Beach Volleyball Database Welcomes Shotfile.com

Perhaps you've noticed some new player photos on bvbinfo.com -- the ones with the logo under them. In searching for the best beach volleyball photographs, Beach Volleyball Database welcomes the photographic talents of Carl Schneider and Shotfile.com on board. The goal of the Beach Volleyball Database web site has always been to focus on documenting the history of professional two-person beach volleyball. The primary focus is on the tournament results, but news articles and player photographs are also a major part of documenting the sport's history. It only seems natural to synergize with a web site that focuses on documenting the history through photography. Shotfile.com, with professional beach photographs dating back to 1985 and including the AVP and WPVA, is such a web site. So far Shotfile.com has contributed 120 photos to the Beach Volleyball Database including legends like Sinjin Smith, Randy Stoklos, Ron Von Hagen, Mike Dodd, Tim Hovland, Karolyn Kirby, Kathy Gregory, and Nina Matthies, current stars like Karch Kiraly, Eric Fonoimoana, Scott Ayakatubby, Brian Lewis, Misty May, Kerri Walsh, Elaine Youngs, and Holly McPeak, and the lesser known players like Mike Mattarocci, Jason Ring, Scott Lane, and Alicia Polzin. Shotfile.com ranks second in number of photos on the site behind the FIVB's 134 photos. Thanks to Shotfile.com's contributions, Beach Volleyball Database now has photographs of over 750 players on the site. One of the new features added to Beach Volleyball Database is a direct link from a player's career page to the photo gallery for that player on Shotfile.com. Shotfile.com already has photo gallery pages for 37 players with more planned in the future. A complete list can be found at www.shotfile.com/avp. About Carl Schneider and Shotfile.com Carl Schneider started his photography career in high school (Redondo Beach) by shooting pro beach volleyball tournaments.  He played indoor volleyball on the high school team and played on the beach on weekends, so he had a natural interest in the sport.  He would shoot a tournament on the weekend and develop and print his film in photography class on Monday.  When he was just seventeen years old, Carl had his first photo published in Volleyball Monthly magazine and was hooked.   For the rest of high school and throughout college, Carl's summer job was to shoot for Volleyball Monthly.  Each year he would shoot more and more tournaments and finally, the magazine began sending him out of state to shoot the events.  What a dream job? Carl confesses, "At that time, the only thing I could imagine being better than shooting the tourneys would be playing in them."  By chance, Carl got that opportunity at the 1989 AVP Milwaukee Open.  Steve Krai, a player from Carl's local beach in Hermosa (16th Street), needed a partner, and he asked Carl to play (Steve’s partner missed his flight and Carl was already in Milwaukee shooting). They lost to Jay Hanseth and John Eddo in the first round, but not before Carl was able to hit two clean jump serve aces against Hanseth.  Carl still had to shoot for Volleyball Monthly, so in between matches he would wipe off the sand and sweat and shoot as much as he could.  Carl and Steve finished the tournament in 17th place, just out of the money. Carl was hired right out of college in 1990 as the Photo Editor of the new Volleyball magazine (which competed with Volleyball Monthly).  At that time it was published by the same company that did Surfing magazine.  Carl worked as the Photo Editor and continued to shoot about 25 pro beach tournaments each year during the glory days of beach volleyball.   In 1993 Carl moved on to freelance sports photography.  He got photo assignments shooting virtually every sport and such notable athletes as John Elway, Albert Belle, Kevin Garnett, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Tony Hawk, Juwan Howard, Alonzo Mourning, Junior Seau, Kordell Stewart and Frank Thomas.  Some of his clients included Nike, Coke, Rollerblade, Disney, Adidas, Jeep, Foot Locker, Gatorade, Playboy, Sports Illustrated, ESPN, Outside, Runner’s World, and Men’s Journal.  He took a break from shooting the pro beach volleyball tourneys, but deep down he really missed it. Now that the AVP is making a comeback, Carl is making a comeback shooting it. Technology has changed since the early days with the sport.  Carl developed Shotfile.com to take full advantage of those developments.  He shoots exclusively digitally now – no more film.  Not only is the quality better than film, it also allows them to easily upload photos into their searchable database at Shotfile.com in a matter of hours after a tournament. Every photo includes keywords for the player’s name, event name, and other important info which makes it extremely easy for users to find the photos they are looking for.  Sponsors can simply type in the names of the players they sponsor to find photos for their promotions, and editors of the magazines can search by names, events or any other criteria.  Shotfile.com is also able to easily offer prints to players and fans, and they have special Photo Usage Plans available to the AVP players. Carl's immediate goal with Shotfile.com is to become THE source for beach volleyball photography.   He states, "I have a real love for shooting this sport and, in the process, helping to promote it."  The long-term plans for Shotfile.com include covering many sports and establishing a network of photographers worldwide who will contribute.

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