Wanamaker Photography

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.

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 …

During wrestling season, no matter where you turn, tournaments are always going on somewhere. This past weekend was no different. With the half day Minisink Valley JV Tournament on Saturday and the full day Vernon Team Wrestling Classic on Sunday, it felt like we were completely enveloped in it!

The Minisink Valley Tournament on Saturday saw wrestlers in attendance from a bunch of the local area schools including Warwick, Port Jervis, Washingtonville and Goshen. Loretta provided full coverage of that tournament, getting a bunch of great action shots of the wrestlers doing what they do best!

The Vernon Team Wrestling Classic on Sunday saw even more teams, some local like the Sussex Wantage Wrestling Team and others from much farther away (Philly & South Jersey). I spent the majority of the day shooting the tournament myself and then Loretta joined up just prior to finals to provide some better coverage. I have to say that we saw some unbelievably good matches between the wrestlers! Most of the kids ranged in age between 7yrs and 13yrs and wrestled ten times better than most of the High School guys that we follow! Here are a couple shots from Sunday as well!

Now its time to get ready for the Minisink Valley Invitational next Saturday where we’ll debut our On-Site Printing and Custom Sports Posters! I can see it now … Its going to be a busy week!

When I travel around off-assignment, I tend to bring my camera with me anyways as I never know what I will see. This habit proved to be a good thing!

While driving home through Sussex NJ, I saw the wintery sky begin to quickly change colors as the sun started to set. After finishing my last errand, I drove around the area to see if I could find a nice little spot to get a shot or two off. As I drove down one of the back roads, the quick-thinking side of my brain told me to go straight instead of making a right-hand turn. Good thing I finally listened!

As I came over the crest of the hill, this shot nearly fell in my lap!