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Archive 2017 · HS Girls Soccer Team

friscoron
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · HS Girls Soccer Team

I'm the only photography studio in my town in the NW suburbs of Chicago. We've got two high schools here, and another seven high schools within 15 miles -- and only one other photography studio that focuses on high school seniors. So the only thing keeping me from having more success is getting my name out there. I'm always trying to improve my SEO but I basically want to become known in this area as the go-to studio for senior and family portraits.

One of the ways I'm doing that is offering my services for free for the high school teams. They have the contracted school photographer who takes the boring team shots with them standing on the gym bleachers. Not interested in that that. Not interested in their school contracts. the teams have begun using me and they create small posters with a team on the poster, an individual portrait (shot at the same time as the team shot) and then I try to get out there to get action shots of them, mainly just the seniors. I usually end up selling prints to the parents at a discounted price, but they also get free social media JPGs.

I had focused just on the cheer and dance teams in past years, but really began focusing on the sports teams this year. Here's a shot of the Jacobs HS girls soccer team. Shot with my D4 and a 24-70 lens at 31mm, f/6.3 ISO 640, 1/250. I have an HDR preset in Lightroom and I applied that with a heavy (100) in the clarity. Then I add more contrast, and laid in the sky, using a sky that matched their team colors.

Even though they are girls, they are athletes, and I wanted a gritty look.

Comments always welcome.

http://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2816/33899053460_124ac5812d_b.jpg

Apr 26, 2017 at 09:15 AM

stevez32
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · HS Girls Soccer Team

I think the Sky distracts from them

Apr 26, 2017 at 12:54 PM

Vcook
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · HS Girls Soccer Team

Some of the faces feel hot. While it would be tricky for print a wider aspect ration would really work well here, at least on screen, get rid of all the sky and grass. Crop a tad tighter on the right to balance it and it's a tough looking photo.

I like it.

Apr 26, 2017 at 01:56 PM

Jim Rickards
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · HS Girls Soccer Team

It's a good picture, Ron. Gritty, you've got. But don't count the frowns in that picture! Some of these girls look annoyed.

Apr 26, 2017 at 03:48 PM

friscoron
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · HS Girls Soccer Team

Jim Rickards wrote:
It's a good picture, Ron. Gritty, you've got. But don't count the frowns in that picture! Some of these girls look annoyed.

They are annoyed! I told them they can't smile!

Apr 26, 2017 at 04:35 PM

Peter Figen
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · HS Girls Soccer Team

I really like the staging of the gals and love their expressions. I do agree that the faces seem a tad hot and that the sky simply needs to be replaced. It's the brightest thing in the frame, the least important and draws you eye right to it and away from where you want it.

Apr 26, 2017 at 11:07 PM

friscoron
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · HS Girls Soccer Team

Thanks, Peter.

I appreciate all the feedback from everyone.

Apr 27, 2017 at 08:43 AM

Steve Wylie
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · HS Girls Soccer Team

I do a lot of group photos at the high schools I work with (three in my area), and I try very hard to avoid the regimented look that most sports and cheer teams get with school-contracted photographers. Those shots have their place (in the yearbook), but like Ron, I avoid them them like the plague. I like the look these ladies exhibit. It's the same kind of look you'd want from a boy's team, aggressive and confident. It's kinda funny; I ask my groups or teams to give me an "album cover" look, and they instantly get it. My biggest challenge these days is to get my local high school song and cheer squads away from the same look and location they've had for years (at a local lake at a very bad time of day for photography). I've been complicit in this and hate it more and more every year. We need to do more like this, maybe not quite as "industrial" or contrasty as this, but with similar grouping and attitude.

Apr 27, 2017 at 02:25 PM

gschlact
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · HS Girls Soccer Team

Ron,
I'll add a twist but echo many of the above comments.
.. staging is awesome
.. I thing a sky with overcast clouds and shadows pulled down would add to the toughness, else try lowering exposure and saturation of current sky
.. Grass ihho needs to be more the dormant summer color, so maybe try heavy desaturation too, it conflicts with the color palate of the building
.. IF YOU TAKE ONLY ONE SUGGESTION, please 'true' the leveling of the shot using the building's vertical lines.

.....for constructive business brainstorming....
On the business side, I get the desire to differentiate product by offering more unique T&I images.
I have spent most of my 'photography education' for the last seven years hanging on the sports forums and learning not just the differences betweeen good and bad sport journalism shits (eyes, action, ball, contact, backgrounds), but more importantly the increasingly more challenging business side to non journalism sports photography(shots that parents buy.). The two most current trends to making money in sports are a) individual posters (usually multishot), b) T&I are still the money bread and butter and c) team (like this shot) and individual banners for fences or walls

Your approach toward free team photo is intreaguing, and certainly can have 'advertising value' for your Senior portrait/ business,
... but how do you minimize selling on spec for it and any action shots?
... also, how do you motivate them to participate as a team for the off site image (some ppl do composites of individuals in similar shots as yours.
...Do you require / request advanced payment for the individual shots you take of them at the 'off site?'
... do you require advanced payment for action shots before you do spec shooting at games?
... are you bundling across all your offerings for increased willingness for advance package selection and payment?

Guy

Apr 27, 2017 at 03:11 PM

friscoron
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · HS Girls Soccer Team

Steve Wylie wrote:
I do a lot of group photos at the high schools I work with (three in my area), and I try very hard to avoid the regimented look that most sports and cheer teams get with school-contracted photographers. Those shots have their place (in the yearbook), but like Ron, I avoid them them like the plague. I like the look these ladies exhibit. It's the same kind of look you'd want from a boy's team, aggressive and confident. It's kinda funny; I ask my groups or teams to give me an "album cover" look, and they instantly get it....Show more →

Thanks, Steve! I'm getting better at convincing the teams to do these at the appropriate time of day if we're shooting outside. I do a lot of shoots for local/regional magazines in my area, a lot of cover shoots. They have always wanted to do the shoot on their 9-5 clock. I've finally convinced them to start treating this as if it's a national magazine pub and they've just hired Annie to shoot the cover. If Annie says the shot is at sunset, you damn well better believe it's at sunset. So that's what I've been doing.

With the dance and cheer teams, we usually do those in my studio, so time of day matters not. But I totally get your challenge.

Apr 27, 2017 at 10:23 PM

friscoron
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · HS Girls Soccer Team

gschlact wrote:
Ron,
I'll add a twist but echo many of the above comments.
.. staging is awesome
.. I thing a sky with overcast clouds and shadows pulled down would add to the toughness, else try lowering exposure and saturation of current sky
.. Grass ihho needs to be more the dormant summer color, so maybe try heavy desaturation too, it conflicts with the color palate of the building
.. IF YOU TAKE ONLY ONE SUGGESTION, please 'true' the leveling of the shot using the building's vertical lines.

.....for constructive business brainstorming....
On the business side, I get the desire to differentiate product by offering more unique...Show more →

Thanks, Guy! I am pretty confident the shot is level to the building. Whenever I crop, I always check the levels. But I'll take another look. The actual shot had a boring overcast sky. I tried throwing in clouds, but for me the image popped when I added this sky. I get it when others are saying it's too bright but I'm really happy with the colors. Not sure if I'll make a change there.

The shoot is free. I give the players/parents social media JPGs. And the parents always buy prints from me. I'm not really doing this to make money. I pay my bills with my family sessions and senior sessions. When I do these gigs, it always leads to new senior or family sessions.

I do composites as well. I thought I posed my girls basketball team shot from this year? Maybe not . But that was a composite.

I don't require or request any payment as I do these team shoots for free. But parents always buys prints from me. I also don't sell the action shots. If I did, I'd be wasting my time. When I have time, and I sometimes have to miss an entire season, but when I have time I'll go out and shoot a game. Plus, the weather has to be nice and warm, and since I live in the Chicago 'burbs, that doesn't always happen.

If I tried to make money off this, it'd be pennies on the dollar for what I make with my portrait sessions. A total waste of time. I like doing it, and it leads to things. In the last three years, I've been hired (paid quite well) to document a team's (usually focusing on one player) entire season. If I don't go out and shoot, they don't see my images, I don't get hired. This actually works well for my business model. Not for everyone, but definitely for me.

Apr 27, 2017 at 10:37 PM

nolaguy
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · HS Girls Soccer Team

Hey Ron,

It's been a really long time since I monkeyed with one of your images so, here we are

There's so much I like about this photograph - and your vision, your call, for sure but I think the call outs above are probably born of four factors.

1) Super interesting wall/backdrop, but it's shorter than ideal for the photo without a much tighter crop;

2) Your sensor doesn't seem to be parallel to the wall, and that combined with the lack of plumb of the brick work (and the roof line in particular, I think) may be bugging some folks;

3) With such a strong sky and clean, dividing roof line, the image is simply, split

4) the chimney/vent - in its scale and simplicity it almost becomes more important than any of the girls are individually;

The roof edge also appears to be an add-on to the structure so is somewhat incongruous with the building - probably a trivial note.

All that said, I get what people are saying and I somewhat agree - buuuut I can also see the things you like about the composition. The points above create an unexpected tension in the image that fits the concept. It's a puzzle, to be sure, but I admit I like it as is.

Here's a less interesting rework (hope you don't mind). Apologies for losing your portrait clarity and for the mucky grass clone work - the modifications screwed up your text pretty good so I mowed over it.

Apr 28, 2017 at 02:00 AM

schlotz
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · HS Girls Soccer Team

I also agree that it appears the sensor was not parallel with the building. Hard to tell if there is any lens distortion involved or not, but if a profile wasn't applied you might try it. Like nolaguy, the top portion was really fighting with the rest of the frame and eliminating that conflict truly helps focus one's eye on the team. I might have chosen to lower camera though. Probably to 3ft off the ground.

JMTC

Matt

Apr 28, 2017 at 08:08 AM

Herb
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · HS Girls Soccer Team

I like the originals as posted.....

Apr 28, 2017 at 06:26 PM

Brev00
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · HS Girls Soccer Team

I shot some high school girls soccer and think your take on this is awesome. I love the variety of sort of nasty expressions you got along with their variously angled poses. Each young woman tells a story here and I can imagine that each one loved this image. Individuality within a group. The blonde with the raccoon eye stands out for me. The others seem makeup free. I also like the two leaning on the third with crossed arms on the upper right. So much to see in this one group pic. Great work! I would enjoy seeing some of the individual shots as well.

Apr 29, 2017 at 05:15 PM

friscoron
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · HS Girls Soccer Team

schlotz wrote:
I also agree that it appears the sensor was not parallel with the building. Hard to tell if there is any lens distortion involved or not, but if a profile wasn't applied you might try it. Like nolaguy, the top portion was really fighting with the rest of the frame and eliminating that conflict truly helps focus one's eye on the team. I might have chosen to lower camera though. Probably to 3ft off the ground.

JMTC

Matt

I was actually sitting on the ground, and having to use my 24-70 lens when I would have preferred to shoot this at 200mm with my 70-200. I was probably about 15-20 feet in front of the girls. I think the camera is close to eye level with the girls in the front row, which is where I want to be. I'm on a hill and it's a steep incline, so I couldn't go back any farther or I would have been shooting down on them.

While I always appreciate getting feedback here, and I often make changes based on it. I'm actually pretty happy with this image, even the hot sky.

Apr 29, 2017 at 07:07 PM

friscoron
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · HS Girls Soccer Team

Brev00 wrote:
I shot some high school girls soccer and think your take on this is awesome. I love the variety of sort of nasty expressions you got along with their variously angled poses. Each young woman tells a story here and I can imagine that each one loved this image. Individuality within a group. The blonde with the raccoon eye stands out for me. The others seem makeup free. I also like the two leaning on the third with crossed arms on the upper right. So much to see in this one group pic. Great work! I would enjoy seeing some...Show more →

Thanks. It's always kind of funny when I ask a team of girls to give me attitude. Guys just jump right on it. A group of the girls will as well. But many girls will just give me a blank stare, so I have to coach them through it. But I really want them to be themselves, not my version of them. I even try to get them to group up naturally, instead of my directing them (as much as possible). The blonde that you referred to, this is my second team shoot with in her in just a few months, and she's a freaking riot.

Apr 29, 2017 at 07:12 PM

friscoron
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · HS Girls Soccer Team

Herb wrote:
I like the originals as posted.....

Thanks, Herb!

Apr 29, 2017 at 07:12 PM

friscoron
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p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · HS Girls Soccer Team

Thanks, Chuck! It's always interesting to see what others will do with my image. The one thing I really do agree with you on is the chimney/vent. But I'm really happy with this image. I think you know I really listen when people give me feedback, and I often make changes based on it.

I really loved this wall I shot against. It was down low and this was a breezy day, so I was constantly dealing with hair flying around with the individual shots, which we did up above this area and against a different wall.

nolaguy wrote:
Hey Ron,

It's been a really long time since I monkeyed with one of your images so, here we are

Apr 29, 2017 at 07:17 PM

unclechuck
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p.1 #20 · p.1 #20 · HS Girls Soccer Team

Ron

I'd title this one "Strident" --- bold, earthly, straightforward. Neat piece of work IMO.

Charles

May 01, 2017 at 04:40 PM

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