NCVA High Performance Team Pictures.

Well, we weren't able to photograph the Global Challenge as we hoped, but we did get out to photograph the NCVA High Performance Teams.

Here are the five teams we photographed.

If you would like to purchase a copy of a team picture, the price is $15/5x7 copy of the print + tax & shipping.

Boys Select

Boys Youth

Girls Select

Girls Junior

Girls Youth

Why didn't you attend the 2008 Global Challenge?

Well, as those of you attending the tournament may have noticed, we are not there.

If you are wondering why, the answer is simple enough: no one signed up for pictures.

As I noted in the entry below, our ability to travel to the tournament was based on achieving a high enough interest from families PRIOR to the tournament so that we could now if the trip would be at least a break-even proposition.

Unfortunately, it was not - we received no sign ups. Not one. However, in the hopes of a last minute surge in interest, we delayed cancelling our trip so long that we had to pay $2000 out of pocket for a non-cancellable flight and cancellation fees to BringIt USA for our travel reservations in Europe. Ouch to say the least.

Of course, wouldn't you know it, but the day after we cancelled (two days before the flights were to take off) we finally got an interested call. Not only that, but apparently several families wanted to sign up AT THE AIRPORT.

Unfortunately a case of too little, too late.

However, trying to find a bright side in missing the tournament, I did make use of the time to be extremely productive here in the office and have since caught up with all of my emails, calls, bills, taxes, most of my filing, all of the orders from Festival are processed and sent to the lab and I just finished proofing one of the three weddings we photographed at the beginning of July. I also purchased a new extremely high resolution camera and a wide format 44 inch printer - both of which I intend to use in our special offerings for schools and in our landscape work. So, we've been keeping busy ... :)

Welcome.

Welcome to the section of our site dedicated to the 2008 Global Challenge.

Two years ago, when the NCVA first started sending teams to Europe to play in the Global Challenge, we were right there with them, documenting the action, the scenery and the fun.

Last year, due to scheduling conflicts and and unfortunate lack of planning on our part, we were unable to return and photograph the tournament.

However, this year, we are excited to be able to once again travel with the teams and photograph the tournament!*

This portion of our site is dedicated to everything about that tournament in specific and will later be updated to include a travel diary with updates as the trip progresses.

In the meantime, if you have any questions regarding our role in photographing the Global Challenge, just fill out this form and send it our way!

*Important Note:
Our ability to travel to Europe to photograph the tournament depends entirely on if we achieve a sufficient number of pre-signups for the tournament. Only those families that pre-sign up for pictures will have the opportunity to order. The photographs from this trip will not be posted online for ordering later. If you would like pictures from the trip, sign up now to make sure you get them!

Why we like this tournament format.

Aside from the obvious fact that traveling to Europe to photograph a volleyball tournament fits right into two of my favorite things (travel and photography), the High Performance/Global Challenge tournaments have become favorites of ours because of their duration and the relatively low number of teams. This not only gives us the opportunity to photograph teams more extensively and to get more images than we would usually be able to, but also to get to know athletes and families better.

For instance, in 2003 we photographed the High Peformance tournament in St. George, Utah. We were acquaited with many of the athletes on the NCVA teams, but the week long tournament and the low number of teams (translating to more time between games) gave us the opportunity to get to know parents and families much better than the usual three day tournament format with hundreds of teams.

One great result of that is that, years later, when one of the young ladies we photographed at that tournament was married, she asked us to photograph her wedding.

We enjoy photographing volleyball a great deal, but it's even more fun when we know the athletes and their families. If you've ever seen a parent or athlete who really seemed to know us, chances are it was someone we got to know at a tournament like the Global Challenge.

Our role as photographers.

We're there to document the tournament. When play is going on, we'll be photographing it. During travel/sightseeing days, we'll be photographing that.

Our goal is to document (hopefully in an artistically pleasing way) an adventure that very few teenaged athletes will ever be able to experience.

Photography Package.

We are offering our photography on a sign up basis, just as we do for our standard tournament photography. The difference is in what type of photography request we are offering.

Obviously, with the trip being in Europe and me living in Sacramento, CA there's a bit of travel involved. :) However, I'm doing my best to keep costs down for families.

Our photography fee for the 2008 Global Challenge is $450+tax & shipping per athlete (the same as our Full Individual Photography Coverage at any normal tournament). This fee includes:

• Your selection of any of our collage designs in their large or extra large sizes (from 4 to 10 images).
• Your selection of reprints of that collage to share with family and friends (up to three small reprints of the collage).
• A custom 5x7 enlargement of each image in the collage.
• A high resolution CD of all of the images featuring your athlete - both action or travel/sightseeing.

During tournament play, I will be photographing extensively and expect no lack of images as a result!

Photography Payment.

Payment Method
We accept personal check, Money Order/Cashier's Check, Visa, Mastercard, Discover, American Express and Paypal as payment methods.

Advance Payment
Full payment is required in advance, when you sign up for photographs.

Refund Policy
A full refund will be given if we fail to attend the tournament as photographers. If your athlete does not attend the tournament and you give us a 7 day advance notice we will issue a refund if we are able to book another athlete in their place.

Refunds are not given due to low play time or poor play results.

How will we choose photographs?

Considering the tournament schedule, I do not expect to have a lot of time to sit with families and go over images. Additionally, thousands upon thousands of images will be taken - it would take much too long for each athlete or family to go through all of the images while I am also supposed to be photographing.

Instead, we will be sorting the images by team and athlete and, after the tournament, we will send you a CD of printable, high resolution images with a web-gallery on it. From those images, you can make your selections of which you would like to include in your collage. This CD is part of your package and, from it, you can select the rest.

Finally, we will provide up to three collage proofs for you. That means, you can select images and inform us of your selection and we will send you back a proof of what that collage would look like (unadjusted, but cropped and layed out). That way you have a very good idea of the look of the final collage.

Sign Up for Pictures.

Signing up for photographs is very simple. Fill out the following Form:

A few images from 2006 Global Challenge.

For those of you that missed out on the 2006 Global Challenge blog, here are a few of the literally THOUSANDS of images that were taken during the trip ...

It's easy to see the trip was absolutely beautiful and a great time was had by all of the athletes!

Oh, you were looking for ACTION pictures.

Well, there are so many to choose from that it's hard to select any, but here is a small group of images.

Do you photograph Boys Volleyball?

Of course!

We photograph an awful lot of girls volleyball, simply because there is so much of it. However, we photograph boys volleyball as well.

Here are a few collage examples from the Boys Far Western tournament in San Jose, CA from earlier this year.