Making progress

Whew! What a crazy six weeks or so!

Between league shoots, processing, weddings, family portraits, etc ... and trying to carve out a personal life it's been a long time between posts. I've not forgotten about Examiner.com, but something had to give as spring turned to summer.

That said, I'm finally finding my footing (and am encouraged by the number of people calling to book their senior portraits) and wanted to touch base clean up a few things.

First of all, I'm aware that Little League tournaments are gearing up and I plan on getting to as many games as my schedule allows.

Secondly, I think I've caught up on all uploads and updates on the spring sports page, but if you think there's some photos that have been missed, please let me know.

Against my best wishes, I've opted for uploading unedited photos to get my shots up as soon as possible, but I'm going to press the point that you can crop any photo you like to your wishes. Several folks have done this, but I want to make it clear that it's easy to improve on the shots I'm posting and the quality is not compromised when you crop the photos.

I'll be creating a new summer sports photo list and will provide links to whatever Little League, Legion, Voltage, etc ... games I attend there as time goes along.

In closing, thanks to you all for your business, for checking out my blog and for your patience with the delays in uploads. We are a very busy work in progress and if I had my druthers I'd blog more, but I have to balance the time spent writing with the duties that are paying the bills.

Take care!

Shawn

Upload update

I've decided - based on the volume of emails I'm getting asking about photos and when they will be posted - to do something I don't normally do - post unedited galleries.

It's not the best way to view the photos and there will be plenty of duds in each gallery, but the alternative is another couple of weeks of waiting and this seems the better of two disappointing options (If you are wondering why I'm struggling to keep up with editing galleries and getting to games it's because I have the happy circumstance of being extremely busy with league photography projects that must take precedent.).

At any rate, I should have the backlog cleared in a few days and will continue to update the spring sports photo list as applicable.

Just remember as you look at the photos that they can be cropped in on just the action very easily before you purchase or I can do it for you.

Thanks for your patience and understanding!

Shawn

Touching base

I often bemoan the lack of hours in a day, or more recently the number of days in a week.

Yet I'm truly blessed to be as busy as I am and I've put aside my typical blogging and Facebooking habit over the past week to concentrate on taking photos for my highly-valued leagues and processing these photos.

However, as the clock approaches midnight I'm going to give a quick update before putting the wraps on another long, but personally and professionally satisfying day.

For those looking for photos from games: I haven't been able to photograph any high school games this week, and next week doesn't look much better, I'm afraid.

My schedule clears up a bit the following week and will try to get to some of those teams whose parents/players have contacted me over the last seven days. It's never a bad idea to email me schedules and requests. My email is shawn@coldhollowphoto.com.

These are the games that have been photographed, but not edited or posted (I've decided that posting unedited galleries is just not my style and I'd rather keep you waiting a little bit for the trade-off of posting more visually appealing galleries - I appreciate your indulgence and if you would like, I'd be happy to email you when a specific gallery is posted. Just email me to ask for that service.)

Here's the list:

May 4: Track and Field at BFA-St. Albans

May 5: Enosburg at Winooski baseball

May 5: FFW Little League - Indians vs. Padres Farm Baseball

May 8: Peoples at BFA-Fairfax softball

May 8: FFW Little League - Red Sox vs. Braves Minor Baseball

May 15: Miilton Little League - Red Sox vs. A's Major Baseball

Finally, I am also doing some PR work for the Vermont Voltage soccer team and they won their first game of the season on Saturday night. Here's a brief story on that game.

The Voltage have a very promising team this season and could be primed for an impressive run in the Premier Development League. They open their home portion of their season next Saturday night. If you email me, I can get you free admission to that game - if you haven't seen the team play, it's a very family-friendly event and the soccer is pretty impressive - most of the players are current or former Division I college players and several have Vermont roots.

Thanks again for visiting my blog - the hits this week amazed me when I checked them out - especially when you consider I've been pretty quiet this week.

Finally, thanks to all of the Milton Little League players, parents and coaches for making this week of league photos so much fun! I appreciate you allowing me to take your photos!

And for my friends in the FFW Little League, I look forwarding to our league shoot next Sunday - if you have any questions or concerns leading up to that event, please let me know.

All the best --- Shawn Corrow

Little League action photo upload update

UPDATED - May 18, 2010

I will begin taking photos of Milton Little League games as well and will post the links to the photos here.

I'd encourage my Miton Little League parents to please read the following post to find out more about my Little League photos. (On an unrelated note, thanks so much for being such a great league to work with - I had a blast taking your posed team and invididual photos!)

The original post on this blog follows below ...

I have finally finished editing the action photos taken on Opening Day and will begin to upload them tomorrow (Friday, May 7).

I photographed seven games on Opening Day and photographed two more on Thursday, May 6.

To see the list of the photos we have taken so far, click on this link.

A couple of things to bear in mind as you look at the photos ...

I tried to get photos of as many kids in as flattering (at times downright cute) a way as possible. That said, these are small children and if for any reason you would not like the photo on my website, please tell what the offending image(s) is/are and they will taken down with no questions asked. My goal with taking these photos is to add something of value to my role as league photographer and I want this to be a positive contribution. If something I do does not meet that criteria, please let me know and I'll adjust.

Also, I have not had the chance to photograph each team. I hope to do so in the near future. If for some reason I do take photos of your team and I don't take photos of your child and you want me to return to try again, please send me an email shawn@coldhollowphoto.com and we can make arrangement to hopefully make that hapen.

Finally, this Saturday, May 8, we will be doing team and individual photos at Fletcher Elementary. The weather may not cooperate, but I will be bringing studio lights and a backdrop so we can do the photos inside, if the rain begins to fall. My first preference is to take as many photos outside as possible, but if we are forced to take photos inside, they will be done very professionally.

My wife Sandra - who does most of the processing - and I are very thankful for the opportunity we have been given to work with the FFW Little League and we promise we will do all we can to make the experience enjoyable for the kids, quick for the coaches and families and to deliver you all photos of your children you will be proud to share.

If we fail in this mission in any way - before, during or after the league photo session - please contact us and we will do out best to resolve any problems and/or take steps to improve the experience in the future.

Thanks for taking the time to visit my blog.

Shawn Corrow

Caution - Delays ahead

I'm turning the corner from simply busy to insanely overscheduled for the next few days - don't get me wrong, LOVE being this busy - but it means some things are going to slip more than normal.

The main thing to pay the price for my busy schedule may be photo uploading from games.

I shot the BFA-Fairfax-Richford softball and baseball games on Friday and Saturday I'm planning on photographing over a dozen Little League games.

On average, it takes a couple hours to edit each game and those are hours that I will not have (because I'll be photographing games, seniors, teams and leagues galore) in the days to come.

I have two choices - neither of which appeal to me.

1. Upload the photos without editing them.

2. Waiting until late next week to upload photos.

The downside of uploading without editing is that the photos don't present as well. They can be cropped by anyone who wants to buy them to make them look great, but most people don't buy my photos, they want to look. And looking at unedited photos isn't as fun as looked at the finished product.

The downside of waiting is ... well, uh ... the wait.

Right now, I'm inclined to upload unedited photos and hope people understand that they click on a larger view of the photo to see it better and they can crop it to their liking if they choose to order.

As always, if you want to see if a game has been uploaded yet, just click on this link and I'll indicate if it has not been edited.

Happy weekend!