Green Christmas

Green Christmas (First time?  Install the plug-in, then right click and press play after you follow that link) took on a new meaning on Saturday, as not only was there no snow to speak of, but more importantly, the Rams celebrated the holiday with an end-of-season banquet.  The West Pittson Rams have quickly become a staple here at FotoFink, so we were thrilled to be invited to the affair. Although an attempt was made to provide Santa photos "on the spot", that didn't go as smoothly as originally planned....  As an alternative, the shots in this gallery are all right-clickable... so you can download, save, share and print as much as you'd like.

A few quick housekeeping items-  If you added the appropriate plug-in to see the Santa show, you can also clich here for a showing of the 40th anniversary DVD.  Copies will be available to all who order, contact Sherrie or myself for details.  Note that the DVD includes folders of original, Hi-res files for every photo in the show- but you'll have to open it up on a computer to see that.  Those alone are worth the cost of the show.

Speaking of which.... Many of you have asked me about buying a CD of the photos of your own player.  For the most part, I've never really sold the files like that- weddings have been the exception.  Since I had so many requests though, I've decided to offer them.  Here's the arrangement- pick any 40 pictures (of YOUR child or children only) and I will make up a disc for a $60 charge- that's $1.50 per photo.  They are then yours to have forever.  Note that this is not any 40 photos-  to discourage sharing,  the photos should be of players from the same family.

A few observations....

Kids are supposed to be in Santa's lap.  Its how things have been since the dawn of time. The best photos, of course, come when someone else gets in the act.

Tugging on Santa's beard probably won't result in better gifts.

Babies.....  they are like little photo machines....  I could have snapped all night.

Something about the lap-sitter outsizing Santa seems wrong.  It's probably a football thing.

Here's Chrismtas card material.

Why do you think that snowman is smiling?  Where is his hand anyway?

Enough of this- Here's why you are here-

Santa Photos

All of FotoFink

Enjoy!

Finish What Ya Started

Its no secret that this has been the busiest season in FotoFink history (FotoFink history?  C'mon....  its not like this has gone on for 40 years....).  Regardless, the backlog of photos has resulted in a lot of late nights, and a severe lack of blog posts.  Perhaps the worst part of all this though, is the constant question that comes up at every game....

"Hey FotoFink- When are you gonna finish what ya started?"

Thanks for asking.  Wednesday night/Thursday morning, 11/17-18....  The super bowl pictures are edited and uploading....  which means.... nothing really.  There are other sports to finish up still, a DVD to make, and winter seasons are right around the corner.  Still, this feels like a milestone, which is always worth celebrating a little.

Ram's football worked it way deeply into the FotoFink stable this fall, thanks to a few connections that blossomed, and some real enthusiasm for the photos. In spite of that, this will be the first blog post about any of the games- thankfully, the Super Bowl lived up to its hype and had a little bit of everything that a football game should have- so this will make a perfect summary for all of the games that were shot.

With a shot at an undefeated season, anticipation ran high for this game.  A crowd of record proportion gathered for the game, vuvuzelas in hand.  (LOVE those...)  Your Rams did not disappoint- Spurred on by the award-winning B-Team cheer squad, the boys in green managed to run, block, and score enough to seal victory in the biggest game of the season.

Speaking of boys in green and winning......  How about this?  For a life-long (read long-suffering) Eagles fan, that was fun!  Of course, it only helps a little to be playing well in November. but surely the rest of the NFC east is looking for whatever help they can find....

This is going to stay brief, as in addition to the workload noted, there was some extra drama in the cozy mountain retreat tonight.  While playing the part of Tituba (google it yourself), Mrs FotoFink fell to her knees, incurred some pain, and earned a trip to the ER and a few days in an immobilizer.....  In the words of Tommy Boy- "I've seen it a hundred times..."

Onto the show-

Super Bowl Photos

FotoFink, including lots of football and cheer photos from the whole season

Enjoy!

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!