Wanamaker Photography

Back in May, my baby brother, Robert, had his Senior Prom. I still cannot believe how fast time has gone by! It seems like just yesterday he was in Kindergarten! Anyways, enough looking to the past …

Being the photographer of the family, he asked us to follow him from the Eldred School to the Riverview Inn in Pennsylvania where the dance was being held. I accepted (of course) and decided to treat him like a celebrity that day!

As the time came closer, we kept checking the weather as it was supposed to rain on and off during his entire trip to the dance. As we arrived at the school, things seemed to hold off long enough for us to grab a couple of shots before heading in for the announcement of the couples. So we picked out some locations around the front of the school and grabbed a couple shots before heading in. In this shot, we asked Robert and his date, Katie, for a little attitude …

After the announcement of each couple, we headed back outside and got everything ready to head to our next stop … a local playground. Utilizing the kid that is in all of us, we decided to play on the swings for a bit and grabbed this shot …

After being attacked by the all of the bugs, we decided to head down to the Hawks Nest and test out some shots there. As we headed down along the river, the rain could hold out no more and downpoured on us. Forging ahead, we grabbed our umbrellas and towels and decided to give it a try anyways.

Robert and Katie were already parked further down the Hawks Nest with a heavily modified Subaru WRX. As we closed in on them, the rain began to let up and we setup our shots as quickly as possible. We’d check the traffic and when all seemed clear, Chris would jump out into the middle of the road and grab a few shots before the next car would come along. Here was one of his shots …

As the rain moved in again, we decided to head out and down to the Riverview for his last few shots before dancing the night away! On our way down, the rain let up and the lightbulb went off. We wanted to grab just a few more shots before heading to the dance … so we pulled off the road and headed out onto the bridge between Matamoras, PA and Port Jervis, NY. We grabbed our umbrella just in case that downpour followed us.

We started playing around with some different ideas once we got onto the bridge and captured as many shots as we could before the weather got ugly again. As cars passed by, the passengers kept looking at us trying to figure out what was going on. After capturing these shots, we decided to wrap things up and let Robert and Katie head out to their dance …

After leaving them at the dance, we headed back and literally started working on the images. Playing with them inside of Adobe Lightroom was incredible and everyone loved the shots. Robert and Katie felt like celebrities for the day as they had their own paparazzi following them around!

Now I get to look forward to his graduation!

Chris and I attended the MS Walk like we do every year. I photographed the events at the Hackettstown location. To my disappointment, it seemed like there were less people in attendance than last year. All ages participated and it was a great day despite the cold weather we had! There were only two companies there Mary Kay (who was there last year) as well as Betaseron representatives. Betaseron is a drug that helps prevent your immune system from attacking your nervous system.

In looking at Chris’ post, I realized we captured very similar images. My images were shot with the Rebel XT and XTI. Enjoy the photos!

Yesterday, Loretta and I headed out and covered two locations for the 2008 National MS Walk. She attended the walk in Hackettstown NJ while I headed over to Roxbury NJ. Unfortunately, the beautiful 70-degree weather we had on Saturday didn’t carry through as it was cloudy, cold and windy all day Sunday. Regardless, we dressed in layers and started shooting away.

As I arrived on site in Roxbury, it was nice to see lots of the same faces from last year … and to see even more new ones this year. All told, they had about 600-700 people in attendance.

Prior to the start of the walk, I moved around and captured some shots of the sponsors and volunteers that were already hard at work. I also watched as the Roxbury Fire Department readied their ladder truck with an American flag onto the end of the bucket. Once things were set, they raised it up and held the flag over the center of the event. Unfortunately, with the wind the way it was, I couldn’t get the exact shot that I wanted … but this was close enough for me …

As more walkers arrived, an instructor from a local business called Jazzercise helped keep everyone warm with a brief workout. As I watched the crowd around her, these two ladies stuck out as they were the most animated and tried to follow each move the instructor did …

As the morning progressed, one of the things that I had to do was take team pictures for everyone. As I waited for this one team to fully assemble, I noticed that (like a lot of other people there) they had their dog with them. I couldn’t resist the shot as it was the only one that helped “support the team”!

Once the ribbon was cut and the five mile walk started, I grabbed a few additional shots of the activities around the event including the band, a local radio station, the fire and police departments of Roxbury as well as the many other sponsors of the event. As the front of the walk started to come around on the first lap, I headed over to a little side road to capture them coming down the road. Here was a cute one of a little walker getting a lift for part of the distance …

Overall, it was a great day. It was nice to see the size of the turnout … though I think it would have been better had Saturday’s weather held out. Hopefully next year will be even better!

The National MS Society is a collective of passionate individuals who want to do something about MS now—to move together toward a world free of multiple sclerosis. MS stops people from moving and they exist to make sure it doesn’t.

The Society helps people affected by MS by funding cutting-edge research, driving change through advocacy, facilitating professional education, and providing programs and services that help people with MS and their families move their lives forward.This Sunday, April 13th, the National MS Society will hold six hundred walks across the United States to help raise awareness and money to help people affected with MS. Since the entire Wanamaker Media family believes in giving back or helping out great causes, we have donated the services of Wanamaker Photography for two of their walk locations in New Jersey.

We’ll be onsite during the events to capture team and sponsor images as well as shots of the individuals as they make their way around the designated track. Please take a moment to visit the National MS Society website to see how you might be able to help such a great organization. To find a walk location near you, be sure to check out the “Get Involved” section of their website.

As a follow up to my last post about becoming the official I9 Sports Photographers …

This past Sunday was Portrait Day for the Spring I9 Flag Football League. With temperatures hovering around 45 degrees, an 11-mph breeze crossing the field and no sun to speak of, we knew it was going to feel like one of our fall sports leagues!

In between portraits for the different groups of players, I would grab the Mark III with the 70-200mm lense and head over a snap a couple shots of the kids playing their game.

I love this one shot (that I captured by accident) in that the player in red has his eye intently focused on the ball carrier’s flags. I didn’t realize I had captured this shot until we took a look at it on the computer later in the day …

As I headed back to get ready to photograph the last group, some of them (while waiting for the rest of their teammates) decided to practice a little to try and stay warm. As they would pass the ball, I would follow the runner down the field a little to try and capture a jump-and-catch shot. Well … this was the only kid who was able to do just that …

And just before we headed out, I looked down one of the fields and couldn’t help but capture this one shot …