I have just put up the pictures for the LAX season thus far.  Few notes:

• This was my first time shooting LAX, so there was a learning curve in taking photos.  So, yes… some of the pictures aren’t great but I think I’m get little better now that I can anticipate play action better.  Please don’t infer that I now know any of the rules.
• I would suggest you read the other blog comments where I explain what I do.  Bottom line:  I follow the ball.  I have other pictures here and there but you will find I follow the action.
• Even though some of the pictures are not great, I have displayed more than I normally would for two reasons 1) would I want to see the pictures of my kid if it were me?  2) I’m well aware if your kid didn’t have the ball a lot there may not be a lot of pictures.

Hope you like!

A new season of Hoboken Rec started last weekend.  Girls were excited though I think we were all a little disappointed the boys traveling teams couldn’t play.  As always I have tried to capture as much of the game as I could.  As both teams were from Hoboken and we know kids on both teams; I tried to take as many pictures of all the kids.

Few things to note:  1) I try to position myself at the goal our team is shooting at, so our team is coming toward me.  The opposing team however is mostly looking the other way.  2) I mostly follow the ball trying to catch the kids making plays.  Kids away from the ball; I may not have as many shots.  3) I’m showing a lot more photos than I normally would because I am trying to get everyone’s kids in (hopefully).  There’s a lot of photos that only parents could love…

I’m password protecting.  Contact me if you haven’t received.

Lastly, please let me know if you want me to take your child’s photo down from the website if you have an issue.  

Video is still really pretty new to me.  On this site you will find three types of videos.  The first is videos that I’ve made based on the still photographs.  This I am a complete rookie.  I did my first one for Fall 2016 soccer.  Personally I thought it came out ok, but I really still am learning.  The second type of video is GoPro.  Here I’m still learning what I can do and what works.  One thing I’ve found however: all the kids like taking this camera and making their own videos, which I’m happy to also put on the website.  How good will these videos be?  It’s a crap shoot, but I’m sure they will be important to whoever made it or whoever is in the videos.  Lastly, I’ve started doing more video with my SLR.  Here I’m admittedly pretty terrible.  Most of this video that I have put on here, though poor, I think at least shows the energy and the spirit of the event/place.  Again even though the video is not great, I thought people might like to see it.

For my girls’ communion I am putting on a totally blurry video that you can’t see a thing (from the church).  First…  yes… I am embarrassed that I didn’t realize it wasn’t in focus.  My only defense is: sometimes I can’t really tell and haven’t used video enough to be proficient.  So, why in the world would I embarrass myself with a video you can’t see anything?  For anyone who goes to St. Francis  -  if you listen to it - you will realize it’s Father Michael who is leading the song.  For those not in the know, Father Michael and his sisters Dora and Shirley passed away in a car accident only a few weeks later.  One of Father Michael’s passions was singing his favorite songs.  Whether it was Christmas where you had to practice ALL the carols before mass even started or even that Italian Lent song (sono stati, gesu mio – I don’t even know the name of it) that he made us practice over and over again before the mass started just so we had it right during the mass.  This song in the video he made the kids practice and he made sure there was full participation.  I thought it captured his spirit.  Apologies again for the poor video.

I tend to crop my pictures to what I think looks best, so that the aspect ratio for the most part will always be different.  As such; to keep the print represented as I’ve shown it, the photo may need to be specifically re-cropped to meet the specifications of what the buyer will want.  Zenfolio allows the customer to be able to re-crop some of the pictures.  If there are specific problems with certain print sizes, please let me know and I can assist.

Lastly, all printing has to be approved by me.  So, if you put an order in I will get notified.  If for some reason I'm traveling, please be patient and I will get to it as soon as I can.

Kids.  I’m really sensitive to parents that do not wish to have their kids pictures posted on the internet.  To date I’ve been going around and asking parents if it’s ok that I post my pictures.  So far, overwhelmingly parents have said that it’s fine to show the pictures of their kids.  In actuality, I take too many pictures and I never completely know who is who.  I think my line of demarcation will be that I will only post pictures of family and friends.  In the instance for a specific event like sports or school event I will password protect any pictures I will take.

THIS IS IMPORTANT: PLEASE LET ME KNOW IMMEDIATELY IF YOU WANT ME TO TAKE PICTURES OF YOUR CHILDREN DOWN!   [email protected]

Charging for prints.  To be honest, I personally had a little trouble coming to terms with this one.  This past Christmas I sent out almost 200 prints.  If my wife really knew how much it costs to send out cute little packages of prints at Christmas, let’s just say Santa’s workshop may not have been working as hard.  As easy as this website makes printing photos, there is still a cost involved.  The decision for mark up was just too easy.  If you feel better thinking about me scanning through each photo, editing, proofing etc.  I hope that helps.  Otherwise quite simply, it will offset my costs for this expensive hobby.  So, in terms of buying or not buying pictures/prints, my old teacher Al Brown used to tell a joke:

Patient – “Doctor, Doctor… it hurts when I go like this.”  My teacher would hold out his elbow with his arm perpendicular to the floor.

Doctor –  Mimics the same motion.  “Then, don’t go like this.”