No appreciation for what I feel are decent photos

[ac12]

Allow me to play devil's advocate. How do you know the kids really want you taking pictures and posting? I played a lot of sports in school, was never going to make an Olympic team but had a lot of fun. In today's world I don't think I would of wanted the self conscience pressure that some dad might have captured me tripping over the ball, missing a save, etc.. that can be so easily published. "Hey Steve does your dad have a picture of Jeff flipping over the boards? I want to show it to Stephanie"

Working as a PJ I photographed a lot of high school and college sports honesty there's not a lot of grace out there and you could see how published images changed the team's inner dynamics. (who the star was/n't) Had to sit through a couple of meetings why wasn't my kid on the front page!

In college there was a class V river we'd kayak down that sat next to a road. A lot of motorist would stop and get out the camera. Even in the middle of a class V rapid we are self conscience that someone is taking our picture.

Again just playing devil's advocate maybe not everyone has the same enthusiasm for being recorded photographically.

Yes, when I am shooting on the field or court, the kids definitely know that I am there. Though I try not to get in their face and distract them.
But if they want a chance of a pix in the yearbook, they have to learn to ignore me.
The good ones can tune me out, the others will unfortunately have me in their head as they play.
And if I were really distracting, I have no doubt that the coach and refs will tell me.
The soccer refs have already told me to not shoot from behind the net.

As a result of some (valid) parent dramatics, the yearbook staff is more aware of how many pix of one student is on a particular sport page, to give balance to the rest of the team. It is up to the page editor to pick the few photos on the page, to represent the sport, and unfortunately most of the kids just won't be in them. That is what the team picture is for.

One of my guidelines to the editors is to pick photos that will NOT embarrass the student, neither when they pick up the yearbook nor in 40 years.

As for not wanting to be photographed. In hind-sight, I understand that, the paparazzi effect. Difficult to do in sports, but definitely easier to control in student life pix, where if the student says no, the kids do NOT shoot that student.

 

[MetroRuss]

Thanks for all the feedback everyone, it is well taken and very appreciated.
It helped me sort out a few things.
1. I shoot because I like to.
2. It is a great place to practice and improve.
3. Posting an embarrassing photo is a no go. All photos go only to a private app that the general public cannot get access to.
4. Inspiration from a set of photos is my objective.

This set was very inspirational to the team. (Faces blurred for privacy)
It was a 2 on nothing break away for the blue team. They came in hard, I got them in focus as they crossed the blue line and was so lucky to get this set of about 12 shots all in the frame and not that bad in focus.
Often this goalie does not explosively move and make NHL style saves. But for some reason he went for it with gusto, he stopped the breakaway shot with his blocker, it popped up in the air about 10 feet, as it fell to the ground he stuck out his heavy goalie stick and batted it away from his goal line. The scoring chance was high for the second blue player to bat in the rebound.

The coach did use this goalie save post game in the locker room to inspire the kids to never give up on a play even when you think you cannot keep up or stop the shot. Keep going hard and try your best. Don't let the other teams player skate the puck by you without trying to poke the puck away or get in his way etc.

 

[ac12]

All you need is one GOOD shot (or sequence) from the game, and that makes the shoot worth it.
Some times it happens, sometimes not. If it does not happen in a particular game, I don't stress it, I just try again at the next game.

I try to learn from each shoot, something to make the next shoot better/easier.
I also learn from things that go wrong, like the ref going in front of me when the football player ran across the goal line. Maybe next time, I should stand a yard or two away from the goal line so that I won't get blocked from the TD shot.

I had a few people ask me why I was shooting so many soccer games. And yearbook students asked me why I was shooting soccer, after the deadline had past. I told them, practice makes perfect, and I was still working on getting better. Unfortunately, it did not seem to have registered with the students, as I rarely saw them at any game, once the yearbook deadline for that sport was over Then they wonder how I can get so many good shots. Duh, I practice a lot.
This practice was especially important for sports that I had not shot before, or shot very little of; soccer, lacrosse, water polo, and tennis. I did not even know what lacrosse was, until last school year.
To the end of the soccer season, I was regularly getting shots of most of the goals. That only came as a result of a LOT of practice.

One neat thing about working with the coaches, is that you can work with them to get otherwise impossible shots.
The baseball coach brought be out onto the field between innings, to get a shot from behind the pitcher, of a pitch to the catcher

 

[Dikkie]

people don't value what they don't pay for.

People can behave weird on free things.

When people pass a shop’s showcase with 2 buckets: one with free apples and one for $ 4, most customers will have weird doubts for the free bucket and will pay for the other bucket instead. Not knowing that these are exactly the same apples. It has been tested in customer experiments before.

It's like free software, people seem to be willing to pay because they think it's better.

 

[BillM]

If you love doing it keep doing it. Lots of people show up and post a handful of photos and are never heard from again. Trust me, it was almost 2 years before a parent or a player even spoke to me. Once they realized I was there because I loved doing it as much as they loved looking at the results it all changed. I went from being a hack with a camera who loved photography and sports to a part of the community, and a freelance photographer for the local papers. I was even awarded a state championship ring when the girls won the title last season Missed a basketball ring by 3 points this year But it was fun shooting from the floor of the Boston Garden for the semi finals. A 3 from the corner with 1.5 seconds to go for the win.

And yes, his mother thanked me for this photo lol

 

[BillM]

As as stated earlier, never make any player look bad. Your team or the opponent. And put down the camera when someone is injured.

 

[Tropicalmemories]

Every post in this thread is a valuable, good read.

But I think there's also something else in play here. These days everyone is a photographer and the selfish gene also runs deep in all of us. People like to receive comments on their photos, but few people take the time to comment on other people's photos.

Look at Flickr - millions of people trying to get attention, but not one functioning Group with real discussion.

Even in our Furum, where we are all keen photographers, you can see posted photos with few or even in no comments.

I try to comment on other's photos at a much higher rate than I post my own - and I see some other people doing the same, especially on this forum, but this is a very rare way to behave as it runs counter to the inherent self-centered nature built into all of us.

 

[Fujidave]

All my gig shots I take I do for free and the enjoyment of the vocalists thanking me and telling others Get Rohan Dave to do it. They are always saying thank you very much as not one person takes the time to do the images and talk as well.