I want pictures - how do we get them?

Easy! We are currently taking requests for all 2010 club season volleyball tournaments.

If you have any questions, you can contact us directly at: (916) 344-8512 or via email at: info@vbpics.com. If you prefer to keep your long distance bill down, I am happy to call you. Simply email me your name and phone number!

If you know you are ready to place a request, click here to place it!

Not quite ready to purchase a coverage, do you have more questions?

Read on! Lots of common questions are answered here. Or give us a call or send an email - we're happy to explain this personally.

Do you photograph every team?

Due to the sheer size of many tournaments (hundreds of teams/weekend), we are unable to photograph every team at a tournament. Our photography services are offered on a request basis.

Requests are very easy to place and how to do this is described below.

If a tournament has multiple venues, will you photograph at all of them?

Unfortunately, no.

At this time we do not have sufficient staff to support more than one venue at a time.

We always post which venue we will be photographing at for each tournament.

If you place a request, but your team plays at a venue other than the one we are photographing in, we will issue a full refund.

Can we see samples of your work?

Of course! Our work is all over the site. The work you see on the pages is actual work delivered to clients, from real tournaments.

We have posted all of the collages from our 2009 tournament season online: View Collage Gallery. This will allow you to see the consistency of our work from order to order. Our goal is the higest of quality in all of our work.

Additionally, I have included a few samples our work below ...

When should we place our photography request?

As soon as possible. Our goal is to have received the maximum number of requests that we can handle per tournament before the tournament begins. That way, during the tournament, our staff can concentrate on what we are there for - photographing matches and providing you with great images.

Additionally, there is a price incentive to placing your request early. Standard requests placed and paid for prior to the tournament are only $45 and include a full product credit towards their order for any orders place during the tournament. Photography requests placed at the tournament itself (1st day of play or later) are $55 with a $45 product credit for any orders placed during the tournament.

So placing your request early not only helps to guarantee you pictures, but also saves you money!

How do we make a request?

We have setup a very simple method for placing your requests online:

1. Follow this link to jump to our request placement page. You will be asked to fill out a form giving us request details so that we can properly get your athlete onto our request list.
2. After you have submitted the information about your request, you will be asked to pay for your coverage. Click the button corresponding to the coverage you selected and you will be taken to a PayPal cart where you can pay for your coverage.

That's it!

We accept and strongly recommend placing your photography requests prior to the tournament.

Our goal is to have a full schedule the first morning of the tournament so that we can concentrate on photographing.

Also, in the case of a schedule conflict, requests received earlier will take natural precedence over those received later.

Ready to purchase your coverage?

Just follow this link and you will be taken to the Photography Request page.

What information do you need to reserve a coverage?

The minimum information we need to reserve a coverage is:

• Tournament Name
• First and Last Name of the person placing the request.
• Contact information for person placing request (email and phone number)
• The shipping address for the person placing the request.
• The full Club and Team name of the team
• Athlete's name and jersey number.
• Payment information to reserve your coverage. (We accept Visa/MasterCard, American Express and Discover).

We will use this information to pre-create an account in our system so that, when you come to view pictures at the tournament, you will be saved the time of needing to create an account, enter contact and shipping information, etc.

Additional helpful information:

• Does your athlete play full rotations or rotate in and out?
• Does your athlete play every game or only some?
• If your athlete doesn't play every game in a match, is she most often played in the first or second game?
• What position does she play?
• The names and numbers of two or three teammates that she is good friends with. (We will try to ensure we get images of the athletes with these other players as well as some action images of them.)

So what are you waiting for? Place your request now!

Is there a limit to the number of requests allowed per team?

Yes. We have a one request limit for our Standard ($45/$55) Requests.

This type of request is a general team coverage with the photographer making a point of getting images of the requested athlete. However, this is not an exclusive coverage and there will be many pictures of other athletes.

In situations where more than one Standard Request is placed for a team we do everything we can to photograph all requested athletes within one coverage and - at the photographer's discretion - we may return for additional images of the team if the photographer feels that opportunities were missed or that the resulting images are not sufficient.

Is there a minimum number of pictures guaranteed for a request?

Due to the variability of aspects of the game like player rotations, substitutions, quality of action in a game - all things which are out of our control - we do not guarantee a minimum number of pictures per game or per athlete.

We do the best we possibly can as photographers to ensure that we capture high quality images of as many different aspects of the sport as possibly, including those that may be specifically mentioned in the request.

If the photographer feels that there is reason to return to a team, we may return to to a later game to get additional images.

To help ensure we get the best imagery possible, if you know that a particular game will not be a good one (your athlete is not playing, the other team won't provide good competition, etc.) please let us know so that we can increase our chances of getting you good images!

Coverage Options

We offer several options for coverage, all of which are described below.

Standard Team Coverage - $55.00 (Standard Coverage Requests placed prior to the tournament are only $45.00)

A Standard Coverage is a partial game coverage of your team, photographing as many players in action as possible while also watching your athlete. General ball action will be followed, however the photographer will make an effort to get images of your athlete in action, including up to two teammates you specify. The full amount of this coverage will be applied to any purchase you make at our booth during the tournament. A Standard Coverage is a minimum of 10 points of one game in the match. Request this coverage.

Full Athlete Coverage - $450.00

A Full Athlete Coverage is a special coverage of one athlete on the team. We will concentrate solely on capturing the maximum number of images possible of that athlete in action. As usual, we will also look for on court portraits, cheers, huddles, laughter and other fun moments. This coverage comes with the full Tournament Ultimate Package:

• Either of our 10 Image collage designs in its extra large size (20x30 inches).
• Two small (8x12 inch) reprints of the collage.
• 1 5x7 reprint of each image in the collage. (That's 10 5x7s)
• A CD of full resolution images of the entire shoot.

This is incredible value! This coverage lasts the equivalent of a full game in a match. Request this coverage.

Full Team Coverage - $450.00

A Full Team Coverage is a full game coverage of your team, with emphasis on no particular player in action. We will photograph one full game of your match, following as much action as possible and everyone on the team will receive a CD of all of the full resolution images from the game. Game coverages typically result in 100-200 images of the team. This coverage lasts the equivalent of a full game in a match. Request this coverage.

What happens once we have pictures?

Once we have photographed your athlete or team, the images will be made available for viewing at the photography booth. First we will download and cull the images, removing any that - for a variety possible of factors - don't meet our quality standards. Then, if time permits, we will sort the images by jersey number to make viewing images easier. Finally, again if time permits, we will even pre-design recommended collages for you so that you can see which images we think would work best in a collage for you. You can make image selections and place any orders right there at our booth.

How do we order pictures?

Photographs from the tournament are viewed and ordered using the viewing stations that we provide at each tournament. We have samples to view, staff to help you and a comprehensive ordering system that allows you to mark you favorite images and purchase any product which we offer.

Can we order pictures online after the tournament?

No. Our ordering software is custom written and is not currently available on the web. At this time, we do not have an online ordering solution - all images must be ordered onsite, at a tournament.

However we provide 30-50 computer viewing stations at our tournaments and we have staff available to help explain our products and packages and the ordering system is very fast and easy to use.

What do we get for our money?

Our goal is to provide you with outstanding photographs and great value for the money you spend with us.

Standard Coverage - $55.00 (Purchased prior to the first day of the tournament $45.00)

A guaranteed coverage. A full credit of the coverage amount will be applied to any purchase made during the tournament. (This could be three custom 5x7 prints or more if you choose economy prints). If we do not photograph your team, you get a full refund or a transfer of your request (at a super high priority) to a later tournament we'll both be at this season. Request this coverage.

Full Athlete Coverage - $450.00

A guaranteed game coverage of your athlete.

• Either of our 10 Image collage designs in its extra large size (20x30 inches).
• Two small (8x12 inch) reprints of the collage.
• 1 5x7 reprint of each image in the collage. (That's 10 5x7s)
• A CD of full resolution images of the entire shoot.

This is incredible value! This coverage lasts the equivalent of a full game in a match. Request this coverage.

Full Team Coverage - $450.00

A guaranteed coverage. Every member of the team receives a full resolution disk of all of the images of the team. These images are printable (and come with a release allowing you to do so) and shareable via email. Request this coverage.

Can we schedule a specific game?

Due to the pace and pressure of the schedule during the tournament and the common shift in actual play times, we do not guarantee that a specific game will be photographed, only that we will photograph the team during the tournament.

However, if you have a preference, please note that and we will see what we can do.

What if my athlete doesn't play during the time the photographer is photographing the team?

We will do our best to make sure we get images of your athlete in action. However, if your athlete does not play during the time the photographer is at the court, or your athlete does not touch the ball during the time we are photographing, you will have a nice selection of court side portraits, cheers, huddles and on court portraits to select from. Our goal is to provide you with a nice selection of images of what your athlete was doing while the photographer was there, a good portrayal of your athlete as a volleyball player and a feel of the tournament. Once the photographer has provided a coverage, unless there is something technically wrong with the images (severe under or over exposure or out of focus) the request is considered fulfilled. To receive more images would require an additional request.

If I don't like the pictures, can I get a refund?

Fulfilled requests are non-refundable. The coverage fee is for the service of photographing your athlete. Once we have photographed a game, that service has been delivered. We do not offer refunds for photographed games.

We will do our absolute best to provide images that exceed your expectations! We are passionate about what we do and want you to be happy.

What if I place a request, but you don't photograph our team?

If you place a request and we are unable to photograph your team we will of course provide a full refund immediately at the end of the tournament.

Alternately, if you choose, we will apply your photography request to a future tournament this season and make you a top priority.

This isn't the way you used to do it, why change? (For pre-2007 customers)

The short version:

We simply could not continue in the way we have previously been offering our services. It was proving too costly to us and too wearing on our photographers (who are also our image processors and run day to day operations of the business in the office). We were faced with the decision to either stop photographing volleyball tournaments or change how we did it to better service our paying customers while not wearing ourselves out.

The long version:

In the past we disregarded who made the request and instead photographed as many of/all of the athletes on the team. This resulted in great images of the game as a whole, but too often proved to actually be a detriment to our business and to those making the request. As we began to look over how we were doing things, it came to our attention that fully 50% of the teams that were asking us to photograph for them were not coming back to view the images. And, of those teams that did view their images, only two or three people typically purchased images from the team. This was in spite of the fact that there were many great images of many players on the team. What this meant is that our schedule was largely full of teams that were not truly interested in photographs or for some other reason did not order and, as a result, once our schedule filled up (and it did quickly) we were turning away many people who really were interested in photographs.

When you consider our shooting days are often 16 hours long, to realize that a minimum of 8 (and closer to 12) hours of the time you spend working to get great images is wasted because teams don't even return to view the images makes you question whether or not you want to keep doing what you are doing!

So we decided to change how we operated. We would now offer a low cost, partial game coverage of a specific athlete. In this way two things are accomplished:

1. We are able to concentrate on those families and athletes that are most interested in photographs and the photographers know as they are photographing that they are doing so for a paying customer - which is always a great incentive to do their best work.
2. This method allows families to secure photography of their athletes with confidence and without the usual "we can't guarantee, but we'll try our best to fit you in" mantra of past tournaments.
3. Opening up pre-scheduling allows us to build our schedule prior to the tournament, which we hope will free our staff up to put more attention on our customers at the booth. Our prior, accept-request-only-at-the-tournament policy meant that several staff were needed just to handle requests and schedule the photographers. We are hoping to free those staff up to help customers and reduce the wait times many experienced at our booth in the past.

In all, we hope that this method of reasonably priced photography requests provides us the ability to work for those families that are truly interested in our services and we look forward to photographing for you!