Carson Boy’s Basketball… playoff…

The Carson High Boy’s Varsity season came to an end tonight at the hand of Damonte Ranch at Wooster… in the early going Carson built a bit of a lead but the pesky point guard of Damonte Ranch, who’s a really great player, kept chipping away and Damonte pulled away for the win.  Here are two photos from tonights game.  Check out all the action from the season here on the site… Carson High Basketball

Carson Basketball tonight…

Senior Night, Winterfest, Last home game for the regular season… there was a lot going on at Carson High tonight… and some Basketball too!  All four teams won tonight, some good basketball. Here are a few photos from the night… More on the site, click to the right on Carson High Athletics….

Just a quick note about this gal… this isn’t the greatest photo of her in the world but I think it captures the emotion of the night for many…  This gal is the manager/trainer of the Boy’s Varsity Team… as well, she was the manager of the Varsity Football Team… where they went, she was there, when they needed something, she was there… she will be very much missed, she gave tirelessly to these teams, I’m going to miss seeing her out there helping so much… I hope these young fellas give her a huge thank you for her efforts, she deserves it!

Carson/Douglas Basketball tonight…

Who would have thought that the Girl’s JV Basketball game would have been such a thriller!!  Double OT… Douglas squeaked it out by a point in the end…

The other three games, while they had their drama (like Matt Thomas dunking the ball and getting a technical called… for I’m assuming his “celebratory” ways after…)… but the scores were not so close for the rest of the games… Douglas winning the JV games, Carson winning the Girl’s Varsity and Douglas winning the Boy’s Varsity… here are some shots from the night… slow night for shots… I’ve built a pretty big gallery so I’m looking now for stuff that’s different and new…

How about these?

What do you do when you live in one place but work in the other… you write Douglas on one cheek VS on your forehead and Carson on the other!  Very clever fellas!

Block that shot!

Tip off of the Boy’s Varsity game… might possibly be the last meeting of these senior boys… not sure they’ll see each other in the playoffs….

Douglas Basketball tonight…

The Douglas Boy’s Varsity faced a tough Damonte Ranch team tonight… I’ve seen Damonte now twice and Douglas a few times… Damonte made it a game, they came to play… Douglas pulled it out in the end by a wider margin that it was with just two minutes to go but it was an exciting game… the crowd was into the game, it was a great atmosphere… take a look at the last image… the rivalry is coming next week!!!  These shirts made me laugh.

I also am playing with some wide angle shots… I’m hoping to capture some thing cool at the Carson/Douglas game next week… I need your help… so whichever side you’re on, get out there and pack those stands!!!  See you out there.

Sorry to run another Austin photo (two actually…)… he’s just so exciting to photograph… hopefully he’s seeing these too!

Tahoe Invitational Hockey Tournament…

Whew!  What a long, hard & cold weekend… we spent 60 hours at the South Tahoe Ice Arena from Friday morning to Monday afternoon…  Some great games!  Got to see my first hockey shootout…

By far my favorite photo of the event…  check out more in the gallery of the event.

New Product Introduction!!

Here’s a brand new product that we’re introducing at the Lake Tahoe Invitational Hockey Tournament this coming week!!!  It’s similar to our template collages except that it’s 10 inches high by 20 inches wide… so more like a panoramic collage.  Simple enough, we call it a Pano Poster…

One piece of information about it that you might not have noticed… the large image of the player between the center and the right photo… that “feature”, until now, has only ever shown up in our custom collages!!  As with any company, as time goes on products get better, I’ve added this popular custom collage feature to this template design.  It’s one of the other three images (of your choice) enlarged in the background.  It can be moved to the other side, when I’m designing the poster with your photos I’ll try both and see which looks the best.

I’ll be working on more designs if people like the idea so let me know what you think!

Carson vs. Douglas Basketball…

What more can I say… even when you get a really strong squad, much like the Douglas Boy’s Varsity Team this year… the games between Carson and Douglas don’t disappoint, yesterday’s games were no different!  The fans even got into it across the court with taunts….  The stands were kinda full… not as many there to cheer as I hoped for but the atmosphere was good, the crowd was into the games, made it fun!

I don’t typically add color commentary to my sports viewing but… Carson Boy’s Varsity… when you finally made an attempt to rebound it paid off… in the first half your shots went up and at least four of the five of you ran AWAY from the basket…

The Douglas Boy’s Varsity once again was fun to watch… they really WANT to win, they play very hard and the results show… should be a good sign for the playoffs!!

Here’s a few shots from the marathon at Carson High’s Gym Saturday… click on your team to the right to see all the photos of your teams.

High School Basketball…

A few shots from my second marathon basketball outing on Tuesday… @ Carson High…

Get out to support your team on Saturday, the first Carson/Douglas games are this Saturday @ Carson.  Should be a packed house, makes for a great atmosphere!  It tips off with JV Girls then JV Boys then Varsity Girls and ends with Varsity Boys.  If you love basketball, these are do not miss events!!

See you out there!

Happy Holidays Everyone!!

First, thank you to everyone for making this a great year!

It’s been quite a year!

January started with a new hockey tournament for us, we’ve never worked so hard and had so much fun… I’m really looking forward to it this coming year!

February starts High School baseball…

March starts Little League and Softball… which will run until July.

June 2010 found me in the hospital (thank goodness the World Cup was on) for an emergency appendectomy just 12 days before the start of the Nevada District 1 Little League tournament and then the Nevada State Tournament, it all worked out in the end!

After the High Country Championship Swim Meet at the Carson Valley Swim Center, most of August I spent in a hotel room in Monterey trying to get new staff at our Old Time Portrait studio sorted…

Then the Pop Warner season and a VERY exciting Carson High Football Championship season!  Mix in a little soccer and volleyball… The Douglas Girl’s Soccer and Volleyball teams won STATE!!

My second daughter was born in September!!!  Daddy’s Girls for sure!

And now basketball’s started…

I’ve drastically abbreviated the year and I’m sure I’ve left out something major….

I just want to wish everyone the very very happiest holiday season!!  We’ll see you out at the fields, courts, pools, etc. in 2011.  May your new year be the best ever!!

Nikon Camera “review”… kinda…

The new Nikon D7000 is out and seems to be in some bit of supply right now…  I stopped by my local Best Buy store to check it out (they had one when B&H Photo and Adorama didn’t… go figure…).

Let me explain my post title… the “kinda” part… I didn’t shoot with the camera, just had one that had a battery in it… so I cannot comment on a whole bunch of stuff… but just a hands on “impression”….

Now, most of you that know me know that I’m a Canon guy.  And I’ll tease you if you shoot Nikon gear… regardless of how good their equipment might be….  My first camera was a Canon AE1… When we started instaimage I did a lot of research and at the time Canon had the gear that fit what I needed… and to this day they still do… but…

Nikon makes some very compelling equipment and this new Nikon D7000 is a prime example.  I am very intrigued with the newest technology that the two companies are coming out with and the Nikon pulled out a lot stops when they “spec’ed” this camera.  One seriously compelling point for me is 39 focus points.  Now, personally I think that’s a bit of overkill… but for those of you that have been shooting with 9 (Canon) or 11 (Nikon) a jump to 39 for the low price of this new D7000 is fantastic!  With this camera they’ve replaced the Nikon D90 and because of that they’re giving GREAT deals on the D90 but if you’re looking for a camera that will get you through A LOT of the next decade… don’t bother with the D90, get the D7000.  There are so many features and functions they’ve upgraded that some Nikon people are calling the D7000 the best Nikon DSLR of 2010…!  (click HERE to read about it) Considering the remarkable equipment that Nikon offers this is a big endorsement.  DP Review just released their complete review… read that review and take from it what you can… they do a good job reviewing camera, a great resource for you if you don’t already know about them.

The auto focus system seemed to be quite responsive.  Like I said I didn’t get a chance to test the camera, get on the motor drive and see if it will do 6 frames per second… yet another new feature that far out spec’s the D90… or test the image quality at 6400 ISO (another major improvement over the D90) but you can see some of those results in the DP Review test.

For me it comes down to the size and ergonomics of the camera, I have large hands, the D7000, as compelling as it might be, is too small.  I prefer the larger bodied cameras (Nikon D300s & D3s or Canon 7D & 1D) even though that size comes with additional weight.  For me the tradeoff is worth it when I have to consider I’ll be holding onto the camera for sometimes over 12 hours a day.

If you have an older Nikon and are considering an upgrade… don’t overlook the new Nikon D7000, they’ve made it worthy of a look if you’re looking at new camera.