Welcome to the Sports Photos USA meet
information site!
The BEST in Gymnastics Photography . . .
with a touch of Digital Magic!
Our Photography Style
At the small qualifier meets early in the season, we will cover only ONE rotation. We attempt to photograph every gymnast on two rotations at District, State, and Regional meets as well as invitational meets we cover.
Unlike other photographers, we don't limit our coverage to only the "skills" in your gymnast's routine. Our photographers are trained to "tell the story" of the routine. When possible, we'll also capture moments before and after the routine (the coach's final reminders, the salutes to the judges, hugs from the coach, and high-fives with teammates, etc.).
We photograph from a location near the judge's table. This provides an optimal view of the gymnast to show the body position in space throughout the event. Please recognize, though, that the floor event involves movement in several directions throughout a 1600 square foot space. The gymnast will be facing away from us during much of the routine. This is simply the nature of the floor exercise.
Image Previews
At meets, we play a slideshow of images of every gymnast in the current session on a big-screen monitor at our booth at the meet. In addition, we will have multiple small screens on which you will be able to preview your gymnast's images. You can preview all of the images of your gymnast shortly after each rotation is completed.
Be sure to remain physically distanced from others with a face covering while you are in line for the preview monitor. The tendency is to forget the health safety rules when we get engrossed in previewing the sample images from the meet.
We do not put live-action images of young boys and girls in online galleries. The only way to preview images is to visit our booth at the meet. .
Products
Our flagship products this year are the 11x14 Digital Paintings on Canvas and the 60x80 WovenArt Throw.
We also have 5 distinct poster styles: RAGE, Spotlight, SOLO, Beauty & the Beam, and the NextLevel Mini-Poster. Each style is illustrated on the Products Detail page.
An Individual Package of downloadable images is available. We also offer a Whole Team Package of downloadable images. ALL images of EVERY gymnast from your gym in your session is included in the package. It is priced on a sliding scale per gymnast. There are discounts for teams of two or more (the bigger the team, the bigger the discount). One parent orders and pays. I will email each gymnast's link to the parent placing the order. He or she will forward the email to each of the other parents.
Ordering
You can order before the meet, at the meet, or for up to 30 days following the meet. While it may be easier to order after you get home, you will pay the regular prices at that time. There are special discounts for parents who order early. Early-bird pricing ends at midnight Sunday after the meet concludes. The VAST majority (90%) of orders are received before the Sunday night deadline. If you want the special pricing, don't wait!
Most products are available at any time. The Whole Team Image Package is ONLY available before or at the meet. After the meet concludes the only image package available is the Individual Gymnast Downloadable Image Package.
Last year we introduced the 11x14 Digital Paintings on Canvas. They were an instant hit. This year, I will continue to offer a discounted 11x14 Digital Painting on Canvas during the Early-Bird sale. See the Details page by clicking below.
Meet Safety Protocol
Last year was a strange year (what an understatement). We spent months planning and preparing to safely photograph meets after USA Gymnastics suspended meets in March, 2020. Today, as a new strain of Covid surges throughout the country, SPUSA is committed to staying safe at meets. We have invested in new software to allow you to preview your gymnast's images without our help. Our prime directive at meets will be to capture the best images we can in the safest manner possible. We have contactless ordering and contactless electronic delivery of those orders. Physical products (Paintings, Posters, Blankets, etc.), will be drop-shipped from our labs directly to the person ordering.
You can read our full 2021-22 meet safety protocol by clicking on the link below.
Get in Touch
This is a strange and frustrating time we are experiencing. We will be contactless at meets at least until a vaccine for this virus is approved and distributed. We will take advantage of other forms of communication in the interim.
If you have questions during a meet, send me a text message to (903) 284-5121. I will reply to you by voice or text message as soon as possible. That text number will only be monitored during the meet. Please don't use it before or after the meet.
At any
other time, you should visit the main website and click "Contact
Us" (or click here to go directly to the "Contact Us" page) to send me a message. "Contact Us" messages are NOT monitored during a meet. "Contact Us"
messages come directly to my inbox. I will try to reply to
"Contact Us" messages within 48 hours.
ABOUT US
My name is Michael Cummins, and I founded Sports Photos USA in 1990. For 30 years, SPUSA has served the gymnastics community across the United States. Covering meets from Chicago to Houston, and Phoenix to Pensacola, we have always been dedicated to our mission. That mission is to provide every gymnast at the meets we cover the opportunity to have precious memories of his or her live-action competition at a reasonable price. We have always done that through constant leadership and innovation in the industry.
We were the first to bring digital photography to meet coverage in 1990 in the form of posed-action photography on our photo set. Several years later, we were the first to actually photograph every gymnast in the competition area in live-action.
Innovation in the products we offer has also been one of our hallmarks. Our Double-,Triple- and Quad-Composite posters were first to the market in 1990. By the year 2000, our "extraction posters" started a revolution in the industry. Today, our RAGE, Spotlight, SOLO, Beauty & the Beam, and Next Level Posters still use images where the gymnast has been extracted from the original image.
As the 21st century began, others were content to put cute slogans onto t-shirts. I was brainstorming about a "WOW" product. After a two year search for a progressively-thinkng textile mill, we found one and introduced the first individualized WovenArt Throw. The live-action image of a gymnast is actually woven into the blanket using over 8 miles of super soft, multi-colored, 100% cotton thread.
In 2006, we began offering Digital Paintings. More about these below.
In 2008, we brought our photo sets back to the meets using green screen technology (which was still in its infancy for high resolution photography at the time). Today, most of the professional cameras we use produce beautiful images in even the darkest venues (and some of the older gyms are pretty dark). Because of the popularity of the live-action images, we now reserve the set and posed-action images for our team and individual portraits in the gyms we visit.
As I was about to enter my 31st year of gymnastics photography, it was time for another round of product innovation. During the Covid-19 lockdown, I spent hundreds upon hundreds of hours developing new Digital Painting techniques to allow me to create gymnastics paintings like you've never seen before. Each painting is based upon one or more live-action images. Thousands of brush strokes go into every element of a digital painting. The beauty of a Digital Painting compared to a traditional painting is that I have learned to leverage the massive computing power available to us today. I have super powerful computers in my office. I have written code that allows me to use automated processes. Much of the preparation process has been automated. Since each Digital Painting can be completed in a few hours (instead of the dozens and dozens of hours for a traditional painting), everyone who could afford our posters, can now afford this Cadillac of the portrait world. See our Product Details page for more information.
Innovation will continue to be a driving concept behind Sports Photos USA. I don't know where the future will lead us, but rest assured that the mission will never change: every gymnast should have the opportunity to share precious memories competition days with his or her grandchildren through the images we capture!
