First time shooting little league

Diddy2theJJ · Jul 6, 2011

Hey guys, I've just been given the opportunity to shoot individual and team portraits for the local T-ball teams. Their photographer just backed out last minute and i know one of the coaches. The tough part of this....is that I was only given a few days notice to get everything in order. I think I've done pretty well, but you know how it goes, you just can't plan for everything that you haven't done before. I have been shooting weddings for the past two years so I have some experience with the pressure of that.

I have my packages together, made order forms, and have the equipment needed so I think I will be ok. The other option was the coach, and he has very little photography experience. So I told them I would do it.

I am shooting on a 7D, and have a backup 5D Mark II (I know this is backwards, but I just bought my 5D Mark II and I don't have a medium range lens for it yet, and my 15-85mm canon won't fit it and I don't think I should be shooting team photos like this on a 70-200).

There are 11 teams of 10 kids, we are shooting 6 tomorrow night, and 5 next Tuesday. I plan on using my 7D and my 15-85 lens tripod mounted with lots of memory. I'm bringing my usual assistant to help with the order forms that the kids brought home yesterday.

I also have a set of 2 pocketwizards. What are your thoughts on putting 1 or 2 speedlights on those for some fill flash? I also could have my assistant hold a reflector if needed too, but it seems like the fill from the speedlights would be easier, and cover more area.

Obviously it's not an ideal situation with it being so last minute, but I want to do a great job for these guys and hopefully I can do this next year...and do a better job after going through it once.

Any advice would be appreciated!

Thanks.

morthncds · Jul 10, 2011

Equipment sounds good. One flash should be sufficient unless you want a hair or back light. You won't need a reflector. If all the teams are T-Ball (I'm guessing 6 and under), then the most important thing is to get a good expression. At that age, very few know how to hold a bat properly, so an easy pose is a must. Take at least 2 shots of every player (because of blinking), unless your assistant is watching for that. You need to keep a record of the frame #'s to match the kids name to. Allow 15-20 minutes for each team. Start individual pictures first and do team last (99% of all teams will not show up at once). If you are doing buddy shots, you can mix those in. A lot of leagues like free stuff, so a free 5x7 of the coach and their child together is always a good and cheap gift. If you get a whole league, the organization usually will want some kind of kickback (maybe a percentage of sales). And again; the most important thing is a good expression and a friendly demeanor. And don't forget to get them edited and printed quickly (2 weeks turnaround and delivered is great); if it's over 3 weeks, parents will get impatient. If you can do that, then you will get asked back next season also. Good luck!! Hope it works out for you.

Diddy2theJJ · Jul 11, 2011

Thanks! My first night of it went fairly well. I had my assistant hold up a diffuser to block out the direct sunlight, and I had a speedlight setup camera left, and then a a hairlight setup behind them opposite my key speedlight, but after looking at the pics, I don't really think the hairlight was necessary. The league only left me a half hour to shoot 50 kids.....I told them ahead of time that wasn't going to be enough, and they said to just take the time i needed. I felt a little bad because games started late, but next year I will be pro-active about it and schedule it better. (this was last minute this year and they took care of scheduling). I only ended up taking about one or two minutes per kid, but the pics turned out pretty nice. I will do things slightly different next year.

I did run into some troubles with parents and the order forms though. I think I have to make some adjustments there too. Some of them didn't fill in the tax so I will end up having to pay that myself.

A couple of questions. I should've had these figured out ahead of time, but I'm learning alot now. I traveled out of town to do the photos, so I probably should've charged their sales tax instead of the city that I'm from. It's a 2% difference and I didn't think about that since I'm editing the photos at my studio etc., I was thinking that would be the appropriate tax to charge, but I suppose it should be the location's tax that I charge correct?

I'm also thinking that I should maybe figure in the tax with the photos, so they don't have to calculate anything next year. Is that what most people do?