have a lot of kinks in the chain.

I didn’t hear back from anyone during the spring sports season of that year but fast forward to Fall of the 23/24 school year. I get a call for football seniors (20+) and cheer seniors. Both shoots went much smoother, and I was feeling good! All images were edited and sent out to about half the parents (I’m still trying to figure out how to reach them all at this point). I had an amazing team mom that I was working with on football that was a massive help. Sales were going great with football and crickets over on the cheer side. What’s going on? I don’t get it. I come from a glamour background and made sure their lighting was spot on and gave them a little more attention during the retouching process. It was bothering me. Not because I lost money on that shoot but because I guess my ego was bruised. I thought that they would surely go crazy over the images. I finally realized that I forgot about being young and in high school and hating every image of myself. These girls were just overly picky and didn’t like any of the pics because a single hair may have been out of place, etc. I quickly snapped out of it and realized that I shouldn’t take it personal, it’s just how these girls are. That was another learning moment. Be more sensitive with teen girls, give them more time, let them see the images on the back of the camera and make adjustments if needed. Make sure they are happy with the pics. No more “run & gun” pics with the ladies. After another successful yet eye opening fall run, we wrap things up again.

Now, we are approaching Winter sports and I get the greenlight that I am now the official photographer for all teams, Varsity & JV, at this first school that I have been working with. Then I get a call from another high school across town asking me to do the same for them. GREAT, things are moving right along! 2 schools, all sports, Varsity & JV, at those two schools! I got this! I start getting emails from coaches and athletic directors. They are setting up shoots and they ALL wants me at the same time. All sports at all the schools literally want me at the same time on the same day. Oh boy…am I in over my head again? What have I agreed on? What am I doing? I have a fulltime day job, a family life, other shoots with bands, portraits, etc. So, after more anxiety and freaking out, I do what we all do and figure it the eff out…because we have to, right? This is when I decided to lean on the “I’m only one guy, a small business & boutique photographer” approach. Because, well…that’s the exact truth. I greatly appreciate the overwhelming increase of support and demand, but I can only do so much. I agreed to this so now I have to make it work. After a talk with my day job, I agreed to be available 2 days a week for 6 weeks for the schools. I was already off on Mondays and now I’m using 1 vacation day a week. Now with everything organized and scheduled, I go into Winter sports ready to create and grow even more! Basketball, wrestling, swimming, DONE.

Next thing I know, spring sports are back and ready for me! Baseball, softball, lacrosse, golf, tennis, girls soccer, track & field…WOW, I am busy! Oh, I also picked up a 3rd school somewhere in there as well as some travel baseball teams. Have I lost my mind? I don’t think so. I’m just learning along the way. Learning how to manage my time, how to work in a lower “volume” environment while keeping a tight grasp on quality. I still screw up so much. I’m still learning so much. I still have so much to change. There’s still a large group of people that are not happy with me, my style or that the schools are using me. I’m not used to dealing with parent’s and complaints, etc. I’m still navigating all of this. I have had no mentors or anyone showing me the ropes. I am figuring all this out on my own and that’s awesome. I’ve built this for myself 100% all on my own and it all happened in a year and almost by accident.

Doing all this for 3 schools, a fulltime day job, making time for my own family, etc. It’s a lot, but it’s my passion. It’s what I love. I sacrifice a lot to teach my kids that you have to bust your ass to follow your dreams. I know it seems silly to most, but photography is the most important thing in my life, besides family. Photography and creating is what gives me life and purpose. I know that my new audience is a mix of those who appreciate what I do and can see the love and passion I put into it and those who don’t get it at all and can’t tell the difference between a stick figure and Picasso, and that’s ok. I love a challenge and boy has this past year been just that. I absolutely love it and I want to thank those that have supported me throughout all of this.  Hope to see you all in the years to come and I hope to keep learning and improving for you all!