Parents Professional Photography (HNI)

[Sk8ermaiden]

Hi, this is my DD's first year competing. Most of the meets she's going to are smaller and I doubt any of the rest of them will have photographers. We'll be at HNI next weekend, and they have photography packages.

I'd love to get a professional picture or two every year, but I don't know anything about this. Can anyone enlighten me? Will it be obvious I'm the momarazzi who hired the guy to take pictures of her kid, or will they be walking around taking pictures of everyone anyway?

I know it's pricey, but I care a lot about photos and don't mind paying once in a while as long as they're good.

 

[MILgymFAM]

You won't look like a stalker mom at all. Some meets the photographer shoots everyone and then you buy after. Some they only shoot for those who've ordered. Either way you won't stand out. I've ordered pics for my DD before and never even noticed the photographer.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

I buy once a year. I buy the photos, so I own them. I make my own prints, slide shows and collages. I am good with photoshop, but am not allowed on the gym floor

In our area, the photog, takes a down payment to shoot, usually all events but vault. You then pay for what you want minus your down payment. I get all the photos on a jump drive, 250-300 photos for about 90 dollars. I usually love about 20-30 of them.

 

[Sk8ermaiden]

Holy crap, that's a lot of photos! That would be awesome. This one, you can buy ahead of time for a discount - two events and then the other two are an extra $40 each. I'm *assuming* the two included are floor and beam.

I am wondering, in a meet in a convention center that has 3 (4?) gyms running simultaneously, if I *didn't* order ahead, what are the chances they'd get any pictures of my kid? There are like 74 girls in her session alone.

 

[twinmomma]

I buy once a year. I buy the photos, so I own them. I make my own prints, slide shows and collages. I am good with photoshop, but am not allowed on the gym floor

In our area, the photog, takes a down payment to shoot, usually all events but vault. You then pay for what you want minus your down payment. I get all the photos on a jump drive, 250-300 photos for about 90 dollars. I usually love about 20-30 of them.

Can you clarify "you buy the photos so you own them?" Are you saying the photographer explicitly provides you with the copyright? Because unless there's an explicit agreement allowing you to do those things, you would be in violation of the copyright laws. Buying the image itself doesn't make you the copyright holder.


Edited to add - I ask because I've been leery of meet photographers because I've yet to see anything that I can't do myself and then I DO own the images. But if they are signing over their rights I would be surprised.

 

[twinmomma]

One more clarification - you mention photoshop and if the photographer is retaining his copyright, then you can't photoshop even with the disk of images. you can print, or share, but editing would be against the copyright.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

Can you clarify "you buy the photos so you own them?" Are you saying the photographer explicitly provides you with the copyright? Because unless there's an explicit agreement allowing you to do those things, you would be in violation of the copyright laws. Buying the image itself doesn't make you the copyright holder.


Edited to add - I ask because I've been leery of meet photographers because I've yet to see anything that I can't do myself and then I DO own the images. But if they are signing over their rights I would be surprised.

I own the copy rights. They are my images to do with what I will.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

Edited to add - I ask because I've been leery of meet photographers because I've yet to see anything that I can't do myself and then I DO own the images. But if they are signing over their rights I would be surprised.

I can't get the level of access to the floor that they get, so I buy the pics once every 1-2 years.

 

[MomIdidit!]

If you don't mind spending the extra money, I would recommend getting the stick drive. You probably won't even notice the photographer during the meet. The photographer can capture pics parents probably would not be able to take.

 

[e'smum]

Holy crap, that's a lot of photos! That would be awesome. This one, you can buy ahead of time for a discount - two events and then the other two are an extra $40 each. I'm *assuming* the two included are floor and beam.

I am wondering, in a meet in a convention center that has 3 (4?) gyms running simultaneously, if I *didn't* order ahead, what are the chances they'd get any pictures of my kid? There are like 74 girls in her session alone.

not every meet we go to does photography but the ones that do, photographer at beam and one at floor. every child gets photos. you then go look at the photos after and decide what you want.

we have the BEST photographer that does the majority of our meets. he knows a lot of the olympians personally and shoots them at various meets (the olympics!). his daughter shoots as well and his wife runs the photo area. at our hosted meet they shoot bars vs. beam (see my profile pic). i love that very much.

we buy a thumb drive and own the pics as well. it's around $70 for both events and then you get march in photos. you have to weed through all of those but there are some cute ones of each kid and a team photo and then you might get lucky and see your kid doing some warm ups in a photo.

i buy at our hosted meet and at states. and a couple of meets hand out the photos as the meet gift. those aren't usually as good since the photographers don't get paid like they would if you are buying on your own. but still good pics.

 

[e'smum]

One more clarification - you mention photoshop and if the photographer is retaining his copyright, then you can't photoshop even with the disk of images. you can print, or share, but editing would be against the copyright.

at every meet i've bought, i own the photos. i can do whatever i want to with them. there is no copyright.
i can't imagine with photographing meets like this, a photographer would care. they are going to delete them after. they don't print them, they are all digital. and you can't access them after the meet. they are gone. they shoot thousands of photos at each meet and only the best make it to the viewing booth. somehow they are able to weed out the crappy ones before pushing the send button.

 

[Sk8ermaiden]

I've figured out that both HNI and our meet after that will have photographers. I'm trying to decide which one I want to spring for pictures for. The pictures I've seen from the person who's done the Svetlana Invitational here every year are very good! I think gymnastics is their bread and butter. The company shooting HNI...there's not really any gymnastics stuff on their site. They shoot a lot of pro football and basketball. AND I just read that they will ONLY be photographing kids whose parents have already ordered pictures. So maybe I will wait for the next one.

Thank you so much for all the info!