Change is gonna come ... unfortunately

Hi folks,

If you were hoping this post would have good news, think again. But it's not all bad, I guess.

First, the nut-graph: We will soon raise our price on 99-cent downloads to $1.99.

Here's why: The company that hosts our website - smug mug - has decided to raise the cost it charges us for downloads by 50 cents. Wish it weren't true and wish we could absorb the fee increase, but as you can imagine our profit on a 99-cent download isn't a lot.

When will this happen: Short answer - any second now. Long answer: We were told the price change was to begin March 1. It didn't happen. But I'm told it will happen. Soon. And when it does, our prices will jump as soon as we can make the changes to the galleries.

So, if you want to lock in those 99-cent rates, I'd suggest you act soon.

(Remember, not all galleries have 99-cent downloads, especially galleries more than a two years old. If you want to know if a gallery qualifies, email me the name of the team and I can tell you quickly.)

Of course, another complicating factor is that many of our galleries are not listed because of our new website design. There are over 1,000 galleries we need to re-catagorize and it's taking forever to do that. It will get done at some point, but not soon.

However, all is not lost. We have a new search feature at the top of the website that works like a dream to find galleries. Simply type in the name of the team you are lookinf for and the list of the galleries with that team name in the title will appear.

For instance, say you want to find all BFA-St. Albans girls hockey photos from 2012. Type in BFA-St. Albans 2012 and you will find these, and probably some other BFA games, but you'll find your galleries soon enough.

A couple of hints on searching - we always use the proper school name in our gallery titles and not the mascot, i.e. BFA-St. Albans, BFA-Fairfax, not Comets, Bullets, Rockets, etc ... Also, we always put the year in title, so searches for Richford 2012 should yield great results. Sometimes we put the sport in the title - we will do so for all galleries moving forward, but it's possible a search for Enosburg girls soccer 2012 might not yield results, but Enosburg 2012 will - you will just have to search for the girls soccer galleries.

Make sense? If you have any questions, email shawn@coldhollowphoto.com

Thanks for visiting the blog!

Shawn

Growing pains

Greetings from the great state of Alaska - I am here for a few days on vacation and will be back Tuesday.

Some of you might have noticed we have changed the look of our website - www.coldhollowphoto.com - and while we are hopeful in the long term that it will be a change for the better, at present this process is not going as well as expected and the site is, for all intents and purposes, unusable.

Moreover, this is not likely to change until st least Wednesday.

Rest assured, all of the photos we have taken over the years are still going to be accessible in the future, but for right now they are not.

I apologize for the situation, but it's out of my control until I return.

If you would like to be notified when the site is functional again, please email me - shawn@coldhollowphoto.com and I'll shoot you an email to let you know when this occurs.

Thanks for your patience with this process, but we are hopeful that these growing pains will eventually lead us to a website that is better organized and easier to use in the future.

Thanks!

Can I buy your love (or at least your like)?

From now through the end of this month - which has an extra day this year - I'm running a shameless and brazen marketing campaign aimed at getting likes on the Cold Hollow Photography Facebook page.

As the title to this blog infers, I'm trying to bribe you to like the site with a free sports image from my website.

Here's the deal: Click the like button on our Facebok page and I'll give you any sports image off our website.

It's that simple. To get your free image - which will be emailed to you - email me: shawn@coldhollowphoto.com and say you liked our page and I'll get you your favorite sports image from my website.

Division III soccer title game notes

In addition to fine coverage, as usual by the Freeps in their previews of the Division III boys and girls soccer state title games on Saturday, here's some notes I've compiled.

Boys

No. 8 Peoples (10-5-2) vs. No.7 Northfield (10-5-2), 10 a.m. at Randolph H.S.

Both teams were seeded low thanks to playing in the tough Captial Division against larger schools.

Both teams were 1-2-1 in last four regular season games.

They played to 0-0 tie on Oct. 10.

Peoples is 2-4 in D-III title games. Northfield is 6-8-2.

Peoples lost to Northfield eight straight times in the playoffs before beating the Marauders 2-1 in the 2000 title game. Since then, Peoples has won the last two playoff meetings, including a 2-1 win in the quarterfinals last year.

Peoples last title was in 2002 - a 3-0 win over Stowe. The Wolves have lost in the finals three times since then - 03, 07 and 08.

Northfield's last title was in 2004, a 3-2 win over South Royalton.

Peoples outscored opponents 27-12 in the regular season; Northfield outscored opponents 32-20.

Girls

No. 2 Oxbow (16-1) vs. No. 1 Peoples (16-1) at Randolph H.S., 1 p.m.

Peoples is 3-2 in state finals, winning in 06, 08 and 09. This is Oxbow's second title game; it lost in 2007.

Oxbow defeated Peoples in the quarters last year, 1-0. Oxbow is 2-1 all-time in the playoffs against PA.

Oxbow outscored opponents 55-9 in the regular season; PA outscored opponents 56-11. Both team's lone loss was a 1-0 defeat. Peoples has scored 18 goals in three playoff games and Oxbow has scored 16.

I will be photographing and writing about both games, as well as tweeting live updates, for the Burlington Free Press and posting photos at ColdHollowPhoto.com late Saturday night.

MVU-South Burlington game notes

A few notes on the MVU-SBHS Division I boys soccer semis I'll be covering for the Free Press today.

MVU is No. 1 seed with 14-1-1 record and a 33-9 goal differential. T-Birds lone loss to SBHS 2-0 on Oct. 6.

MVU advanced to semis with 3-0 win over Lyndon and 1-1 (5-4 PKs) win over Essex.

MVU is defending Division II champs and reached finals in D-2 two straight years.

This is MVU's first Division I semifinal since 1993, a 1-0 loss to CVU as the No. 1 seed. MVU's last playoff win in D-I before this year? Also back in 1993.

MVU's last D-I final was in 1980 (a 2-0 loss to BFA) and it's last D-I title was in 1979.

This is only the second time MVU and South Burlington have played in the soccer playoffs and first since 1986 when MVU won 1-0.

MVU is 7-4 in D-I semis and 4-3 in D-I title games, with almost all of the success in the 1970s.

South Burlington is No. 4 seed with 11-4-1 record and 39-16 goal differential. Advanced to the semis with 1-0 win over BFA and 3-1 win over Harwood.

This is sixth trip to semis in seven years for SBHS and the Rebels are bidding for their fifth title game appearance since 2005. The Rebels are 0-4 in the title game since 2005.

SBHS has a 10-3 all-time record in the semis and a 3-6-1 mark in the finals. SBHS's last title was in 1991, a 2-1 win over Essex. The Rebels lost 2-0 in the finals to Essex in 2010.

Game time is 3 p.m. in Swanton.

I'll be at the game - follow me @scorrow for updates and check out my photos from the game later tonight at www.coldhollowphoto.com