Golf

I had my first real experience photographying a golf tournament on Wednesday. I went to the GMC Boys Tournament up at Weatherwax. For September it was pretty chilly day. Temps never broke out of the 60s and there was a nice steady breeze. The people at Weatherwax were very helpful in providing me a cart and making a copy of the schedule for me to take on the course. The Oak Hills golf coach helped me get to the right place once I was ready to get started. I have attempted to play golf a few times. Let's just say I get my moneys worth out of a round. Below are a few of my images from the day.

This was a nice pitch onto the green.

Here is a hit from the fairway.

I always wanted to try to capture somebody hitting a ball from the sand. This guy was nice enough to hit it there so I was able to get him just barely visible, the sand flying and the ball. (look top right)

Yes, that is player back behind those trees hitting the ball. I was truely amazed by how well he hit this shot and how it got to the green.

Nice form on that drive! Even the tee popped out like it is supposed to.

Been Busy

Time seems to be flying by this month. I can't believe it is already half over. Hopefully the rest of the month goes a little slower.

Sorry no pictures this time. I have photographed a few youth football games but since the kids are younger than high school I will not post pictures here. I will tell you photographing first and second grader football is great. The kids are out there having fun and are so cute! I love the fact parents cheer for them but do not yell out "suggestions" or negative comments. There is nothing better than capturing somebody doing exactly what they want to do and having fun. As we grow up sometimes sports become less fun and more of something we have to do. There is definitely a fine line between having fun and being competitve and going over that line and feeling like a lose is somehow a reflection on your character. The need to practice more and train harder dominate our thoughts. I've been on both sides of that line personally and it is definitely hard to pull yourself back to the fun side sometimes. Recently I started running without a watch to help me get back to the fun side and away from the constant need to measure my current run against my last one. I'm back to enjoying my runs but I'm sure I'll add the watch back in a little while. Who doesn't like to keep track of progress after all! I'll lose the watch again if it starts taking away from my fun and the freedom I feel from pressures while running.

I've also been working on some updates for my site. I hope to have those changes done by then of this week. More information on portaits will be added and hopefully a little larger gallery. Toying with the idea of posting events I plan on photographing as my schedule allows. Since this could change at the last minute I'm not sure I want to post it. Any opinions?

High School Soccer

Photographed two high school soccer games on the 7th of September. We are in the middle of some great weather so aside from a few bug bites it was an amazing night to be outside. Since I shoot a lot of Oak Hill sports I am getting to be a little bit of a fan. Unfortunately on this night both the jv and varsity teams lost to Lakota West. Below are a few shots from the varsity game. The first one is actually a goal being scored by Lakota West.
Here is a throw-in shot. Attendance was a little low so there was a lot of empty stands which made for some not so great backgrounds for the pictures.
The next two are slide tackles which were both successful in knocking the ball away.



Great height by both players on a headball.

I played a little bit between games. The setting sun is perfect for these kinds of shots.

Another Friday Night Football Game

Photographed another football last Friday night at Oak Hills. This time they were playing Western Hills at home in a nice steady misty rain. To say I was soaked when I left would be putting it nicely. On top of that we actually had cool weather (in the 60s) so I used the heater on the way home to try to dry off and warm-up. Of course the rain didn't bother to start until warm-ups were complete and the band was taking the field to start things off. The first picture below is from warm-ups. They do a drill where they run and have another player try to knock the ball out of their hands.

Pre-game was performed by the band again.

I love their coach. You don't even have to watch the game, just watch him. You will know after every play if it was good or not in his eyes.
I think the coach would be happy with the below player with regards to his stiff arming the defense. Oak Hills scored quickly and so it was time to kickoff.
This player had a great run. Check out the larger picture to see his face.
Finish up the picture by showing another run. Given the weather, almost every play was a run.

Friday Night Football

It was a gorgeous night for football on Friday. The start of high school football was this past weekend in the Cincinnati area. I was lucky enough to have a field pass to the Oak Hills Highlanders vs Anderson Redskins game. Even though the day was hot by the time the game started it wasn't too bad. The game was played at Oak Hills and they started the night off by celebrating their name with a bagpipe band.

Things started off slow but soon the action started to pick up, including this nice run along the sidelines.

Of course I had to take pictures of the band since I was in bad in high school. It was good to see the band cheered by the fans when they took the field at halftime.

Another piece of the action...

The problem with high school game is the light fades quickly and the overhead lights while bright enough to play by do affect the quality of a photograph. I personally still loved the one below even though there is some "noise" in the image.

This is probably why I also tend to take more pictures in the first half than the second. Or least it always seems that way when I break my "saved" images after my first review down by halfs.

An Update

I've been a little busy lately and haven't had a chance to update the blog for awhile. Last weekend I spent the day photographing a soccer tournament. As much as I would love to post the pictures here, since the kids playing were not in high school yet I won't. Without permission, I will not post pictures of children younger than high school age. Since I like to post pictures though I thought I would post a few I took before a portrait session a few weeks back. Since I do portraits mainly on location I always take a few shots to test lighting and backdrops. That normally means I'm there at least 30 minutes before the client. Below are just 2 shots I took after I finished testing. Last night I was at a high school football game and will hopefully get a chance to post some of those pictures this weekend. I'm taking most of today off from shooting in order to attend the first Oktoberfest in the area. It is a tradition my husband and I like to keep since it normally is held the weekend after our anniversary.

Cincinnati Kings

It was an absolutely gorgeous night for soccer on Saturday. The Cincinnati Kings took on the Pittsburgh Riverhounds here in Cincinnati. The Kings were fighting for a place in the post-season. Unfortunately they lost 0-2 but another team in the league also lost giving the Kings a spot in the playoffs. The game was very intense at times with a lot of yellow cards and 2 reds cards handed out. Below are just a few of my images from the game. Good luck Kings in the playoffs!

Red Rose

I decided to take the weekend off from shooting sports and spend a little time working in my yard and around the house. I love doing yardwork. The wore out feeling at the end of the day is always rewarding because you can instantly see your changes. As I started working in my flowers I noticed the bee below watching me. I hate bees. Actually I'm just more afraid of them then anything else so I tried to stay way clear of this guy. He did take flight while I was trying to take his picture and I'm sure a picture of me running away was much better than the one below.


I have one Knockout Rose bush that I try my best to take care of. As I was deadheading some of the old blooms I say a red blossom. This might not seem strange except the rest of the flowers are all a pale pink color. So I had to take a few picture of my unique flower before moving on.

Hot Summer Day

What is one to do on a hot summer day. You would think doing something indoors or involving water would be the way to go. Nope. I decided to instead spend it out in the sun shooting soccer games. I got some nice tan lines now and maybe a slight case of heat exhaustion. And I wasn't even the one playing! I decided to share some of my images below.

You've got to love soccer players and their need to be unique!

Marketing Picture - Final

I met up with my photographer friend Neysa Ruhl (www.neysaruhl.com) today and she took my picture for some marketing material I'm putting together. As I said before, she does amazing work. Below is the image we chose, both in color and black and white. It is great to see that she understood what I wanted and was able to deliver. Great job! Thanks again!

Marketing Picture Draft

I met with my marketing and graphics company today. We are in the middle of creating some literature for me to pass out to potential customers. I was so impressed with the first version they put together! I highly recommend BT Graphics if you live in the Cincinnati/Dayton Ohio area. From 2 brief meetings they nailed exactly what I wanted. They have asked all the right questions and are helping me get together a game plan for my business. While I can take great photographs, my marketing skills are really week. A picture of me is going to be included on the back of the literature so I've been playing around with a couple ideas and showed them so rough proofs of my ideas. Below are the 2 pictures they liked. They loved the concept of the first one and want my smile of the second one to go with the concept. So, hopefully I can get that taken care of by the end of the week. I've enlisted a photographer friend to help me out. It should be a real challenge for her because I hate being in front of the camera. Put me behind it and I will smile all day long. After I get those shots done, I'll be sure to post them and give her high praise. She does amazing work!

Women's Tennis Part II

For some reason I was not able to upload these 2 images to my first post. Both of them are of Katarina Srebotnik. She upset Patty Schnyder on July 22nd to make it to the finals.

Women's Tennis

I love tennis! I wish I could play it better but I'll settle for watching it. I managed to get a media creditial for the women's tournament held in Mason, OH at the Lindner Family Tennis Center. What an experience walking across to the court to get to the media benches. I would have given anything to actually have been allowed to take a racket and just hit one ball. Below are some of the pictures I took over 4 days. It was hard to pick just a few to post. I tried for a variety. Hope you like them.

Patty Schnyder serves

Venus Williams stretches for a ball.

There was a rain delay of 110 minutes one night.
Venus Williams warms up on a practice court.
Bethanie Mattek prepares to hit a ball during her match with Venus Williams.
Venus Williams puts a lot of force behind the ball.
What else is a photographer to do during a rain delay but take pictures of signs in the tunnel.