In Memoriam

By now, anyone affected has heard of the death of Ian Pope on Tuesday, December 23, 2008. Ian died as a result of injuries sustained in a car accident on an icy road; two of his friends who were in the car survived the crash. Losing Ian has been a tremendous blow to all of us who knew him- coaches, teachers, classmates, friends, teammates, and family are struggling to come to grips with this horrible news.

Ian was a special "target" here on Fotofink for several reasons. I have the pleasure of meeting a lot of parents and players with this project, and I have to admit that the Popes have been among my favorites. Watching Ian play this year was a treat- it was just last year that he was one of the young guys, cheerfully succumbing to the hazing ritual of the chain-link fence wedgie. This year, he grew into a clear team leader, stepping up not only his play but his role with the team. Head balls usually make for good pictures, and Ian became dominant in the air this past season. I joked with his Mom at one point during the year that almost all of my pictures of Ian were of him winning head balls- the kind of plays that take as much heart as skill to make. The best example of his heart came near the end of the season. As Holy Redeemer battled for a district playoff spot, games became more and more important. Ian hurt his knee in the win over Crestwood to push the team to Districts; the following day he could barely walk as he made his way to his classes. Ian was the sort of player who gave all, and in spite of the injury he played in the district game a few days later. This was no small feat; click here to revisit my thoughts at that time. Weeks later, at a dome game, Ian was still not healed fully. I remarked to his Mom how he was visibly limping when the ball was far away, but as the play got closer, there was no sign of the injury- as if he could flick a switch to find a way to play when he needed to. He was a player... a leader... a captain.

While his play on the field was how I knew him best, my family also knew Ian as a friend and a student. It is no surprise that a player this respected on the field was also a terrific person off the field as well. Ian had a smile to light up a room, and a cheerful attitude that brought it out often. Everyone who knew Ian was better for it.

So what now? How do we adjust to life without Ian Pope? To some extent, we can't. There is a hole in our hearts that perhaps will never heal. A family will never be the same, school will feel emptier, and the soccer community will never know what excitement could have been ahead for a rising star. As much as we all feel worse with Ian's passing, I'll suggest that this is a time to count the blessings we have. We are all lucky to have known Ian to whatever extent we did. Our world and each of our lives are a little richer for the time he was here. We are in the middle of the holiday season, hopefully spending time with our own families. Appreciate your loved ones every day, for as we have seen, life is precious and can change in an instant.


You may already know that I have set up a gallery on the photo site of all of Ian's pictures from the last 2 seasons. Click here to access the gallery. In addition, I have set up this slide show that I hope can be a remembrance of a fine young man. Feel free to download, save, share any of this material. I hope it helps us to keep Ian in our hearts.

Boys Bball vs Scranton

Lots of things to think about after last night's game vs Scranton. The Royals come away with a victory that was truly hard-fought- Scranton's full court press was nearly our undoing. Pete Alexis had 3,000 points. Steve Ruch draws two offensive fouls. Zach Redding outleaps guys twice his size. The JV game comes down to the last shot. We all missed the fundraiser at Senunas' to see the game.

Why then, is there a picture of our fans at the top of this entry? Simple- They were chanting "FotoFink... FotoFink.... ! Perhaps I am as much a glutton for attention as they are.

So what was once the Argent Nation (forgive my Hoban background), then the Royal Court (I never liked that one- not intimidating at all) is now the Red Sea. T-shirts, after eventual approval from the censors, will be in soon. In the meantime, perhaps someone can explain the green Pat Farrell shirts?

As the season wears on, the fans should be able to work out the kinks. Red means red. We really should have a mascot, instead we have one guy dressed as a chicken (yes, a chicken. Browse through the gallery to see), Jordan looks like that guy from the margarine commercials 100 years ago(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aX2Ia0z-WnM), and Vince looks like he was in that Tom Petty "Alice in Wonderland" video (he had a cool top hat on earlier. Here's a link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7gWzWqJu1k) Here's a thought- It's a long winter. Pick a theme. Stick with it. Whatever you decide, FotoFink is with you.

Here's the link to the gallery with all the game shots- Enjoy!

http://fotofink.smugmug.com/gallery/6753788_xH6Wi/1/431343448_YveM4

Posters

With fall sports pretty much wrapping up, and the Holiday season upon us, perhaps some of you are wondering- "What happened to those cool (very cool) posters you used to make up? Please Mr. Fotofink- tell us we can still get them!" Now- If you actually said that, I feel bad for you. But I need a lead-in to my next speech here, so I'll use that- kind of like a website that lists FAQ's- that are never asked.

Anyway- Posters. Yes, you can still get them. Believe it or not, they actually take a long time to make up. Granted, if I actually sat down someday to improve my Photoshop skills, it might not be such an effort. Considering how terribly boring that sounds, I can assure you it is a long way off. So what's the deal with the posters then?

I will be glad to make them up, really. I am going to do it by request only, however. If you want one, give me some ideas. Just your player? Mostly your player? The whole team? How big? Unless you want a Wallhog, posters can go up to 24x36. Your blacklight posters from Spencer Gifts were that size. Once we get some ideas, I'll make something up, and you are free to order away. As always, you can reach me at sfinkernagel@hotmail.com. Prices for posters are slightly different than regular prints (yes, higher) and are listed below:

8x12- $20

12X18- $30

16X24- $40

20X30- $55

24X36- $65

The poster at the top of this post was one I did for the Hoban boys soccer team in 2006. I have it in my house in the 24x36 size, it looks awesome. There are more around the site- you should be able to sniff around and find them. One last note, if you do find one already on the site, you may still be able to get it at the old prices- I am far too lazy to go back and increase them all just to be consistent.

Girl's Volleyball- District Champions!

http://fotofink.smugmug.com/gallery/6452390_tCWBb/1/409100622_gGc6z

That link should take you to shots from the Holy Redeemer/Lake Lehman District final volleyball match. As you can see from the attached picture, HR came away with the district title in a bit of a rout. This has to be satisfying for the coaches and players- After graduating 12 seniors, this is a pretty lofty position for this team to achieve. Tuesday night is the first round of the State tournament vs Tamaqua (at Berwick) which sadly, our staff cannot attend. Nonetheless, we wish the girls luck- a win here earns them a trip to State College for the finals this Friday & Saturday.

This photo is without a doubt my favorite from the match- the congratulating was done, (you can see Tony P in the background finishing up) and our girls had their first opportunity to celebrate the victory. Volleyball seems to be a game of enthusiasm, emotion, and momentum- and here it all just came pouring out. Enjoy every game girls.

FAQ

It seems like I ought to have one of these, so this will be a "Work-in-Progress" to act as a reference to all things FotoFink.

What is this?- www.FotoFink.net grew out of my pursuit of photography as a hobby, and my sons being active in high school sports. I started taking pictures of them, some other players accidentally got in the frame, parents asked if they could have pictures, etc etc, etc.

So, you are a professional photographer then? Well-  half and half.  I get paid, so in a very pure sense, that makes me a professional.  This isn't how most of my income is derived though, its just how I like to spend my time. That gives me a lot of leeway with what I do here.

Just sports?  What about weddings, senior portaits and such?  Thanks for asking.  Check here for some details on that sort of shoot.

How come you don't just give these away? Conversely, Why are your prices so cheap?- Actually, I do give away a lot of photos. If any of the teams/schools need shots for yearbooks, programs, senior gifts, etc, I am happy to provide them at no charge, but appreciate a little publicity for the website. For most of the shots, however, I make a substantial investment of time, effort and funds to make this happen. A little financial reward doesn't hurt to justify all that. As far as pricing, I have gradually increased that over the last few years to a point now where I think I am right where the market dictates.  My intent is to provide great photos, at the price level of good photos.

What about downloading? Why can't I steal your pictures like I do music?- Conscience and RIAA issues aside, there actually are a few galleries that you can download and save the photos to your computer. Most of the galleries are secure though, and you will get a polite message about copyrights if you try to save anything directly.  Even in these "secure" galleries, there are still ways to get copies- Screen capture programs, or the Print Scr button are the obvious choices, and someone always thinks that its a good idea to take a picture of their computer screen (its not...) but there is a better way.  My feeling on this is that if you are going to steal the photo, at least steal a good copy so we both look good.  Near each photo there is a "SHARE" button. (If you don't see the share button, you are probably looking at the picture as a search result- go to the gallery and page through to view it from the gallery) Click it, choose "Get a link", then click copy next to the largest size available. Open a new browser tab/window, paste the link into the address bar, and through the magic of computers, you will see a copy of your photo, which can now be right-clicked to save.  Bear in mind that the small and medium sizes will make pretty sad prints- but they work really well for posting online to Facebook, Google+, whatever.  I am happy when you use my photos like that- It's actually flattering.  Please though- MENTION FOTOFINK.NET when you post them-  Every little bit of publicity helps!

Why are you telling us how to steal them? Because it is better to be pirated than to be unknown, and the prints that you buy are of MUCH higher quality than anything you can save from the email trick. If it's worth having the photo, it's worth a couple of bucks to get a print. If I sense that things are out of control in this area, I may start watermarking anything that is on display, but so far, I don't feel the need to do so.

How do you decide what games to shoot?  When my children were playing, it was easy- I went to their games, and a few others that I had time for, usually Holy Redeemer teams.  Now that they have moved on, I am drifting a bit.  Several teams have asked me to shoot for them, and offered some free publicity in return.  This seems to be a good arrangement, and I will probably continue along those lines, choosing a few teams to concentrate on each season.  Ask as soon as possible if you want to set that up for a future season.  I try to pay attention to teams that buy photos (duh...) or that give me better opportunities to market.  These opportunities include- Selling prints on site (very popular), taking team and individual photos for the group, providing email addresses, purchasing collage prints for the seniors, etc. etc.  The more we are able to work together, the better it goes for us both.

There are a lot of pictures on here- How can I find my favorite player?  Good question. There are several ways.  First, you can browse.  Click a sport from the first page, then a season, then find a game they may have been in, and browse through the gallery.  Second, there is a timeline search feature near the bottom of the first page- you can enter a date range that your player may have been caught on camera, and you will see only pictures from that time.  Third, there is also a keyword search box.  Keywords are attached to each photo- where possible they include the player's name, the team, sport, etc.  Starting somewhere in the 2011-12 seasons, I began using the format Firstname_Lastname.  Try entering that in the search box to see if you get results.  Older photos may just be keyworded with first names.  Keywords also appear under each photo preview in the galleries, they are clickable from there.  Keywords are the easiest way, but not 100% accurate, since it is impossible for me to know all of you.  If you want to help out, leave a comment for any unnamed or misnamed players, I'll try to make it right.

What's with all the pictures of fans?  There's usually lots going on around the field too.  Anyone who catches my eye may find themselves on the site.

My favorite player isn't on here-  Don't you like me?  I probably don't- but that has nothing to do with it.  There are several ways to get your player enshrined in these pixels.  I pretty much do this for fun, but I am not foolish- I'd rather take pictures for folks that want to buy them.  So first- If you want more pictures, just ask!  Send me an email (sfinkernagel@hotmail.com), talk to me at a game, buy me a drink- I am pretty easy (just ask Mrs. FotoFink).  Of course, buying pictures is a good way to see more also- again- I'm not foolish.


How about other sports?  Again-  Just ask.  I have my favorites, but will consider anything.


My Son is on the Chess team for Tunkhannock- can you come there to take pictures?  No.  Even I have limits.  I wish your son the very best when it comes time for a Prom date though.

Will you take Team and Individual photos for our team?  Sure, if I have time.  Just ask.

You have a picture/comment on here that I don't like.  Can we do anything about that?  Yes.  If you don't like a particular picture,  it's not likely that you will buy it.  I will gladly remove it from the site if you ask me to.  If it is a comment that you are offended by, I'll ask you to realize that I have a sarcastic sense of humor, and no offense is EVER intended.  It is my hope that we can all wear our big-boy pants and get over it, but if not, again- let me know & I will probably accommodate you.

I don't get a lot of your jokes/references- can you explain any of them?  There are a number of recurring themes on the site, here's a brief guide-

I am working on a musical project that seems like it will take my entire life to complete- I am converting all of my LPs (the black round things) to digital format.  As I work my way through the alphabetical collection, I usually use song titles or lyrics as titles for the Blog posts.  It's kind of pointless, but it helps keep me sane.  In truth, this project has been suspended since the great computer crash of October 2010, so most of the references are just something I may be into at the time.

The "Separated at Birth" gallery will be updated periodically, as I see interesting folks who remind me of someone else.  For some reason, Volleyball seems to give me the best material for that gallery.  Again-  all in fun.

"Fashion Faux Pas" never really took off, but I reserve the right to resurrect that as I am inspired.

"Cozy Mountain Retreat" = My home in Pocono Lake.  Come visit sometime.  Bring a coat.

"Our Staff" used to mean me.  More and more though, I am hiring shooters and staff for some of the larger events that I shoot.  Mrs. FotoFink is a huge help to me on occasion, especially with weddings.  Most of the time, however, I am the only staff person.

Can I work for you?  Probably.  If you have an interest in shooting, you are usually welcome to tag along on a shoot.  If your work is good, I will probably ask you to help out at a soccer tournament or horse show.  If you are just starting out, I will gladly offer some advice to get your shots up to speed, so that again... I can put you to work on event days.  I usually need people in the booth too- showing photos, smiling at the public... If you crave the excitement, let me know you are interested.

How about those cool collage posters?  Or wallhogs?  Or mosaics?  Or luggage tags?   Most of these specialty items will require you to contact me.  Examples can be found here.  Contact me if you are interested in something like that- once again- sfinkernagel@hotmail.com.