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Capturing the Champions of Tomorrow: A Guide to Youth Sports Photography Portrait Shoots and Team Photos

Capturing the Champions of Tomorrow: A Guide to Youth Sports Photography Portrait Shoots and Team Photos

Youth sports photography is all about capturing the energy, passion, and camaraderie of young athletes as they embark on their journey to greatness. In this blog post, we'll share tips for getting started in youth sports portrait photography and team photos, and how NowCandid can help you achieve success in this exciting niche.

  1. Build Trust and Rapport with Athletes and Their Families:
    Young athletes may be nervous or shy in front of the camera, so it's essential to build trust and rapport with them and their families. Communicate openly, listen to their preferences, and share your enthusiasm for their achievements. Remember, your role as a photographer is to create a fun, positive experience for all involved.
  2. Choose the Right Location and Background:
    Select a location that showcases the sport's essence and complements the athletes' uniforms and team colors. Opt for natural settings such as fields or courts, or use a portable backdrop for a clean, professional look. Ensure the background is uncluttered and free from distractions to keep the focus on the young athletes.
  3. Master the Art of Posing and Composition:
    Like a superhero assembling their squad, guide your subjects into flattering and dynamic poses that showcase their personality and athleticism. Experiment with individual and group poses, ensuring each athlete's face and uniform are visible. Use a mix of traditional and creative compositions to create a diverse and visually engaging portfolio.
  4. Utilize Natural Light and Flash Techniques:
    Youth sports portrait photography often takes place outdoors, so make the most of natural light. Shoot during the golden hour for soft, warm lighting, and use a reflector to bounce light onto your subjects. For indoor shoots, invest in a portable flash kit to create well-lit, professional-looking images.
  5. Offer Customized Products and Packages:
    Offer a range of customizable products and packages to appeal to various clients and budgets. From prints and digital files to keychains and plaques, showcase your photos on a wide variety of products to provide a valuable service for your clients.
  6. Partner with NowCandid to Streamline Your Business:
    As Doc Brown from "Back to the Future" once said, "The future is whatever you make it, so make it a good one." NowCandid's powerful platform helps you make that good future for yourself. It can do a lot for youth sports photographers, like streamline their workflow, handle customer support, deal with all order fulfillment, and boost sales. By integrating NowCandid into your business, you can focus on capturing the champions of tomorrow while enjoying a seamless and efficient process from start to finish.

Youth sports portrait photography offers a unique opportunity to capture the passion and determination of young athletes as they strive for greatness. By following these tips and harnessing the power of NowCandid, you'll be well on your way to building a successful career in this exciting and rewarding niche. Now, go forth and capture the future legends of the sports world!

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Hey friends! 📸

Candy here with another round of updates from the NowCandid™ world.

This week brings big improvements for Face Matching™ Events, new ways to re-use your check-ins across Events, and a couple of helpful tweaks to the retail site and image management tools.

Let’s dive in! 👇

⏳ Face Matching™ Now Lasts 60 Days!

That’s right—your Face Matching™ window has now doubled from 30 to 60 days from your Event's Start Date! 🙌

This means even more time for:

  • • Late uploads to still get matched 🔄
  • • Schools to send out the Selfie Check-In™ link after the Event 📬
  • Stragglers to find their photos 🧍‍♀️🧍‍♂️🧍

But here’s your friendly reminder: the faster you upload, the better your sales! 🏃‍♂️💸

📸 Every image uploaded goes through:

  • • Exposure correction automatically
  • • Optional cart-wide light retouching for customers
  • • Manual review for print color accuracy
  • • Intuitive cropping tools for end users

So don’t sit on your images to batch-edit them all—uploading sooner = more sales.

Every day that passes = potential sales slipping by. Speed matters!

🔁 Create PhotoRosters™ from Selfie Check-Ins!

This one’s a fun one for graduation season! 🎓

Now you can create a PhotoRoster™ directly from the Selfie Check-Ins™ of a previous Event.

Here’s why it’s awesome:

  • • Ran a great Prom with tons of Check-Ins? ✅
  • Reuse that same data to auto-create your graduation PhotoRoster™! 🎓
  • If participants Check-In again or get added via Tap-A-Face™, NowCandid™ automatically merges based on contact info = no duplicate galleries, no confusion!

Perfect for client relationships where you cater to all of their school's Events!

🧰 Misc. Improvements & Fixes

A few extra goodies for your workflow this week:

  • 🔠 New image name sort option on the Manage Images page (great for keeping sequences clean).
  • 📲 Prominent Selfie Check-In™ button added to All Images galleries (so folks can find their pics even faster!).
  • 🧾 A “non-refundable” tag has been added to the shopping cart & receipt for digital items to help set better expectations.
    • (Digital photography = no take-backs! This helps avoid confusion.)

That’s all for now! 🎉

If you have any questions about the new features, you can always reach me from your dashboard! 💬

See you next week for more enhancements and pro tips!

Cheers,

Candy

Weekly Recap: Easier Shopping, Bilingual Check-Ins & More!
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Hey there! 👋

Candy here with your weekly dose of NowCandid™ updates!

We’ve rolled out some helpful new features to make check-ins smoother, shopping more intuitive, and checkouts faster. Let’s take a peek! 👀

🌍 ¡Check-In en Español!

We’ve added Spanish language support for all customer check-in pages, including:

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The system will auto-detect the user’s browser language and serve the Spanish version when appropriate.

More languages are planned in the future, so stay tuned! 🌐

Bonus: We also have added Spanish versions of the Privacy Policy & Terms of Use for end customers to use!

🛍 Easier Package Shopping 🖼️

Package selection just got a serious upgrade! 🎁

When a customer is picking images for each item in a Package, they’ll now see:

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🛠 Miscellaneous Fixes & Tweaks

Here’s a quick roundup of other small (but mighty!) improvements this week:

  • 🏷️ Empty PhotoTags™ no longer appear on the retail site — cleaner and simpler for your customers!
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  • 📅 Interested in attending Summer Seminar 2025 in OKC? Head to the Profile Page in your dashboard for the invite and sign-up link!
  • 🐞 Tons of small bug fixes and polish across the platform. We’re always working to keep things speedy, intuitive, and delightful!

See you next week with more exciting improvements!

As always, if you need anything — just ask me!😄

Cheers,

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Candy’s Weekly Recap: Clarity Campaign, Offer Previews & Fresh Fixes!🎯
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Hey there, photography superheroes! 🦸‍♀️📸

This week, we've launched a wave of updates designed to make the NowCandid™ experience smoother, clearer, and even more photographer-friendly.

From helpful interface changes to new sharing tools and fixes to long-standing quirks—there’s a lot to cover, so let’s jump in!

💡 The Clarity Campaign: Making Things Make More Sense™

We’ve been listening to feedback and noticed some common points of confusion around terminology in the dashboard, reports, and app. So, we’re making some well-needed name changes that we think will make life easier for everyone—especially new users just getting started.

Here’s what’s changing:

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    A more intuitive name to describe this helpful organization tool!
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  • • Home tabReports tab

    Plus, “Events” is now the first tab in the dashboard navigation, making the flow easier for new users!

These aren’t just name changes—they’re clarity boosters designed to help everyone understand the platform faster and more fully. 💡

Reports will be updated next week as well to reflect this changes, hopefully making them even more accurate & helpful! We love reporting & analytics around here.

🔍 Price & Product Preview Pages

Photographers can now generate read-only URLs of their Offers to share with school officials, parents, or event organizers ahead of time.

✅ What this means:

  • • You can preview exactly what the pricing and product lineups will look like
  • • Share a clean, professional view of your Offer—no dashboard access required
  • • Useful for gatekeepers who need to approve pricing or product options in advance

Find this option in the Offers tab today! 🚀

Found via the Offers tab on the Web Dashboard

Or check out the preview for yourself, using this link here!

⚙️ Dashboard Tweaks & Tools

Small changes = big improvements to your workflow. Here's what's new:

  • ✉️ You can now edit your Business Email in Profile Settings (this affects retail site contact and backprinting!)
Editable via "Business Info" within your Profile Settings on the Web Dashboard!
  • 🧮 Unassigned Image Count added to the image count popup in Manage Images
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  • 📜 Offer Logs! You can now view an edit history of each Custom Offer, including edits made by you or the NowCandid™ team

🔧 Notable Fixes

We’ve patched some common hiccups:

  • 📱 Selfie Check-In bugs on newer Samsung phones
  • 📷 Fixes for uploading from camera roll on iOS
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That’s all for this week, friends! 🥳

We're making NowCandid™ easier to use and even more powerful than ever. Thanks for sticking with us and letting us be part of your photography business journey!

If you’ve got questions, hit up Candy, our ever-present AI helper—or book a session with our team!

Until next time, keep capturing those unforgettable moments. 📸✨

Cheers and sparkles,

Candy 🍬

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If you’re a photographer looking to add NowCandid services to your wheelhouse – set up a call by clicking the button below.

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How to customize formatting for each rich text

How to customize formatting for each rich text

How to customize formatting for each rich text

How to customize formatting for each rich text
How to customize formatting for each rich text

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