All around me was chaos. You know what I mean?
Kids younger than first graders goofed around in their baseball uniforms, wrestling or throwing gloves in the air or playing tag.
Some of their parents started scolding. It was Team Picture Day for my son's T-Ball league, and OMG if the kids got grass stains on their uniforms, that would just ruin the pictures!
Coaches like myself were impatient. They checked wrist watches. Coaches would rather be practicing or undergoing a root canal than have to spend time on team pictures.
And then, there were the photographers.
About four of them struggled to keep everything in order. They came from one of those large volume picture services, lugging cameras on their shoulders with flashes attached, and to be honest, they just looked ... miserable.
No joy. No creativity. No heart and soul in the work they were doing. Their energy fed on everyone else and everyone else's energy seemed to feed in to them.
That's when it hit me like lightning. Our kids, our coaches, ourselves as parents and fans of our children, we all deserved better than this.
Athlete portraiture that matters
What if one day, you could have the best image ever made of the athlete in your family?
I'm talking about something more than you get on team picture day. Let's face it, those pictures are boring and end up over time forgotten in a desk drawer or storage box.
Don't want to think about how much money we've wasted on that stuff.
No, I'm talking about a real keeper. Imagine having an image of your child or teenager that captures who they are, what playing means to them, how this time (fleeting and irreplaceable) will shape them into young women and men, and where their sport journey is taking them.
Would you want that? Would you want to hold it in your hands, frame it to look at, to show it to your friends and family?
To be able to see your child or teenager as they see themselves?
I could spend all day writing about the signature lighting style I have for athlete portraits and how I use cameras for this and lenses for that. I could tell you all about my days as a wedding photographer and my training and blahblahblah.
None of that matters as much as these two things I thought missing from the world of athlete portraiture in and around Lancaster, Pa. - connection and heart-and-soul.
Our kids are not commodities
I've been there on so many different levels. I was the player told by some stranger to "stand like this" and "hold the ball like that."
No questions. No get-to-know-you. Just clickclickclick of the camera followed by "Okay, you're done."
Now as a parent and a youth sports coach, I just find that kind of photography experience revolting.
Our kids and teens are more than commodities. They're more than someone that a stranger puts in front of their camera in hopes we buy some boring photo.
Sports requires so much commitment from everyone, child and parent and coach.
The training, buying the uniforms and equipment, the long drives, the games in the rain, the sore muscles, the thrill of achievement, the heartache when it all doesn't go their way, the after-game celebratory dinners, the camaraderie among teammates, the shared struggles, other parents who become friends.
These youth players, from kids to teens, deserve to be seen. Heard. Respected. They put so much of themselves and this irreplaceable time in their lives into playing.
That is what makes for great athlete portraits. That's what was missing on that fateful T-Ball picture day when I decided it was time to start an athlete portrait business.
I wanted to be a portrait maker who connects with the players, learns who they are, then channels that into the photography.
It's the heart of a parent and a coach and a creative photographer. I wanted to put that kind of commitment into working with clients because they deserve nothing less.
Connection. Heart and soul. That's the essence of Creative Sports Photography.
It may have all began during a bad Team Picture Day with my son's T-ball team, but now, it's become something incredibly fulfilling for my clients, their families, and for me.
That's the CSP story.
Dave Pidgeon is the owner and chief image maker of Creative Sports Photography, the premier athlete portrait service in Lancaster, Pa. (and available anywhere). He lives in Lancaster, Pa., with his three sons, and enjoys working 1-on-1 with athletes of all ages, providing them with an elite, one-of-a-kind portrait experience. To get started working with Dave, just click this link.