Holiday Projects

I thought I would share some of the different collages and a card I did for the holidays. Since these were gifts I waited to share until now. I hope everyone loved their gifts. I had a lot of fun doing cards this year as well. I wanted the cards to be unique for each family.

This one went into a custom frame, so I did a lot of measuring.

This one is actually 20x30 and was a surprise for the son.

Here is a collage of a family that they had framed and gave to their families out of town.

Here is the card for the same family, minus their names on the right.

Another card of 2 really fun children.

I hope everyone had a great holiday! Thank you for helping me grow my business. It was a pleasure working with each of you and I hope you enjoyed it as well.

Oak Hills vs Fairfield

I photographed one last basketball game before Christmas. After this game I decided I needed some time off to get my shopping done. Tuesday I was at the Oak Hills Freshmen game against Fairfield. Once again it was another close game with Oak Hills pulling it out at the end. Before the game I got to the school early to take pictures to use for a season type collage/poster. I'm always looking for new ideas and my thought is to incorporate a lot of different pictures from throughout the season and also include some school logos from the gym. The first picture below is from the scorers table sign. As I was trying to determine the best way to capture the sign I saw a basketball bouncing in from the side. I like the reflection of things on the floor as well. Feel free to comment on the images and make suggestions on the types of things you would like me to offer as a photographer. Constructive comments are welcome and helpful as well.

Scorers table lighted sign.

A wide look at a technical foul shot with 1:51 left in the game.
Looking for somebody to pass to.
Guy has some hops!
Umm, you can't go through the guy.

Basketball

Last Saturday I was able to photograph the Oak Hills JV team against the St. Xavier team. This was a highly contested battle and a pretty good turn out of fans for a Saturday morning game. (game time was 11:00) Guess not everyone is leaving their Christmas shopping to the last minute like me. It was a close game throughout and Oak Hills did manage to pull out a winner. Here are a few shots from the game.

Looking up court.

The no-look pass.
A challenged shot.
A small foul.
Paying attention to the coach during a timeout.
Free throw concentration.

A Little Wrestling

Last Friday night I headed over to Mason for a little wrestling action. Oak Hills was taking on Mason. All three teams were there for the match - freshmen, junior varsity and varsity. Mason has really strong teams and was pretty dominant all night. I am truely amazed on how flexible these guys are. Just watching them get loosened up made me wince sometimes. They have to do that though to help avoid injury because they are literally twisting their bodies in every direction during the match. Below are just a few images from the night.

A little jump rope to stay warm.

Hand over the mouth while flipping him over his head.
Attempting to break a hold.
Picking up for a toss.
Trying to avoid the pin.
More avoidance measures.
Shoving the head to the ground is a good thing.

Another Basketball Game

After the swim meet on the 5th I stopped in the gym to watch some of the girls basketball games. Caught the end of the JV game - another victory. I decided to photograph the Varsity game kind of last minute. Since I was there at kind of the last moment I decided to shoot a little differently. I was looking for more expressions\concentration shots and not necessarily the height of action. Since I rarely get to talk to my sports clients face to face I do not always know what kind of pictures they are looking for ahead of time so I am trying to go to a few games and provide a wide variety of images. The first and second picture below are the same image but the second one is black and white. I would love to hear any comments on the images below and if people like the black and white idea for sport images.

Getting ready for the tip

In black & white

Some defense

A steal

Concentrating on the free throw

A performance of the Oakettes a half-time

Swim Meet

For those of you who have read earlier posts I have talked about lighting and how it isn't always that great in the high schools. The swim meet I went to on Tuesday was one of those cases. Very dark even to the eye. The darkness did not bother the swimmer or divers though. Lots of cheering and some chants. Because of the lighting I did not get as many shots as normal but here are a few to share.

Off the block

Butterfly
A practice dive
Grabbing some air

Third Game

The third and final game of the night was the Varsity game. You can tell these girls have played together for awhile. It was there during warm-ups and carried right on through to the game. Like normal, below are some of the images from the game.

Posting Up

Almost an uncertain look on a tough shot
Looking for the open player
Surrounded by D and still getting off the shot
Deep breathMy rebound!

Second Game

Below are some images from the second game last Saturday night. The Junior Varsity team also won. They have a very quick team and there were times I wanted to put down the camera and actually watch the game. One thing people do not realize is that as a photographer you see a game through your viewfinder but you do not actually get to "watch" the game. Even during warm-ups you kind of scout the players and see how they interact with people. Course once you know the teams you can relax a little more during warm-ups. Hope you enjoy the images.

A shot with a late block attempt.

A block from behind but that arm in the back is not a good thing.
Another jumper.
One of many layups that game.

Freshmen Basketball

Here is the first game I photographed last Saturday night. The Oak Hills freshman team was pretty dominant against Hamilton High. Lots of hussle and some great expressions. It is nice being indoors on cold days but lighting is almost always a problem in high school gyms. While it may seem bright enough to watch the game trying to capture it without lots of blur can sometimes be a challenge. Luckily for me they have recently changed their lightbulbs so it was relatively bright. By the end of the season I will not be saying the same thing.

Love the expression! I did this a lot when I played as well.

Great defensive stance.
A contested shot.
A little foul shot sequence.

Christmas Pictures

This family was nice enough to wait until I got back from vacation to schedule their Christmas session. I had a great time. The children were so much fun. We had great natural light coming through the windows so I only had to use limited fake light. It was a challenge to make sure the girl didn't crawl away too fast or climb up to a point where she would fall. Thanks to my 2 spotters that helped me out. I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I did taking them.

The little girl was full of smiles.

Not to be outdone the boy was all for big laughs

We did do a little "thinking" time

And a little treat during a break.

Loves ornaments.

One together, even managed to get mom in the reflection