Mr. Bad Example

The blog post is a little late this week- surprisingly, no one seemed to mind.  What's my excuse?  Is this delay intentional, or am I just Mr. Bad Example, missing my self-imposed 1 week/1 post commitment?

A little of both actually.  Sunday was the end of a busy week, this week holds a trip to the remote southern headquarters, so looking ahead, it seemed that a slight delay in the post would allow everything to be covered for a while.  Thrill-a-minute stuff, I know....

So how were the shoots since last time?  Thanks so much for asking!!!!

Berwick visited Wyoming Area, and I found out that it rains inside the fences too.  Another fantasy crushed.

Nice slide.  Love it when the base gets uprooted.

Happy Birthday Lexi!  Nice face...

Tuesday was the day I expected to find HR baseball and softball playing side by side.  Good idea for an overwhelmed photographer.

Better game face- Mary, or Stacey?

Throw Steve into that game face contest.  I think we have a winner.

No shots from Wednesday- I am sure something was rained out.

Thursday I had an adventure shooting for Wilkes-  Let's just say that I may be the first guy to break a sweat on a golf course.  After the great golf debacle, it was back to Hollenback for more softball, and surprise- baseball too!  The original plan was to include soccer as well, but of course that match wasn't at the field indicated on the schedule.  That would have been far too easy.

As out as he looks, he was safe.

As bad as this looks, it ended well.

Looks bad, was bad.  Thankfully no injuries.

Love the shades, really.  The sunflower seeds too.

Saturday brought up a decision- volleyball at Pottsville?  Or track at Wallenpaupack?  Toughest call ever...  volleyball is indoors, and 2 teams that I am shooting were on the schedule.  Martz Hall is one of my favorite places to shoot also.  Icebreakers were great fun last year though, and there are always more shots to find with the three-ringed-circus that is a track meet. Hmmm.....   In the end, two external factors helped sway me- First- Flyers tickets.  I had arranged for a pair of seats to game 2 of the series, long before I knew when that game would be.  It was, of course, Saturday night, and knowing that I'd be leaving early, volleyball made more sense than track- I would still get shots of everyone, even with the early departure.  Driving out to Pottsville, the second reason became clear- Rain.  Lots of rain.  Flooding, Noah's ark-type rain.  There was no way Icebreakers would happen-  I was in the clear.....  Wrong again.  Total props to the track team for braving the elements...  As for icebreakers.. maybe next year.

Robert and Brendan were glad I came.  FotoFink is number 1.....

Congrats to the boys too.  After losing to Easton at Valley West, and splitting with Fleetwood in pool play, the Royals beat both of those teams to take the gold at the Pottsville tournament.  Come out to watch these guys.

Part of my logic for skipping track on Saturday was knowing that I'd be shooting in on Monday.  So I did.

Game face, Hurdle face, whatever.  Add Maria to the mix.

Landings on the long jump....  awesome.

The mid-air part can be good too.

That shot reminds me of something... I dislike rules.  A lot.  There are lots of rules in photography though- the rule of thirds, the sunny 16 rule, on and on and on...  In light of this, I am starting my own list of rules.  FotoFink's rules.  I am starting here, in no particular order.  When nothing is going on, find Nicole.  There is always a shot there.

Ok- I sense that this is too long already.  Looking ahead, we have...... nothing.  Really.  I'll be traveling until the next scheduled blog post, so there will be no new events before next weekend.  Not sure how I will handle that- either postpone (why not- everything else does) or maybe post some sort of shameless self promotion piece.  I am leaning towards the latter.

Links-

Softball galleries

Baseball galleries

Pottsville Volleyball

Redeemer at Wyoming Area Track

Everything

Enjoy!

Walk

From last week's post-

Looking ahead- we have a week filled with Wilkes softball (Tuesday) Holy Redeemer/Coughlin soccer (Wednesday) Holy Redeemer Softball (Thursday) and Holy Redeemer Junior High Track (Friday).  Finally, Saturday will see the return of the Photobooth at a sweet sixteen party.  Most of that is weather dependent, of course, but it does look as if the snow may be over...

Softball on Tuesday was postponed due to weather.  Soccer on Wednesday was postponed due to weather.  Softball on Thursday was moved to Friday well before the weather was bad, which opened up a chance to get to Jr High Track at Wyoming area.  Friday arrived, and as I am getting ready to walk out of the cozy mountain retreat, the rain starts.  Shortly after I made the decision not to stand in the cold rain to shoot softball, that game was postponed due to weather.  Saturday  had a spare couple of hours in the afternoon, so a visit to Wilkes to make up the softball shoot was squeezed in, and lastly, the photobooth/sweet 16 party went off without a hitch- ironically, some of the only good weather for the week was when the only indoor event was on the schedule.

Flexibility is proving to be the key here at FF HQ this Spring, as we will see when we look to the week ahead.  Thanks to the weather changes, literally every day will likely find us at a different venue than was originally scheduled.

Before getting to that, I want to address a question that came up a few times this week- several people have asked if I can come and shoot their team, and with the schedule as crazy as it has been- what goes into that decision?

If at all possible, sure-  I will shoot almost anything.  I am more inclined to shoot where I know there is some interest.  If I can get a list of emails, or present some photos for sale in person, then I am far more likely to be excited about coming to shoot.  Its actually more than money that drives that- It just seems silly to take photos and have then wither away unnoticed.  So how can you get your team on the list?  Just ask.  Then help me get word out to the team about the photos.  The rest should take care of itself.

Holy Redeemer at Wyoming Area Jr High Track was just such a sequence of events.  FotoFink had a pretty good audience at the varsity level of Holy Redeemer, so when the Jr High asked, a mental note was made to get to at least one meet.  Another request from a WA competitor, and a timely weather postponement or 3, and last Thursday became a perfect fit.  Since that event, there have been an average of more than 10,000 hits per day on the photo site, and sales are starting already.

I have said this before- track has become a favorite event here at FotoFink.  So many cool events.

On that subject- cool events....  Let me add that I understand the logic of not having the pole vault at Holy Redeemer.  The equipment is costly, especially considering that there are usually only a small group of athletes at most school that would participate.  Still.  It would be great.

Another fun event.  Thankfully Javelins seem to be worth the investment.

The FotoFink FotoBooth is another fun gig.  (Note the alliteration there....its a marketing gimmick)  For this event, the guest of honor got to be silly with her friends and family while posing for the camera.  Mix in a few serious shots, and we printed enough on site to fill the photo album that we gave to her at the end of the party, complete with notes from the party guests.  The Fotobooth is available for hire with a wedding or party shoot package, or as a stand-alone bit of fun.  Contact me at sfinkernagel@hotmail.com for details about arranging an event.

Looking ahead-  we'll see how much of this goes as planned-

Monday-WA area softball takes on Berwick, and Holy Redeemer track visits WA.  Things are ridiculously tight, so yes- I am going to try to shoot both.

Tuesday- Holy Redeemer baseball at Nanticoke.  First time out for baseball.  If it doesn't snow.

Wednesday- Wyoming Area at Pittston Area girls soccer.  Another request.  I would have replied directly to the WA parent that asked for my presence, but there was no return email address on the message I got.  FYI- if you use the "contact FotoFink" button, you have to fill in all the requested info for me to reply.

Thursday-  Holy Redeemer Softball and Soccer.  Yup.  Another double header.

Friday- HR JR HI track at Nworthwestern.  Maybe.  That's far.....

Saturday- A dilemma- The Icebreaker Relays were rescheduled for this day, and the Pottsville volleyball tourney was/is on the same day.  Also influencing the decision is the fact that I need to be in Philadelphia in time to get to game 2 of the Flyers/Sabres series (watching, not shooting).  Weather depending, I am leaning towards IceBreakers....

Some links-

HR/WA JR HI Track

FotoFink Fotobooth

Everything

Enjoy!

For Crying Out Loud

One extreme to the other this week at FotoFink- From a week riddled with weather related postponements, to one where almost everything went as scheduled.  For crying out loud, is there no happy medium?

Actually- there was not much to rant about this past week.  the one postponement of note was the Icebreaker Relays, which keeps a glimmer of hope alive that there will be some photos....  depending on the reschedule date.  If anyone hears of that, passing that info on would be appreciated.  Considering how busy the Spring schedule is, pushing these events back has to catch up with us at some point, so its actually good to get them "in the camera" even if we get behind with edits and posts.

Our musical reference this week is Meat Loaf- a long-time favorite here at FotoFink.  Lots of fond memories of the first major release, "Bat Out Of Hell"- long before "Paradise By The Dashboard Light" became a karaoke staple.  Sadly, none of those memories are suitable for sharing here.... Its actually not a completely random reference- During a long night of editing photos, HDNet, the cable channel, had a Meat Loaf concert playing- the show is called something about "Three Bats", and if you are at all a fan, I recommend it highly.

If you'll permit me a bit of a tangent here- (this whole blog is a tangent....) Here's a question - Is karaoke really just Satan's way of ruining our music?  That's my theory....

So what happened this week?   Glad you asked-

Wilkes kept us busy with Lacrosse, Baseball and Tennis game/matches at various times during the week.  Check here for some samples of that work, since it is not sold on the FotoFink site.

Redeemer v Lehman track on Tuesday was a huge shoot, as we were able to encourage our long-lost staffer to come out of hiding for a day.  Track meets are far easier to shoot with 2 people- I may have noted in the past that when I am alone, I always feel like I should be somewhere else.... usually on the other side of the track.  This outing felt much more sane.  Sadly, no Jav though...

 The high jump is always a great photo op.  Since Katy is a former competitor in that event, it was decided to let her shoot it.  She found a great angle that I have overlooked in the past, which worked well for the traditional jumpers.  To no one's surprise, Nicole is not a traditional jumper.  Hard to find fault in success though, as I believe she won the event that day.

Love these throwing events.  Love them.

This is fun to shoot too....  I have really missed track.

We also got a taste of Wyoming Area Softball for the first time.  This is a relatively small gallery, as there are some access issues on that field that we are trying to iron out for next time.  Enjoy what we have for now, hopefully there will be more to follow.

I know it is still cold and all, with winter lingering this year... but when I see this, I can't help but think of this.

We paid a visit to Crestwood volleyball on Friday, as they swept the visiting Cougars of Hazleton.  Crestwood volleyball continues to mature, with last year's extremely young team growing into this year's very young team.  It would seem that there is such potential for these young men in the next season or two.

What is it about volleyball.... ?

Also in the volleyball world, the Wyoming Valley West marathon/tournament was Saturday, which gave us a chance for photos of several teams on our lists- Holy Redeemer, Crestwood, Coughlin...  I had the pleasure of meeting a Lake Lehman player in the stands, and was encouraged to get a few shots of their squad as well.

Once again- something about volleyball.  My favorite comment- "If he were my kid, they'd call him Lefty"  Lost on us at the time was the fact that it was a fake.

Volleyball again....   Wow.

Lastly, Sunday was filled with more Irish Step Dancers- and I continue to become addicted to this music and activity.   Shots from this event will likely take a few more days to post, so check back for some notes on those.

Looking ahead- we have a week filled with Wilkes softball (Tuesday) Holy Redeemer/Coughlin soccer (Wednesday) Holy Redeemer Softball (Thursday) and Holy Redeemer Junior High Track (Friday).  Finally, Saturday will see the return of the Photobooth at a sweet sixteen party.  Most of that is weather dependent, of course, but it does look as if the snow may be over...

For now-

Redeemer at Lehman track

Lehman at Wyoming Area Softball

Hazleton at Crestwood Volleyball

WVW Volleyball Tournament

Emerald Isle Step Dancers  (As of this post, the newest shots are not yet on the site- but they will be soon!)

All the FotoFink excitement

Enjoy!




Enjoy!