Youth Sports Photography

[bob williams]

Thanks to all for thier great input on this string-it has really been helpful for me, and hopefully for others. Richard asked me to post some shots for C&C and I will, but first let me say I had my third sale today and another inquiry from a team mom who wants to share the password with the other parents. Maybe some more sales on the horizon What I did notice and thought was interesting is that all 3 of my sales are volume sales, not one or two prints, but more than ten prints---on person even bought 24 prints and most were different shots. If we have any pro marketers out there, perhaps they can shed some light on this. This may be one of those low cost/high volume businesses or just anomly, I honestly don't know. What do you think?


Anyway, here are a couple more shots for C&C.


Thanks,








This is a (wrong end) touchdown shot---But I loved the kids reaction and expression in the background

[Richard Lane]

As far as the rules for shooting kids or adults. I understand the law to be exactly as Bob has described it. You just can't sell or use any of the pictures for commercial advertising without a written release.


#1: Nice action shot, it would have probably looked better without that big white canopy behind the white helmets, but not much more you can do, besides some PP. Maybe you could decrease the exposure a notch, and increase the contrast and black point a bit.


#2: Looks good, nice exposure, good action (including the ball and eyes), watch the horizon. Great body position. The ball is very sharp, but the upper body looks a little soft to me, so try a faster shutter speed.


#3: There is some emotion there which is good. The kid in the yellow shirt does make the shot, but he is not the focal point and he is a little blurry, There is also the kid on the ground who looks upset that he missed the tackle (that's good emotion too). It's hard to tell that that was a touchdown play. The kids in the black jersey's kill the shot a little bit , because they are not on either team. So, there is no jubilation or dejection there. The ball carrier has his back to the lens, which is not as desirable. Busy background.


I like to move down the field with the team so that I will have the offense coming towards me onmost drives. There is usually a time out during a change of possesion so that you can move around. I understand that the 500mm on the 7D is a little long and thatwill limit your positioning on the field somewhat.


#4: Good action, good face, good ball, grass is flying up in the air. Nice exposure, busy background.


No matter what the C&C is parents are going to love these. I think parents buy a lot of shots to give to the grandparents and such.


Since youth football is ending for you, maybe you can try and shoot the Jr. high school team, and the high school JV and varsity teams. That's 3 more teams.


I hope that helps. All in all, I think that if you keep this up then you can be highly successful at it.


Rich