Most of the time this past Fall, I’ve been shooting High School sporting events for Maxpreps.com. I think I’ve captured some great volleyball photos and some average football shots. Since I began using a DLSR to primarily shoot my daughter playing volleyball, I think I have that sport pretty well covered.
Now a days, I will try and push to get that just-right shot and what is my holy grail, a player diving and digging a ball via a pancake (flat hand between the floor and the ball). I’ve been close to getting that shot. I’ve either captured it, but was crazy blurry, or I have a clean shot, but the player missed the ball. So, I keep trying.
I will say I thought the income from posting almost 30 game galleries to Maxpreps would be significantly more than I’ve actually received. I found the players/parents tend to simply screen shot the photo from the Maxpreps site and use that, despite the Maxpreps watermark (as lame as it is). More to come about this.

One thing shooting for Maxpreps has done is provide access to parents and players at games where I talk about my photography and how I’m always looking for additional ways try different things, which in turn has prompted them to ask about senior portraits. I think at some point these types of relationships will lead to additional portrait opportunities and if that’s the case, then I need to work how to do that.
At work, an organization asked me to take photos at their upcoming Holiday Party (you have to call it that in the military so you don’t offend anyone by calling it a Christmas Party) and asked how much it would cost. Knowing I need to learn about portraits and lighting, I agreed to provide candid shots of the event for free as long as I can set up to take formal portraits, to which, they agreed.
So I purchased my first set of moonlights, which are the new Interfit EXD400 Softbox/Umbrella Kit I purchased from B&H Photo (wife not happy). They are coming in this weekend and so I’ve been reading up on lighting setup and styles. I can’t wait to play around with different lighting styles and techniques, of which I will use my daughter as a model. Then next week, I’m going to take portraits of a work mate’s family while his son is back in town after just completing his Army basic training. Not sure if I’ll use the lights or not, but looking forward to that.

So, what is the primary purpose of this entry? Not really sure, except I think each opportunity you have to shoot can lead to additional opportunities. Maxpreps gives me access to parents where I normally wouldn’t have that access. Work colleagues know my work as well which lead to additional opportunities.