Sports Photography Products Available

Sports photography is a passion for me!

There is nothing that quite beats the challenge of capturing the action on the field with my camera. As play after play unwinds, the story of the game is told. My job as a sports photographer is to capture and tell this unique story through photographs.

A single photograph, or even a photo album of photographs is one traditional way to tell the story and remember a game.

But today there are better and different ways to recapture a special moment on the field or re-live a game.

One popular way to capture a game or a complete season is to create a photo book, which includes photographs compiled nicely in a photo book. There are many alternatives to this method including soft-covers and hard-covers, one photo per page or several photos per page, and much more. You can see a sample of photo book here.

A custom photo collage of a play or a game is another option that can highlight a great play on the field or a victory. I create these custom collages in Photoshop by including several different photographs and soften their edges to help them blend together in an attractive way. You can see one sample here and some more here.

Photo collages can come in all sizes, shapes, and varieties. I like to include several different options.

The 4-Photo Collage is a simple, straightforward design. It highlights four equally-sized photographs in the four quadrants of the collage and highlights the player name and number in the middle.

The 3×1 Photo Collage is the perfect way to capture great plays or a hitting sequence like a triple. The one side of the collage features a vertical photo while the other side features three smaller photos. A triple could be documented in this way: the player hitting the ball on the vertical side with each of the three smaller photos featuring the player running around the bases. A defensive play could be displayed in a similar fashion on one of these custom collages.

The 3-Photo Collage is a nicely laid out presentation including one large photo in the middle and two supporting photographs overlaid to create a more artistic display. This can also highlight a great defensive or offensive play, or any combination of desired photos.

One of my favorite options is what I call the Teamsake Collage. The idea behind this collage is to include several teammates on the collage to remember a special season. Players bond together during a season and this collage provides a way to remember your teammates in a great way for many years to come. This layout includes 9 equally-sized photographs so the starting lineup of the team can be included, or just a variety of favorite teammates can be featured. It’s all up to you!

Collages are just one one example of the great options available today. Photo buttons, trading cards, calendars, greeting cards, mouse pads, magnets, and Stick Pix, which are like FatHeads that stick to the wall, are also available from any photograph in my galleries. You can view some of the options here. These options make perfect gifts for Christmas, birthdays, and graduation!

Over the years of creating my photography website, I tried to find better ways to make these products available for purchase. I currently  offer many of them directly in the photo galleries when you click on and enlarge a photograph. Prints, buttons, magnets, and trading cards are easily selected in this way. I will be including the other options soon, but some are not so easily available in this manner. For example, the photo colleges need to include more than one photo obviously. Finding an easy to follow method to choose and include the exact photos presents a dilemma. I am experimenting now with some new ideas and hope to have this available as soon as possible. In the meantime, if you want to purchase a collage, just email me and I will get it together.

Photographs make special and unique gifts. There are a variety of ways to take a photograph and turn it into a creative keepsake. I feel my job is to “capture the moment” and make a memory for a lifetime. These sports photography products help to deliver this goal!

Photography Books

Have you read any good photography books lately?

Scott Kelby’s 3-book series on Digital Photography is definitely worth a read. I gleaned many photo tips and tricks from these books and I refer back to them quite often. They are a valuable resource. I also like Lennie Rue, III’s books on wildlife photography. He not only talks about photo techniques, but also how to find the animals and what to look for to help find them. His books are so informative that I keep them close at hand and take them on extended photo trips so I can consult them. John Shaw’s books are also very good. They are instructive and allow the reader to see what this photographer sees even before he clicks the shutter. Technical advice is also in great abundance with any of his books.

So, what good photo books have you read lately? Any worth recommending?

More Rain but Some Constructive Photo Learning Nevertheless

It is raining in the Poconos once again. Rain, rain, go away!

But instead of letting it get me down this time I started reading a good photo book, made a plan to backup all my photographs, and started fixing a desktop computer to connect to my network.

The book is Scott Kelby’s, “The Digital Photography Book, Volume 3” and I cannot say enough about this book. Let me, however, say this, “I already ordered Volumes 1 & 2 and I’ve only had Volume 3 for one day.” Buy this book if you want to get some creative ideas for your photography. It is well worth the price and time to read this incredible book.

My backup plan started with a few paragraphs of Scott’s book, which referred me to an article on his blog. The backup scheme he uses is solid and I decided to adapt slightly a few of his ideas and use them for my backup procedure. I will follow his advice of making sure I have two copies of each photograph before reformatting a flash card, In my case I will use my laptop for one copy and a portable hard drive for the second copy. The OWC portable drives caught my eye and I plan on purchasing one soon and another one in the near future. They are smaller than the external drives I have been using up to now. I also plan on breaking down and buying a Drobo. I first heard about this little robot on “This Week in Photography.” The redundant backup scheme of this little guy far exceeds the RAID option. I will have to save a few pennies first, but since I recently acquired the 24-70mm zoom lens, I figure it is okay to spend a little dough to protect my photographs.

The desktop computer is one that I haven’t used in a while, but I want to utilize a good laser printer that I acquired and connecting this desktop to my network should allow me to do just that. I have to work around one minor monitor issue, but after that I should be up and running.

It is raining, but I’m still thinking a lot about photography nevertheless!