Get Ready

As busy as things are here at the FotoFink HQ, these photos had to become a priority.  A few parents had asked about purchasing shots, but until now everything taken had become the property of Wilkes.  Finally then, as the guys get ready for their last game, photos that you can buy are available!

A few of you, I know from when your players were in High School.  You may want to skip over my drivel and go right to the links at the end of the post- which won't bother me in the least.  The less time I spend between you and entering your credit card info, the better..... ;)

For the rest of you- first off- Welcome!  FotoFink is my hobby-turned-small business, and I hope you enjoy the shots from the game.  Those of you that I have met have been very positive, and your support is appreciated.  In addition to purchasing photos, there are some ways to steal and share them-  you can get details in the FAQ section of the site, or in the post I made for the Women's team here.

This was a fun game to watch- One of the things that makes soccer interesting, is that since scoring is so infrequent, results are often unpredictable.  Earlier this season (Nuemann) Wilkes almost managed to get a result in a game where they were outplayed- Against Manhattanville, it happened.  Good stuff for the home squad, and its much more satisfying than being on the other end of that exchange.

This was a scary moment, as Nicky P does his job in the wall.  Give him credit for bouncing right back up into the play, but for the next few seconds, he had to be running on instinct.  Its doubtful that he knew where he was right here.

Give Kaleb a lot of credit too- A big game on senior night really helped the cause.

I am so glad I still get to shoot this.  And this.  Well, all of it, really.

Believe it or not, this is a brief post, because as always- there are places to go, things to do, people to shoot....  There actually may be a few more shots posted to the gallery at some point- there was a full staff shooting that day, and all of the photos are not in yet.  In my haste, I neglected to add keyword tags to the photos, so the search box will not really work well.  If/when more shots go up, that will be corrected.

Photos from the match are here.

The rest of the empire is here.

Enjoy!

Friends

Busy times here at the cozy mountain retreat have delayed posting game photos beyond any reasonable time frame.  As a result, a game recap seems foolish- Let's just say that Meyers came to visit, and your Royals won convincingly to wrap up the home season on a positive note.  The light-hearted atmosphere on the sideline led to some fun photos though- which seems like a better topic to focus (pun intended) on.

It's hard not to notice that some teams are more special to the players than others.  Sometimes, that good feeling comes from success, hard work, and victory.  Truly special teams bond more deeply though- and its clear that these girls share such a bond.  Besides being teammates, they are friends- a fact that hopefully they will remember forever.  (note- buying a few photos wouldn't hurt to enhance that memory.  I'm just saying....)

It's hard to describe the momentum that builds with these girls as their photos are taken.  Despite efforts to stay out of the way, Mary spots the camera during a team huddle, and the hoopla begins.  Samantha seems a little less thrilled at that moment, but judging from the response, she was the only one.

From there it grows- "Mr. Fink! Can you take one with my sister?"  Done.  Too bad Mallory was playing at the time, or you could have had gifts for the entire extended family for Christmas.

"Mr. Fink!  I really want a picture with Danielle!"  Who wouldn't?  Done.

"How about one of the three of us?"  Sure.  Too bad for Mallory again- and Lauren for that matter.

"Thanks Mr. Fink!"  It's cool-   just so I don't miss this shot.

"Could you get one of all three goalies?"  Sure.  Stand right there.  "Wait!  I want to be in this too!"  Cool.  Mallory finally gets in one.

"Wait- me too!"  Sure- Jump right in. Literally Lauren, jump right in.  Sara- you do what you have to back there to be seen.

"A picture!  Let's get the whole team!"  Yeah, um... ok...  Shouldn't some of you be on the field though?

 "OK- Now Mr. Fink- can we get the goalies?"  Yep, we can.

"How about my sister and I?"  Good thinking.  There's Christmas card material.

"Now all the defense!"  Sure.  Why stop here?

"Wait wait!  I want a Bernardi picture!"  A Bernardi picture?  Yup.  It's like a sandwich.

There was, of course, a game going on too.  Really.  Photos are here.  It just wasn't as interesting as the sideline hijinks.


Lots more photos here.

Long Time

Tournaments, hard drive crashes, senior nights, and oh yeah- the real job have kept thing pretty busy here in the land of FotoFink- as result, it has been a ridiculously long time between these photos being taken and now finally posted.  My apologies to the Crestwood faithful- hopefully, they are worth the wait!

Since your shots are not the only ones clogging up the plumbing, so to speak, this post will be blissfully short...

First off, I want to thank the Crestwood team and parents for their support.  Thanks to a friend who has passed on, yours is the first team that I ever shot that one of my own children was not playing on.  As such, I always view Crestwood as the foundation of the FotoFink empire- and you will always have a preferred spot on the site.  In return, you have always made me feel welcome- both at the games and through your purchases from the site.  Please know- I appreciate that!

Vuvuzela man....  nice.......

That had to be a pretty helpless feeling for the Hazleton keeper....

It's all about timing really- and sometimes, as I've said-  I get lucky too.

Ok- blissfully short-

Game photos

Senior night, team and individual photos   (these have actually been up for a while now)

FotoFink

Enjoy!

Money

In what may be the all-time biggest boneheaded business decision (ok- second biggest), I am going to try to sell photos of what may be the most photographed team in history.  No one ever accused me of being too bright....  In truth though, this team has been fun to shoot- and after all, not everything has to be about money.

Since this is the first time many of you are seeing the photos on my site, this post will be a little primer on what's going on here....  As you may know, Wilkes hires me to shoot a few of their sporting events.  On those occasions, the photos go directly to the SID, and are used on the website, programs, press releases, etc.  They have asked me not to sell those photos again, which of course, I respect.  In some cases, however, I will choose to shoot a game on my own- as was the case here with the homecoming match vs DelVal.  These photos then ARE available, and your purchases will help fund my favorite charity- my photography hobby.

Too cheap/thrifty/broke to buy?  I know- its a bad economy.  That's still ok.  There are a few ways the photos can be shared without any expense.  Want a low-res copy for emailing or facebook?  Use the share button to send an email to yourself.  The copy you will receive is good enough for either of those.  More details are in the FAQ section of the site.  Want to share a gallery of your favorite player with someone?  Use a keyword search to display all of your favorite player's shots, then copy and paste the link as you see fit.  The Jennas will have to deal with the extra shots on their pages- next time, be more original when you name your child.... (Looking over that list, I am really partial to Fabienne.  Good thing I had 3 boys) Please remember that if you choose to use the photos in any of those ways, mentioning the website where they came from is considered good form.

As always, I usually have a few comments on the game that I will share here also.  If you are tired of me already, the links to the photos are at the end of this post- and if you skip down, I will never know...

One of my twisted little pleasures is to point out some of the odd expressions that will occur during a game, and get captured forever in a photo.  Not to be sexist, but girls usually get the most upset about this, and as a result, of course, give me even greater pleasure in the act.  As usual, I can count on Lyndsay for an example, but I was really happy to see Brooke and Taryn chipping in as well.

Cards are part of the game, and occasionally every player will get one.  Judging from her expression, Katie understands this and agrees completely with the referee's decision.

The best photo opportunity for goalies is during warm-up....  If only I could get them to wear their game jerseys, I wouldn't have to explain that fact....

So much of this is timing- and even I get lucky here and there.

Ok-  enough gibberish from me- here's why you came-

Game Photos

All of FotoFink

Enjoy!

Goodbye Blue Sky

Some time ago, a wise blogger suggested that the Holy Redeemer/Crestwood rivalry in Field Hockey was just getting started, and that these 2 teams are likely to have some epic, close battles as the seasons go by.  As it worked out, that blogger was 1/2 right-  the first half.  Halftime arrived with the game knotted at 1, and the result very much to be determined.  The second half.....  was very different, with Crestwood putting away 3 quick goals early on, sending them on the way to what the box score say was an easy victory.  In JV action..... well, there was no JV action.  It seemed a little over-cautious to cancel the second game at first, but that proved to be a wise choice as well.  By the time most of us were in our cars, it was goodbye blue sky, and hello to an impressive, late summer thunderstorm.

Some quick thoughts-

A pick or a scratch?  (Sorry Juliann!)

Feel free to leave a comment- What do you think Melanie is yelling to Mallory?

Nice lids.  Really nice lids....

Here's another fill place to fill in the quote-  First we see a little love between opponents- nice gesture.  Seconds later- what do you think is running through Courtney's mind?

Surprise-  too much to do, so this post is over.  Of note to this crowd, there are pictures from the Jr High game at Pittson in the pipeline-  stay tuned!

For now-

Crestwood at Redeemer

Fotofink.net

Enjoy!

Unknown Legend

Photos are flowing through the pipeline, but there are still several events in front of me- 2 Wilkes games, then a rare trip to a  fitness competition this past weekend.  With the dawn of the new week, and new stuff to shoot, it would be better to be fully caught up, but there are only so many hours in a day.  Blog posts sometimes feel like an "extra" during these times- are they truly necessary?  Are people actually reading this stuff?  Or am I an unknown legend in my time?

There are 2 measures of that- the first is just word of mouth- and there are a fair amount of in-person comments- "Oh I love what you wrote!"  "Oh you are so creative!" "Oh come shoot my wedding!"  (that last one is a favorite, by the way...)  A few more written comments on blog itself would be nice (hint hint) but its not a perfect world.  A second measure is the stat counter for the site- and it is fun to see how many people actually click through these links and posts. The counter also registers where each visitor is from- at least in a general sense of where the ISP is located.  The local visitors are to be expected- there should be a few from Mountaintop for this entry, of course.  Apparently there is a small following from New England, and an occasional visitor from Turkey who is clearly lost.  It's nice to be a global sensation though. (you are soccer fans.....  you'll get that....)

We are almost a week removed from the soccer matches in this post, so recaps are pretty unnecessary- even the printed media could consider this old news.  Here are a few notes from the gallery before the links-

LOVE the game face.  Now tie your shoe.

I see you too.

Speaking of game faces....

Really-  Tie your shoe....

Hopefully you enjoyed the Neil Young reference- it seemed appropriate during the week of the harvest moon.

On to the photos-

JV and Varsity

All of them

Enjoy!

Say It Again

Looking over the last few posts, it seems that there is a recurring theme- too much to do, too little time.  Considering this, it seems unnecessary to say it again, but if anything- things are more behind than ever.  Over a week has passed since the game, so a recap seems foolish- although it was a thrilling OT win for Wyoming Area. Instead, this will have to be a quick look at the photos from the game, and then back to Photoshop for our staff....

These fans seemed happy to have a photographer there, since they announced it on their bullhorn....  Start the pool on how long it takes to ban those things from the stands.  Anything that fun has to be somehow restricted.

It really seems like the sticks in this game should be longer.  Way too much stooping going on.

This seems kind of rare.

Wardrobe malfunction?


This turned into the game winner, and resulted in some great jubes.  Good times.

Fastest post ever?  Maybe.  Here's the stuff-

Wyoming Area at Wyoming Valley West

All of FotoFink

Enjoy!