Rant - Volleyball Tournement Disaster

[Tony S]

OK i"m going against the popular voice on this one. I'm very familiar with this situation from the point of the parent (who spent thousands on volleyball for our daughter to play and travel nationally), as a hired photographer, and as a coach/league rep.

The league has the right to restrict photography at an event they put on. Most of the time they contract with a photographer to shoot the events, and the league will get a cut of the sales, often times they even pay the photographer to show up. I'll not comment on the quality of the photographer at your tournament. Instead of being ticked off about your lack of access to good shooting spots, I would be pissed at the league for not doing their homework and getting a better photographer to cover the event.

To shoot pictures of your own daughter is not much of a problem, but when you start offering photos to the team and other teams for nothing it cuts into the agreed upon contract the league has and they should do the right thing by enforcing that contract. It's their tourney, their rules.

This is actually a very common practice that helps defer the costs to the league. It's also very common for the photography coming from these photographers not to be the best in the business since they are mass shooting the event.

Another problem is parents shooting photos at sports events are not there just as a photographer. They are there as fans and often they also cheer or make comments to players and event officials from up close, the only way to control that is to say no shooting from the floor areas. If they let one on the floor, they have to let everyone on the floor, so it's about tournament management also. Again, their tournament, their rules.

 

[CMfromIL]

The league has the right to restrict photography at an event they put on. Most of the time they contract with a photographer to shoot the events, and the league will get a cut of the sales, often times they even pay the photographer to show up. I'll not comment on the quality of the photographer at your tournament. Instead of being ticked off about your lack of access to good shooting spots, I would be pissed at the league for not doing their homework and getting a better photographer to cover the event.

1. The event was held at a public school, for public school athletes. This was not a 'private' league, or held on a private facility. Had it been I would have been much more inclined to leave my camera at home per the 'request'.

2. You ought to take a gander at the shots. They are that bad.

3. I was only pissed that they put up as many restrictions, then saw the end result. Had they been professional, I'd not had much of a rant.

To shoot pictures of your own daughter is not much of a problem, but when you start offering photos to the team and other teams for nothing it cuts into the agreed upon contract the league has and they should do the right thing by enforcing that contract. It's their tourney, their rules.

Again, public property, school event. Not private leagues.

This is actually a very common practice that helps defer the costs to the league. It's also very common for the photography coming from these photographers not to be the best in the business since they are mass shooting the event.

Here's the kicker. The pictures are put on Walgreens where parents are 'allowed' to buy them. The photographer isn't even getting a cut, neither is the school in whatever they sell. It's just money out of the parents pockets to Walgreens.

So why the hell did they want to restrict parents from taking pictures of their own kids, and instead have to rely on a 2 bit hack (sorry any 2-bit hacks) to post awful pictures?

Another problem is parents shooting photos at sports events are not there just as a photographer. They are there as fans and often they also cheer or make comments to players and event officials from up close, the only way to control that is to say no shooting from the floor areas. If they let one on the floor, they have to let everyone on the floor, so it's about tournament management also. Again, their tournament, their rules.

I conceeded to the request and didn't shoot from the floor. At least no lower than the first row for some.

 

[Tony S]

Many of the schools I shoot in don't allow parents on the floor to take photos, whether it's volleyball or basketball. They do allow the parents to shoot from the stands down to the first row.

I would still be angry at the school though if they said they had a pro shooting photos and you got the garbage it sounds like you got. By telling the parents this they gave them some expectation to quality and because of this some parents may not have taken pictures and missed out on getting some of their child. Sounds like maybe you need to approach the AD, if you haven't bugged them too much, and make an offer to shoot games. Since you don't want to do it as a business venture, set it up so parents buy pictures for a very low fee as a fund raiser for the team.

Of course, from the way this all sounds I'm starting to guess that the other person who was photographing might know someone who has given them the "in" and that they are not a pro of any kind.

 

[AceCo55]

Well I did go on to Walgreens and looked at them ... I can confirm they are truly horrible. Very few are "action" shots - and the ones that are? Well 1/15 sec tells the story. Motion blur, OOF ...yuk. Many of the static shots do not include the face - hands/arms in the way, backsides ... generally nothing shots.

I would be annoyed at the official/administrator that hired this person (I can not say photographer) and I would direct my complaints/comments to that person(s). If they have continued to have this person shoot this rubbish, then they should be comprehensively condemned. As a parent I would be furious.

 

[molested_cow]

Hmmmm.... If I were you, I will try to find out where the budget to hire this said photographer came from. If it is related to your contribution, then you should fight for the quality of the service that your money has paid for.

This is always a struggle, not just in school events. At my last job, a product that I designed was to be launched and they hired some guy to do the product's photography, which turned out to be absolutely horrible, from lighting, angle(distortion) to post processing. I rang up the lady in charge of the promotion stuff and made it known to her that these are not usable, and offered her the contact of another really good professional photographer that we(our department) works with. All she said is, "noted, but we don't have the budget to hire your recommended photographer". This is multi national company with a lot of reputation to lose, and here's a lady pulling the corporate crap instead of relaying the message to whoever needs to get her more budget.

Further more, what's a few thousand dollars compared to the millions that they waste on really stupid crap?

So my point is, if your money is involved in this, and if you feel strongly about it, then try to make it well spent.

 

[CMfromIL]

I have made my feelings as clear as possible with the person in charge, and I'm going to leave it alone at this point. They know they put out a crap 'product' and have hired on a reputable local photog for future events.

The person they used was the head of 'media relations' for their non-school sanctioned league. I went to their website, and looked at several seasons of pictures. I can't believe the parents didn't complain about it. She must have been using the same tired lens, and same body for all of them. It's outrageous she even thought they were worth posting.

Thanks for all the feedback.

 

[Compaq]

I looked through the pro's pics. I hope this shoot was anonymous, I'd never put my name under those.

Yours are tons better. My fav would be the awesome serve pose.

Oh, and volleyball is the best sport there is!

 

[CMfromIL]

@ Compaq,

Thank you! That girl serves like that every shot! It's so very fast though, usually I don't get her full posture in. But as the season went on, and I got my timing better it was easier to capture her serve.

 

[Compaq]

I'm playing volleyball in third division here in Norway (that sounds far fancier than it is, trust me!), and I'd really like to shoot some volleyball matches. Unfortunately, I'm usually playing our matches, and not sitting on the bench LOL

But, we're making a promo movie for the new students that are coming this autumn, and we'll be shooting and stuff. My point: I'm planning on using my ultra wide 11-16mm. I get close, right under where they're spiking...making it look like they're jumping really high. Those short focal lengths will drag out the court, making it look larger. I think it'll give me some interesting results, if I compose properly. You can't stand that close in matches, but maybe you'd get permission to shoot a practice or two.

 

[APHPHOTO]

Holy crap! Theres no way this was a professional. Theres so many things wrong with ALL the pics. How are the rest of the parents reacting to these photos?

 

[CMfromIL]

Holy crap! Theres no way this was a professional. Theres so many things wrong with ALL the pics. How are the rest of the parents reacting to these photos?

Our team's parents (other than me) have no idea the quality -or lack therof- as the coach refused to forward the information. Because I supplied ALL the parents on my squad with approximatly 240 images for d/l on photobucket, she didn't think it would serve any purpose to embarass the 'professional'.

As far as the other teams, I really don't know. I don't have much interaction with other teams parents. I would imagine the feedback hasn't been very positive.

 

[imagemaker46]

Person was not a professional, didn't know how to shoot volleyball, probably doesn't know how to shoot anything sports related, but does own a digital camera, knows someone stupid enough to give them money for the photos. Welcome to what has happened to professional photography. It really sucks that you weren't able to shoot your own photos, especially at that level, there is no reason to put restrictions on a parent taking pictures of their own kids. But it is their venue, and they can pretty much say and do what they like.

Inspite of what alot of people think, shooting sports really well isn't easy. People are mislead all the time by the camera compaines, especially Canon, into thinking that all it takes is a "sports mode" button on a camera is all that is required to shoot great sports pictures, the TV ads they run show it can be done, and TV never lies.