Monthly Archives: December 2018

Getting Your Head Around Model Releases for Stock Photography

Recently I had the pleasure of speaking at the Victorian Association of Photographic Societies (VAPS) meeting here in Melbourne, Australia. What is VAPS? Taken from the VAPS website “VAPS is a not-for-profit “umbrella” organisation, representing the interests of affiliated camera clubs in the State of Victoria.” It was fun attending their meeting and speaking on the topic of stock photography. There were more questions than I had anticipated, several of which were about model releases and property releases. It makes me think there will be benefit in a post about getting your head around model releases.

What was the context?

I was speaking to a group of around 50 photographers who are members of camera clubs around Victoria. Early in the presentation I began by asking who was a stock photography contributor? There was just one hand raised. So while many in the audience are experienced photographers, nearly all were new to stock photography.


Melbourne
Organise releases first, then start creating images

Getting Your Head Around Model Releases

The discussion was interesting and varied and it was exciting to see some faces light up at the possibilities stock photography has for them. I was planting a seed that they can generate local content in their home town.

Things got interesting when we got onto the topic of model releases.

Most people understand that you can’t reasonably expect to be taking pictures of people without their permission and then selling them as stock images. The interesting part is in how to get the releases.

The conversation went something like this:

Audience member – do you need to get model releases for all identifiable people?

My answer – yes

Audience member – but how do you get around and get all the releases afterwards?

My answer – i don’t

Don’t expect strangers to sign releases. Organise your releases first.

A different point of view

I find this is a major difference between experienced stock photographers and people who are starting out. I would never shoot first and seek releases afterwards. That’s too risky. People may say no, and then I have images which I can’t use.

So how do I do it?

Organise the releases first. When I’m shooting lifestyle images I brief the actor or model first. We complete all the paperwork before we shoot. Then we begin creating images. If you’d like to get serious about stock photography, start planning in advance and not leaving things to chance. Organise your models first. Spend time organising your releases at the beginning of the session. Then start creating images.

Thanks for reading Getting Your Head Around Model Releases for Stock Photography.

Photographing 1000 Junior Basketball Players

Last month we photographed the Southern Peninsula Junior Basketball Tournament. It is an annual tournament held in November just before the start of the rep basketball season. This year the tournament featured 440 teams and was held at 14 stadiums and 34 courts around the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria. Those numbers speak for themselves – it is a very popular tournament with over 4000 players participating.

What were we photographing?

This year we photographed the under 12 division. We were shooting action portraits as the players competed. (Ironically the photo below is from the one under 14 game we photographed!)

basketball

Low light and fast action was a challenge

My understanding is that this is the first time the tournament has partnered with a professional photography business. The under 12’s featured 107 teams and over 1000 players. It was quite a challenge photographing 1000 junior basketball players.

How did we manage that?

We had 6 photographers across multiple venues on the Saturday and Sunday of the tournament. We aimed to shoot each team at least once, and photographed 70 games over the 2 days. That resulted in close to 10,000 action portraits featuring everything from young players new to representative basketball, through to some of the best under 12 players in the state.

Behind that was a lot of planning and scheduling about which photographers needs to be at what location shooting which game. I won’t sugar coat this – the planning was a very significant logistical challenge.

How was the lighting in the stadiums?

Tournament play was on 34 courts in 14 different stadiums. Some stadiums are new and well lit while, on the other hand, others are 30+ years old with no natural light.

We were aiming to shoot at 1/1000s to freeze the action. To achieve that we were shooting at high ISO – up to ISO8000 in one very dark stadium. It is amazing that today’s modern cameras can shoot fast moving action in this environment.

The wrap up

It was fun to see the kids in action, and a thrill to see them excited about the photos. Prints and digital downloads are available to order through password protected online galleries. The galleries are open for another 2 weeks and already it is a nice surprise to see how how popular prints are. I’ll save more of that for another Beyond Here post. Hooray for prints!

It was great to work with a strong team of photographers and reassures me that we can tackle bigger sporting events in the new year.

Thanks for reading ‘Photographing 1000 Junior Basketball Players’.