Wanamaker Sports Photography

This past Saturday was the opening day for the Sussex Wantage Little League, one of our new clients this spring. The president of the league asked us to attend and capture some shots of the parade – complete with team banners, firetrucks, food and fun! Here are just a couple shots from the day …

Loretta and one of our freelance photographers, Tom, set out to capture Minisink Valley Lacrosse playing against Valley Central, a long time rival. When the images arrived in our studio, the normal process of sorting, deleting and tagging the photos began. As I looked through nearly 800 photos that were shot, this one instantly captured my attention …

Knowing the history behind Valley Central and Minisink Valley, one could actually look at this shot and think that the two VC players were beating the MV player while he was down. After browsing through some more of the images, I found a series of shots that Tom captured of a VC player taking a nasty fall …

I guess Minisink Valley was giving some payback to Valley Central …

A few month ago, Wanamaker Photography was announced as a runner-up in a cover image contest for the Society of Sports and Event Photographers magazine called Action News. After a great interview, we anxiously awaited for the Spring Edition of the magazine to hit the news stands. That day has finally come …

Here are some excerpts from that article …

Today, Wanamaker Photography has grown to include a couple thousand individual clients and about 30 sports leagues. Even as the economy sours, the Dingmans Ferry, Penn., business continues to expand. Wanamaker and his fiance (Loretta) handle the main shooting duties and business management tasks, and a network of freelancers helps out with larger events.

We like to under promise and over deliver. And we do everything in our power to make the customer happy!

My fiance (Loretta) is very good with the customers. She knows the children’s names, what team they’re on and what position they play. She remembers those little details and brings them up when talking to the children’s parents. That makes our customers feel like they’re not just another number. They are part of the Wanamaker Photography family and they want to keep coming back.

If you would like to check out the full article as it was written for the Spring Edition of Action News, click here and download an Adobe PDF copy!

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of listening to loud music and screaming girls for almost the entire day. Concert you say? Not really. I was covering the Pine Bush Cheer For All Winter Fest Cheerleading Competition …

Everything started at about 5AM, when I set my feet on the floor and got out of bed. Little did I know what kind of day was in store for me! We got everything together and headed out for the Pine Bush High School. Once on-site, we setup our table, background, lights, computers and everything else that was packed in the back of our Nissan Rogue.

As the morning progressed, I captured nearly 800 shots of many different teams and individual performers and finally got my break for lunch around 12:30PM or so. As the afternoon session got underway, little did I know that one team – the S.S. Seward Spartans – was plotting against me.

As the Spartans got ready for their moment in front of the judges, a few of the squad’s members made the final preperations for the attack …

As their routine started, everything seemed normal – just like all of the ones before it. However, things were far from normal. All of the girls smiled as they danced and jumped around the mats … but their attack was just seconds away. As I sat on the gym floor in front of the judges, they armed themselves …

… and before I knew what was going on, they unleashed their attack …

Yes. Over a dozen, home-made, fuzzy, knitted pom-poms were flung straight at me – the poor photographer! After a few laughs from the girls and the crowd, they finished up and cleaned up any debris that was left!

Thankfully, the first aid crew was on standby. I spent a few minutes with them and before I knew it, they had me all bandaged up and back on the floor covering the other teams!

Yesterday was another one of those really long days (out of the house before 7AM – back home after 9PM) as we setup and covered the 2009 Pine Bush Cheer For All Winter Fest Cheerleading Competition.

While this event wasn’t as big as the cheerleading competition at Minisink Valley a few weeks ago, there was still plenty of energy and talent to go around. Some of the teams from the Minisink event were happy to see us when they arrived as were some of the teams that were new to this competition.

As they day went on, I filled our memory cards with nearly 1,500 shots of the girls shouting, flipping, jumping and twirling around in front of the judges! Including this one …

… and this one of a girl in mid-flip …

… and this one – a cute little kid hanging around the mats …

… and a final shot – inspired by a local press photographer right before last year’s event …