by Shelly | Sep 7, 2010 | event, sports |
Last week we officially marked the END of “NOT Football Season.”
With the beginning of the school year, schedules become jam-packed and action-filled but the best thing is that it is finally time for football. As much as I have learned to enjoy the game, it’s the overall experience that really revs my engines. As a certified “Band Geek,” for years I felt like the only reason for a football game was to provide an opening and closing act for halftime.
Then I realized what I had been missing for so long.
NOW . . . I love it all: Pickup trucks with antenna flags. Drum cadences and marching music. Shimmery pompoms and pretty girls jumping up and down. Waving at old friends in the stands. Inflatable helmets. Cool breezes, although we don’t usually feel them in this part of the country until several weeks into the season. The sound of football pads and helmets crashing into each other. Hummingbird-sized moths and crickets dive-bombing the fans. Teenage boys who have just discovered face paint. Band kids who have written their own cheers for different instrument sections. “Too BAH . . . Tooo BAH!” . . . Scrumptious sunsets. The smell of sweaty kids intermingled with freshly popped corn.
And one of the best feelings of all . . . TOUCHDOWN! MUSTANGS SCORE!
One of my favorite images from 2009. I sure hope to capture more of these this season.
One of my favorite parts of football, naturally, is photographing the games. I feel incredibly privileged to be allowed on the sidelines at our local high school games, and I truly believe that each of the kids on the field should have access to quality photos of themselves in their shining moments. This means that in addition to the athletes, I need to capture images of the student trainers, the band, the cheerleaders and mascots, the drill team, the fans in the stands. Hopefully they will be sharing these images with their own kids 15 to 30 years from now.
Not too long ago, the Athletic Booster club at our high school asked me to help with the program that they sell each week at the football games. Now, these programs are not your standard stadium leaflets with just the names, numbers and positions of each player. Our boosters sell ads — LOTS of ads — to local businesses and to parents who buy half and full page spaces honoring their kids. The printed programs are spiral bound and bigger than most high-fashion magazines that you find on he newsstands today.
Maybe I’m a little bit crazy for what I did, but since the team had to print a new cover each week any way, I suggested that they change it up a bit with new action photos on the front rather than the same basic design week after week. They LOVED the idea and while I bit off a pretty hefty project, it pushed me to develop my graphic art layout skills. Remember . . . I am a PHOTOGRAPHER, and not a graphic artist. Still, I know what works.
We started creating a new cover for every game and also stepped up the print quality. In the center of every program a couple of other very talented photographers and I provide bold and shiny color-plate pages with action photos from the previous week’s game. I usually provide two pages of football action and two more pages featuring the band, cheerleaders, drill team and fans. Quite a few parents have told me how much they love these programs, and because they never know if their students will appear inside, they have a little added incentive to purchase a new book at each game. This raises a nice tidy sum of money for the Athletic Booster Club. Once a year we dedicate a program cover to the band as well, acknowledging the grit and determination of approximately 300 more students who take to the field as if going to battle. I was in MY high school band (Go Midland Lee Rebels) and my sons were all in band too. I KNOW how hard these kids work. Thankfully our football coach and the board of our athletic boosters know how hard they work as well. They have been totally supportive of the band issue, which I think is REALLY cool.
In 2008, the first year I was involved, our program chair entered one of our books into a competition for the National High School Sports Publication Awards and we won the Gold Medal for schools over a particular size with parent involvement. We chose not to enter in 2009, opting instead to let another school somewhere else enjoy the prestige and excitement that we enjoyed so much. I’m proud to have contributed to that award but the real thrill I get every week is looking up into the stands and seeing parents and students studying the new programs, looking for photos, and showing them off to each other throughout the evening.
Here’s the program cover for our pre-district season opener this year . . . followed by the inside “action” pages.
Imagine my surprise this year when a couple of photographers from other parts of the country contacted me, asking for tips on creating collages and layouts for their own local schools. WOW! I still feel like a bit of a newcomer in this area,. Still, because I spent so many hours in the School of Hard Knocks working on these projects, I believe I have an obligation to help others with their work . . . to the extent of my capabilities. The color pages on the inside are always a little different each week, but here are the ones that we included in the first program of the season in 2010.
Each week as new programs come out, our new covers and action pages will appear in the Sports section of my web site. It’s kind of fun to look back at programs from the last couple of years and wonder what path we’ll take in the days ahead.
Okay . . . I’m having issues making my links work on the blog page, but if you’ll go to THIS LINK: Cut and paste it if you have to . . .
http://www.spccreative.com/Sports/Program-Covers-Collages
You should be able to see all published covers and action pages from the last two years as well as new pages as they are released.
Happy Football Season Everyone. Enjoy FALL!
by Shelly | Jul 21, 2010 | senior portraits |
WHOOSH!
Everyone expects their senior year in high school to fly by in record time, but come graduation, they all realize that it went even faster than they ever expected. With graduation festivities behind her, Kristyn, a 2010 graduate of Cinco Ranch High School realized that she she still needed a good set of portraits before heading off to college, so she gave me a call.
I’m so glad she did too.
We met at a park early one morning with skies threatening rain and a humidity level that threatened every trick known to moisture. Fogged lenses, frizzy hair, and just downright steamy conditions are the norm for Houston mornings, and this day was only a little more extreme than the rest. We were able to get a few outdoor images in the slow drizzle before quickly winding up our session under the shelter of a covered picnic area and an underground walkway.
I had recently picked up a colorful umbrella to use as a prop — so I was delighted to pull it out for a while.
With all those bright hues and Kristyn’s sunny outlook, we managed to pretty-well banish any rainy day blues.
Nice Day for Ducks — Seriously
Note to self: Always carry duck food for park sessions. You never know when you might need it.
This funny little guy followed us around pecking at our feet the whole time we were shooting, but every time we tried to build a good picture around him (or her), he just ran off quacking. The quacks sounded more like laughs if you ask me, and it was like he was playing a game with us. The punky topknot on his head made us both laugh right back at him too.
Rainy-Day shoots are fun. They create unique opportunities but it’s oh so tricky to deliberately schedule them.
Still, I do look forward to doing more in the very near future, especially with clients as easygoing and pleasant as Kristyn was.
by Shelly | Jul 19, 2010 | wedding, women |
The thing I find difficult about bridal portraits is that I have to wait until AFTER the wedding to share them. But the wait for these is over. Jennifer and Kyle tied the knot Saturday night at Heaven on Earth, a 19th century mansion in Missouri City.
We met for our portrait session at the wedding venue on a hot steamy Houston Summer afternoon. Hot-steamy-Houston-Summer — now that is a bunch of redundant words all in one sentence, don’t you think?
Not only did Jennifer and her mother attend the session, but we had the pleasure of shooting with her sister and maid of honor, another bridesmaid and the future Mother in Law. I sort of wish that I had brought snacks to make a party out of the event, because when you get that many girlie-girls in one room at the same time, it is bound to turn into a fun time — and it DID!
Jennifer is a quiet doe-eyed blonde, and it would be hard NOT to fall in love with her sweet spirit. I know I did when I first met her a couple of years ago. Special Kudos to Jennifer. It’s because of her and her community activities that I have had the opportunity to work with a number of organizations and individuals in Fort Bend County.
And here she is . . . now that she is a beautiful married woman — and Kyle is one lucky man.
by Shelly | Jul 9, 2010 | fashion, wedding, women |
Long before I ever met Anikka, I knew I liked her bold and fun-loving spirit. Then after I learned that she wraps up a rough day by putting on her wedding dress to sit on the sofa and drink a beer, I decided she would make a great candidate for a Trash the Dress Session. And was I ever right! She jumped at the idea and even invited her good friend Kisha to join us. I’m so glad she did too. The more the merrier . . . We had tons of fun, laughing and playing all morning and we thoroughly enjoyed providing a little free entertainment for passers by who loved seeing such well-dressed ladies in very casual locations.
The term “Trash the Dress” is a bit of a misnomer. While some women are willing to stain, shred, or even burn their dresses, most just want to put them on again, play, and get some non-traditional images of themselves having a good time in their dream dresses. After all, there is a dry cleaner on nearly every corner of our city and most of these dresses even come out looking as good as new after a bathtub hand wash or a gentle cycle in the washing machine.
We met early on a Saturday morning and headed down to a pretty little bridge for the first part of our session.
It takes strength and fortitude to spend too much time in a low creek bed during a Houston summer day. We’re renown in this part of the world for our heat and humidity anyway, and by climbing down the banks where no breezes can reach we had to remind ourselves that some people pay good money to sit in saunas. Before long we decided that we were healthy and well-steamed, so we moved along to a nearby open field. Trash the dress is all about fantasy though, so let’s call it a meadow instead. That just sounds better.
Since we were photographing in a newly developed area, we couldn’t resist a chance to explore a nearby home that was under construction. The light in there was phenomenal, but because the external walls had already been put up, we again had no breeze at all. Our respect for construction workers jumped tenfold.
With only a few construction images, we walked out of the house as the construction crews arrived.
They laughed. We left — and headed for the lake.
As I mentioned before, some women embrace the idea of actually “trashing” their dresses. While I never expect this of my brides, I will not turn down the opportunity either. Kisha had brought a can of hot pink spray paint to end our session. I asked her three times if she was sure she wanted to do this, and each time her enthusiasm grew. Anikka changed clothes so that her own dress would still be suitable for her next hard day’s night and then the spraying ensued.
We have tentative plans for Part II with these ladies and their phenomenal dresses before the end of the summer. If it all pans out, you won’t want to miss the results.
