Wanamaker Photography

Last year, our introduction to the sport of Lacrosse started with an invitation to photograph the annual Boys vs Girls Swap Stix Match at Minisink Valley High School. Unfortunately, that game was nearly at the end of the season for the teams and we only had a couple more opportunities to photograph them before it was all over.

During the off-season, after a couple phone calls, we had a contract with Minisink Valley to cover the 2008 season for the Varsity and Junior Varsity teams. Finally, Lacrosse season is here!

I love Lacrosse because its fast and action packed and reminds me a little bit of Hockey. Last Wednesday was my first game for Minisink Valley Varsity as they played Valley Central at home. These two teams have always been big rivals and the game they played was tough. Here are some of the shots …

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 …

Last year, in an effort to increase our reach within Orange County, Loretta contacted Ed Killenberger, the owner of a new business called I9 Sports. After a lengthy phone conversation and a meeting or two, we had a contract between the two companies and a perfect match was made!

After covering his fall Flag Football and winter Basketball games, Ed expressed his 100% complete satisfaction with the way we’ve operated and made the announcement that we had become his “official” league photographer. This annoucement couldn’t mean more to us!

With this agreement, we’ll continue covering all of Ed’s operations as he expands into new sports and new towns within the Orange County area. We look forward to the opportunity to work with another great local business!

For more information on I9 Sports and their motto of “An Experience Beyond The Game”, be sure to check out their website at http://www.i9sports.com.

For the past couple of years, we have been attending a few of the many Irish Dance Feis events in the area. While photography of the actual dance is expressly forbidden (unless we have specific permission from the top), we attend these events to provide basic portrait photography of the dancers.

On Sunday, we attended the 2008 Garden State Feis in Scotch Plains NJ where people from all over the area, including one visitor from Virginia, came to compete. This was our second year attending this event and while last year was good … this year was great!

This time, we decided to offer on-site printing with the option to order some of our Feis specific products to be mailed out after the fact. The orders were coming in so fast that at one point, we were nearly six customers deep and trying to keep our heads on straight. Why were we so busy without action shots you ask?!

It has to do with the dresses. Each one is handcrafted, expertly detailed, brightly colored and extremely expensive. They can range in price from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars … and that is for the pre-owned ones. Because the parents of the dancers are so heavily involved in the culture, each time their child gets a new dress, they find it necessary to get new pictures. And like most sports, when the dancer places very well, the parents always want a shot with the trophy.

 Here are a couple of the dresses …

Overall, the best part of attending these events are the parents. Regardless of whether they are a new or returning customer, each and everyone of them are a pleasure to deal with. We even have a few customers who visit us at each Feis event and get new pictures each time … even if they don’t have a new dress! I guess that says a lot for the type of service that we can provide!

Here are a couple more shots of dresses we photographed …

Last night we headed up to Kingston, New York for the Section 9 Class D semi-final basketball game between John A Coleman Catholic and Eldred High School. Loretta’s little brother, Robert, was one of the players for the Eldred team.

We arrived a little early so we had time to setup our strobes at the end of the gym. Thankfully, there was a small stage at one end of the court where we could setup everything as there was barely any room behind the hoops. Using some tips given to us by a friend, we set our strobes and cameras to the proper settings and took a couple of test shots of the girls basketball game, which was in the third period when we arrived.

As the game got underway, the points lead bounced back and forth between the two teams until John A Coleman had a series of dead on shots and fouls in their favor. From this moment forward, the points between the teams would be close, but the players for Eldred weren’t able to regain the lead.

Here are a couple shots of both teams in action …

Excited to see some of the shots we got, I immediately downloaded the cards at 11:30PM last night and began browsing through a bunch of the shots. As I viewed the thumbnails, I saw this great shot of a John A Coleman player “attacking” the ball as it bounced off the back board …

 … And this image of a couple players during a foul shot …

I guess thats what “extreme concentration” looks like!