River Hill Varsity Football

A couple of weeks ago, before my Idaho trip, I went shooting at the Varsity game at River Hill High School, in Clarksville, MD. It was an interesting experience. I didn't do as well as I would have liked. I switched to a different focus button on my camera and didn't have much luck with that. Also, they play at night, which is trickier to shoot than daytime football. Football can be tricky enough as it is - with the fast action and moving subjects - plus you need the long lens to even hope to get close to the action. So, I returned this past Friday for round two. I have two great friends, who are mentoring me - Nancy Hostetler and Lisa Hostetler - they're sister-in-laws and great photographers on their own. You can see their work on the River Hill Unofficial website under sports. They've been very generous with advice and I really appreciate it. I don't know if they want me to keep coming though - every time I go to a Varsity game, it rains. That just adds to the drama.

This second round I was a bit happier with. I got a lot more "keepers" and generally had a much better experience. Of course, as stated, it was raining, so you can see the rain in some the pictures. These are six I wanted to post to kind of give a taste of the game. River Hill played Mt. Hebron. They won 63 - 0. Lot of great action shots of River Hill (in the yellow pants). It was a hard night for Mt. Hebron, but they never gave up and played hard all night, in the rain.





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Savannah

So, I've been away in Boise, ID for the past week enjoying my first grandchild. Seems amazing that I have one of those, but since she's such a cutie, I guess I don't mind too much! Her name is Savannah and she was born on Sept. 12, 2008 at 11:57 PM. I was privileged to spend the first week of her life with her, as well as take a few photographs. In case you didn't know, it's not easy taking images of a newborn. They are not particularly cooperative, nor are they on a schedule that you can plan around. Luckily, since I was staying there, I could just grab my camera when the time presented itself.

This first image is one I love. Actually, I love all of these... Anyway, one of the challenges I found was getting her to look at me when I was trying to capture her image and here she is - staring right at me!



This next one shows the contrast in size of her feet and her daddy's hands. Babies grow so quickly, it's always a little startling to remember how small they start.



This next one was another fortunate piece of timing. When awake, she loves to look around and I was able to catch her looking at me for once!



This last one was a fleeting sleeping smile. Being a newborn, she can't smile at will, but she would a lot in her sleep, especially when she first fell asleep. Again, I was lucky to catch the fleeting grin on her sweet face.



So I don't get to see her again until Thanksgiving - I guess you'll just have to wait for more. I know I am!

September is a Busy Month

So, I didn't take any wedding bookings for the month of September because my daughter, who lives in Idaho, is expecting her first baby and I didn't know when she might deliver and needed to keep my schedule free. She's in labor as I type.

September also marks the beginning of the school year and high school football. My son made the junior varsity team at River Hill High School in Clarksville, MD. So, I've been trying my hand at shooting football, which is a little different, but still fun. These are from their second game of the season, at Oakland Mills High School, in Columbia, MD. I shot some shots tonight at the varsity game, but don't have time to edit and post them right now - I need to pack!

When I return, I'll have baby shots!

Rachel and Mark

At the end of August, I had the privilege of photographing Rachel & Mark's wedding images. They're such a sweet couple and were so delightful to work with. Sometimes, the groom is a bit camera shy and eager to escape. Mark was up for whatever we wanted to capture and just kept the most amazing smile on his face the whole time. Ahhh, new love.

Their wedding took place in the Washington DC Temple and this first image I want to share is in front using my fish-eye lens. I love the fish-eye lens. I can't shoot a ton of images with it, but it does make the few special. I love that I can stand 2 feet in front of my subject and get everything around me. It was a beautiful day.



This next image captures the happiness on Mark's face. As with many reception sites, we had limited areas that were great for photography - here we're standing in a side garden next to the building. You can make pretty much any place work, if you know where and what to look for.



This final image is a detail shot of their rings. Have you noticed that the "hot" choice for men's rings these days is tungsten? I think my last 4 or 5 grooms have all had tungsten rings. Mark and Rachel had this lovely little statue next to their wedding cake, and it was a perfect spot to isolate and highlight their rings.



They had a fabulous honeymoon in Jamaica and are currently finishing their schooling.

More on Mary and Jordan

Mary's sister, Carole Ann, got married last summer and I had the privilege of photographing her wedding, as well as Mary's this summer. Their family is a fun one, and one of the things they like to have is a "goofy" portrait. Actually, they prefer several "goofy" portraits, but I'm only sharing one here. This is the couple with all their siblings making their "goofy" faces.



As mentioned in an earlier post, Mary and Jordan appreciate photography and we went on a shooting trip to the Seminary at Forest Glen, which was a blast. This is one of the portraits of them that I really like. They're sitting on some steps that literally end at the street and are just talking to each other in a private moment.



This is another portrait I like of them. They're such a sweet and cute couple and were such fun to photograph. There are so many great shots of them, it's going to be a challenge to narrow down images for their album.



When shooting receptions, there are two types of couples. There are the ones who politely feed each other the wedding cake and there are the ones who, well, don't. Mary and Jordan fell into the second category, but they seemed to enjoy themselves.



Next post will cover some images from Rachel & Mark's wedding - I'm just finishing up the post editing on them.

Another fun wedding Favor

Jordan and Mary also had a fun wedding favor a couple of weeks ago. They had custom wrapped Almond Joy Candy Bars. The wrappers are a thick, quality paper that is custom printed with "Eternal Joy". The wrapper includes customized personal information about each of them, where they met etc. Inside is the originally wrapped bar, all sealed and ready to enjoy. All the guests enjoyed reading the descriptive comments.

Mary and Jordan

I've been quiet for the past few days - I've been busy! I had the privilege of photographing Mary and Jordan's wedding on August 22nd. The next morning I flew across the country (at 6:15 AM!) for a family reunion and didn't return until mid week. Then I had another wedding that weekend and this is the first chance I've had to post some of the fun images I captured. Also, I wanted to send a sneak peek to Mary and Jordan before I posted some of their images.

There is a popular finishing technique that I've finally mastered that I'm using in this particular post. It's very gritty and current. I love it! Mary and Jordan love photography and wanted to go on a shoot between the ceremony and reception, which is so fun. We went to the Capital Seminary in Kensington, Maryland. In a nutshell, the Seminary used to be a women's college/finishing school back in about the 40's. It's still there, but had fallen into disrepair and disuse. It is being restored and converted into homes and condos. The buildings are in different states of renovation and many are inaccessible, due to ongoing construction. These first two images are from the Seminary grounds.

This first image is in front of the Pagoda. It is the only Japanese style structure on the Seminary.



This next image is in front of a home that has not been restored yet, but will be. I believe it will be sold as a single family home in the future.



This final image is on a fire truck, and is not at the Seminary. It was taken at the Sandy Spring Fire House. The firemen were very gracious to take the truck out for us for a photo shoot. The subject matter works well with the gritty finish of this particular image.



I'm hoping the "grittiness" of the images will be visible in this blog - they're so fun. If not, you'll have to go to my website for the full effect. More to follow from Mary and Jordan's wedding day!