While I have not entered the realm of team sports photography, I was once asked by my son's soccer coach to photograph the team as she didn't want the "usual team type pictures". It's not always the photographers fault they're so bad. Color labs that print sport photos often have cheesy templates with an image of a football, soccer ball, baseball glove and so on. Somewhere on the template the photographer types in 'Johnny Smith' followed by 'The Razors'. All the photographer has to do is to drop in the images of the team and the individual player and presto, team photo. I wanted something different for Patrick and his team and while it required a bit more work, I think I managed to pull it off. His team was called 'The Earthquakes', so I used a font to match the team name. In this case I used 'Cracked'. I also have the background of a soccer ball or net. The individual photo is larger than the team. C'mon, think about it, we don't always know the other kids so why not make our child stand out a bit more. And let's face it, they're kids and they don't always like getting their picture taken. Why have a posed photo of them looking so stoic. I think you'll see by the photos that there is indeed, a better way. And the second photo I added is an example of something you're more likely to see, and no, I did not take that photo. Maybe here at Spotlight Photography, we ought to do team photos, I guarantee you won't see anything else like it.
