Advice needed - kids kickboxing grading

[Matto]

I have been asked by my kickboxing instructor if I would take some photo's of the kids grading session which is in September. I took some action shots at a charity fight a couple of months ago which he liked and approached me to so some work for him in the future.

I said yeah that wouldn't be a problem and there is potential to earn a little pocket money. Only thing I'm worried about is parents who might not like the fact someone is taking photo's of their child. I know its abit of a grey area but don't want to leave myself open for a load of hassle.

Can anyone suggest how to best go about this please.

Thanks in advance.

 

[DorsetDude]

I'd be tempted to ask the instructor to make sure he lets any parents know (maybe via a leaflet the kids take home or something) that there will be a photographer present during the gradings and ask them to let him know if this causes a problem for any of the parents.
Not that Im an expert on any of this by a long shot!

 

[Bristolian]

Hi Matt,

This is something I have plenty of experience of being the "official" photographer for a number of martial arts clubs in the Bristol area. As long as I have the organisers' permission - which is implicit in been asked to do the job - then I'm happy to shoot away without any worries. Normally I ask the organiser to mention my presence in their welcome speach before the event starts and make a point of making sure parents, etc., can see who I am when he mentions my name - stepping forward with a hand or camera in the air works well.

Over the years that I've been doing this I've only had a handful of parents ask me not to include their children and I always try to accomodate their requests. I do, however, make them aware that it's their responsibility to tell me when their child is fighting/being tested.

If you want to make some money from this then you need to be printing on the day - the take-up is MUCH higher than putting them on a gallery for ordering later. A simple A4 inkjet is good enough if you can't justify the expense of a dye-sub. Just limit the image sizes you are happy to print and go with a stock of suitably sized paper. If anyone wants anything extra take their details (and money) and send it on later.

This is great fun, by the way, and I love doing it. Some of my favourite shots have come from these jobs

 

[Matto]

Hi Matt,

This is something I have plenty of experience of being the "official" photographer for a number of martial arts clubs in the Bristol area. As long as I have the organisers' permission - which is implicit in been asked to do the job - then I'm happy to shoot away without any worries. Normally I ask the organiser to mention my presence in their welcome speach before the event starts and make a point of making sure parents, etc., can see who I am when he mentions my name - stepping forward with a hand or camera in the air works well.

Over the years that I've been doing this I've only had a handful of parents ask me not to include their children and I always try to accomodate their requests. I do, however, make them aware that it's their responsibility to tell me when their child is fighting/being tested.

If you want to make some money from this then you need to be printing on the day - the take-up is MUCH higher than putting them on a gallery for ordering later. A simple A4 inkjet is good enough if you can't justify the expense of a dye-sub. Just limit the image sizes you are happy to print and go with a stock of suitably sized paper. If anyone wants anything extra take their details (and money) and send it on later.

This is great fun, by the way, and I love doing it. Some of my favourite shots have come from these jobs

Thanks for the replies. I had a word with him again about it last night and he said this is what he'd do. I'm borrowing a flash of a mate at work and gonna have a practice tomorrow night after I've done my session.

 

[minibloke]

My son was in a Judo competition recently. Any photographers were asked to fill in their details and given a wristband. The children were given red and yellow stickers, yellow being ok to photograph and red meaning not ok.

This system was easy and was accepted by everyone.

 

[Yv]

My son was in a Judo competition recently. Any photographers were asked to fill in their details and given a wristband. The children were given red and yellow stickers, yellow being ok to photograph and red meaning not ok.

This system was easy and was accepted by everyone.

this is pretty standard at the tournaments. Used to do it for karate, in fact I was normally roped in to be the person on the door doing the forms/bands, before heading out to do pics.

if its just within the club, definitely just get the instructor to tell parents that you are there, then if any don't want their kids pics taking, they can say. It's of course not guaranteed, but I always found most were very proud to have their kids photo from a grading/belt award session.