Gymnastics Team/Individual Portraits

The most important thing in choosing a photographer is to make sure you like his or her style of photography and design. Our photographers can no more be another photographer than you can be a different gym or gymnast. As you read through this information, ask yourself if you like what Sports Photos USA is about, how we work, and what we produce. There may be parts of our system that are deal breakers for your gym. If so, we understand completely. In the early days of Sports Photos USA, we tried to be everything to everyone. That was a nightmare for all of us. As we developed our professional style (including posing style, lighting, set design, poster design, organization, structure, etc), things took off. We still inadvertently get into a gym that wants us to do what the last photographer did, and those situations invariably become problems. So, we will try to be as transparent as possible about how our system works, and we'll ask you to decide if you like who we are and what we do or not. If you don't, let's not force a square peg into a round hole. If, on the other hand, you are still excited about Sports Photos USA coming to your gym after reading this, by all means, let's do this! So here goes.

Option Number 1: Photograph only team members -- Typically, we can photograph up to 150 team members on a Saturday (7 poses each for optional gymnast, and 3 poses for each compulsory gymnast). If we do team only (no recreational gymnasts), all the team needs to be photographed on one day (unless you have more than 150 team members). We will set up our photo set(s) early Saturday morning (about a 2-hour setup process), and begin the photography around 10:00 a.m. We can photograph until as late as 5:00 p.m. Following the photography, we will pack up our equipment and be out of your way within an hour or so.

We will photograph all the compulsory girls at a given level in the same basic three poses. Each optional gymnast, however, will select 7 poses from their floor or beam routine (at least three of them should be jumps or other active skills). Each gymnast should select skills that she is capable of "doing in her sleep". When my daughter was in gymnastics, her pictures were ALWAYS awesome because I had her do skills she had "mastered." Some of her teammates wanted to try skills they hadn't yet perfected. Those poses were less successful. If a gymnast has decided on her poses and practiced them, her session will last just a few minutes and we will be ready for the next gymnast. We will assist every gymnast to make sure the pose is "camera-ready" and make any modifications as necessary.

Option Number 2: Photograph team members & recreational gymnasts -- If we are going to photograph all the team members and those recreational students who are interested in portraits, we'll schedule the day(s) for the team photography and add a day for parents of recreational students to schedule their child's personal session. The parents will visit our scheduling system and select an available time for their gymnast's portrait session. On portrait day, mom brings her gymnast to the set a few minutes before her session and we will tkae care of everything.

Scheduling your Gym Portrait Event -- After you have decided whether to allow everyone to participate or limit it to team only, find an available time to schedule your project. Visit the scheduling section and pick an open date.

The portrait set requires space. The background is 20 feet wide and 10 feet high. The flexi-roll floor is 6 feet deep. The floor space needed is a rectangle about 24 feet wide and 15 feet deep. We need a ceiling height of at least 10 feet. Electrical power is needed to power lights and computers. In addition to the portrait set, we need space for a 6 foot long table. The table will be my computer operations area.

Typically, we work on a 6 week schedule of education/promotion prior to arriving at the gym. Six weeks in advance, we need a list of parent email addresses. We will set up a PreOrdering site where parents can take advantage of sale prices on a variety of packages. They will be able to see visual representations of the available packages and read descriptions of all options before ordering. After receiving email addresses from you, we will begin communicating with parents via email AND facebook (by the way, our facebook page is www.facebook.com/SportsPhotosUSA).

We do NOT use the equipment on the set for girls because it slows the process too much.

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