SPORTS PORTRAITS INFORMATION
FOR A REALLY CONSISTENT, SUCCESSFUL PORTRAIT SESSION here are some suggestions:
C O A C H E S - A S S I S T A N T S - M A N A G E R S Must wear school/team colors—preferably the color of the uniform the athletes are wearing. Hats can be worn as long as they are school colors or supporting your team. Besides cross country and track, we will need sports balls for the rest. Please consider the pants you’re wearing and the shoes. Moccasin's don’t usually look very sporty---and they stand out.
A T H L E T E S
G U Y S : H A T S Either all wear hats or none for the team portrait (must be with the uniform). Individual pictures it won’t matter. H A I R (Ladies)
M A K E U P (High School) I highly recommend all girls wear foundation, mascara, and a gloss (not cHapstick) for their photo session, even if they don’t normally wear it. It doesn’t have to be a lot. It evens your skin tone and makes your eyes pop, and keeps your lips from blending into your skin tone. Your foundation color should match the color of your neck, not your face. You should not have an orange face and white neck. If you have blemishes, it's much easier to remove or soften them than if you wear nothing. N A I L S (ALL ages)
What’s Included in the price? I always do my best to keep prices low and affordable. I’m aware that some of you are paying for 2 or 3 athletes in 3 sports each year and want you to get your money’s worth.
When do you schedule the Sports pictures? Sports sessions are scheduled in the first two weeks of practice. If you haven’t heard anything from your athlete, they have likely forgotten to give you their form. Form of Payment You can pay cash or check. If you’d like to pay by credit card, please message me what you’d like to order and I will send you a link with the invoice to pay online via credit card. This must be done BEFORE the session. I can’t find my form. There’s a link at the beginning and end of this to print out. Just don’t forget your payment or make arrangements to get the payment to me. What happens if I forgot my order form and money? It happens. You will still need to fill out a form (print one out at school or home) or I may have extras with me. I do not take individual pictures if you don’t have an order form. The problem with having late orders is that I have to wait for your order before I can process the rest. I do them ALL at the same time. What is a memory mate? A memory mate is an 8x10 or 10x8 depending on how the team is posed and how many are in the image. Most of the time there is an individual picture in a smaller size with the details of the school, sport, and his or her name. Sometimes though its all the player's headshots. It’s never the same. Every memory mate is custom to each team and is graphically designed around each sport. NO template is used twice and NO template is used for a different school. You will not find a template on the internet. I even purchase new fonts. I LOVE giving the players something for their own and don’t want them to worry about the same thing from last year. Who gets individual pictures taken? Anyone who has ordered any item—including the memory mate. If a parent tells their child “have the photographer just take your picture” and she will order at a later date on the website....sorry, it doesn’t work that way. There will not be any individual picture displayed on the website or the memory mate if an order form is not filled out the day of the session. Any questions about this, please let me know. Who doesn’t get the individual picture taken? Anyone with no order form. Please just talk to me or message me if money is an issue. I do understand. Why do you charge more for a ‘friend’ picture? There are a few reasons I do this. For one, it takes more time. The main reason though is because of the time I’m allowed with the athletes. If I just allow multiple friends picture at no cost, it simply takes up way more time and the coaches get frustrated. I want to take a picture with 3 of my best friends? Great! Since one of your friends is already included in the friend price, you pay $2 for each additional person. The total would be $12 for a friend picture. So the additional friend for $2 is not another picture, just a friend, right? Correct. If I want a picture with my best friend Jane, another 5x7 with my friend Sam, I’d pay for 2 friend pictures—each $8, totaling $12, right? Correct. Each picture is $6. I’m on Varsity and we never get to go to those cool spots like the other teams. Why not? Your coach isn’t able to set aside that time to allow for this. It really doesn’t take more time though besides traveling to the location in Chilton. While I understand the coach, I also understand that you will look at these images when you’re old and gray. I do inform the coach of this, but in case the message hasn’t been relayed, your team can contact me to set up a time to do a session after practice. All the athletes must be a part of it. The coach does not. What if I don’t like my picture/my child’s picture? When you’re photographing 100s of athletes a year, you’re bound to get a parent who isn’t thrilled with an image or the way its cropped—or something. Unfortunately, all images are final. If there is something VLP can do for next time, please make sure to text or email me. 99% of the athletes approve of their image before I move on. Believe me, if they don’t like it, they speak up! If I question it, even if they don’t care what it looks like, I still make them look at it to get their approval. Please ask your child what communication he/she had with the photographer on their images. Why is my child not smiling for his/her picture? Most of the time with guys, they can get away with not smiling. If you want your athlete to smile, please discuss that with them. Some (both guys and girls) look mean when they don’t smile. When that’s the case, I really try to encourage them to smile. Most girls do choose to smile. If they didn’t, it was their choice and they DID approve of their image. They also likely had a choice of a smiling image or not. Do you edit out blemishes? I never want an athlete to look at their images and see heavy blemishes overpowering their portrait. For packages A and B, I always take the extra time to pull those images into Photoshop to naturally clear acne, redness, etc…since there are numerous images that will be seen by more people. For all other items, you can purchase this at one fee for all your images. What is the turn around time? I edit and order all within 24hours of receiving ALL the orders. If orders are late, then it takes that much longer. What if I need more pictures ordered after I get them? You can order more online through the website under Client Access>Sports and Events> Chilton Sports > then find your child’s sport and click on the gallery. There is a shipping fee. V I E W I N G Y O U R I M A G E S
Thank you so much! Do you have any further questions? Please text VLP at 920-418-4455 Print a replacement Sports Order Form COACHES SECTION Some dislike this part of the season, some love it. While it is understood why some coaches want me this to be avoided altogether and want this hurried up, I have to put out quality work for my clients and their paying parents, as well as the newspaper and yearbooks. I do NOT take advantage of this opportunity. I want parents to know I am well aware and truly care about their hard working dollars they are spending on their children’s pictures. That’s why I’m doing my very best to keep prices as low as I can. All I ask is you allow me to take the time I need to do quality work and trust that I am going as fast and efficient as I can. Order Forms
Q&A When do we take the team portraits? High School: The newspaper and yearbook have deadlines. We want the team portraits scheduled for the 2nd week of practice at the latest. Coaches should know Varsity players by this time. If there is a question about this, then just include the athlete in both pictures. I do look at each schedule and avoid scheduling it the day before or after a game unless its requested. Chilton Athletic Club: In the month of May only. As you may know, VLP does many session types which is booked in summer by March. I leave room in May for CAC. How long will this session take of my practice time? Depends on the athletes and how many there are. It takes me 45-60 seconds with most athletes individual portraits, with the exceptions of the goofy ones and who are very particular. Girls usually go really fast for the team portion—maybe 5-10 minutes. In most cases, I can be done in 30 minutes. I am VERY flexible with your time. We are getting new uniforms this year. That’s great! If uniforms are not delivered by the portrait date, at least we are lucky enough to still have decent uniforms to photograph in. We have had upset parents getting portraits done at the end of a season because we waited for uniforms to arrive. Sorry, they are paying for these images to enjoy during the season and I must make deadlines. How do I get those posters with the team and calendar? The posters are your advertisements to your teams sporting events. You may need to ask if it's in your athletic budget, but they are $95 for 25 custom made posters on card stock Kodak paper. If you’d like them, let me know when we are scheduling your session or anytime before the session day so I can plan accordingly. I do encourage these since the athletes really enjoy them. The athletes can also keep them at the end of the season.
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