I've struggled to break into the youth football market shooting live games so I decided to put two skills together to try and make a new market for me. I have done some school photography so am well versed with the white backgrounds typically used in that genre and have all the kit needed to set that up quickly and in a fairly small space, say a typical dressing room.
Gary at the Arniston Rangers 2013s was looking for some new sponsorship images I decided to use that opportunity to create the new products.
I set up in the dressing room and the players came in small groups, with a coach, to minimise the impact it was having on their training session. Two poses were taken for each player, one a straight shot to show the sponsors name and the next a shot to mimic a celebration. Some kids definitely enjoyed the cele shots more than others and came back for a few different looks. The coaches also got in on the action
The "studio" part of the shoot was over but Gary asked if I minded taking an image of all the players and coaches together. That was a bit of a challenge as it was now pitch black outside and the surroundings not too photogenic. However, we did what we could and as I have battery powered studio heads we were fine with the lighting, barring a very expensive sound crash onto the concrete for one of my units blown down by the wind. Fortunately, no harm done and I'm fully insured for kit and liability so covered for all eventualities. Not the prettiest of images but it was Gary's favourite as it shows all the lads who play under him and the coaches.
The next part of the processes is creating some graphics and placing the players into the image, choosing what wording is wanted and making it scalable so all players can fit the final product.
Here are the five templates the coaches got to choose from. I'll build on these as other clubs show interest and hopefully have a good selection to choose from. The colour schemes can be easily changed and custom text etc added as the client wishes.
I'm really pleased with the way the images turned out and judging by how quickly they have been downloaded from the website and the comments from the coaches I think the clients are happy too. Good luck to Gary and the Arnie 2013s and hopefully we will work together in the future.
If you are interested in working together to create similar images for your team or club and that isn't just restricted to football then please get in touch. The cost would be £100 minimum with £10 a player thereafter, ie 11 players £110 total . For that each package would include a minimum of two images on a white background, two template shots of club's choice and a team shot. So £2 an image all delivered digitally and at a size suitable for printing. I would also be happy to set up the printing too at additional cost.