I’m Back!

And I’m happy to report that my latest hockey project was a success!

What constitutes a successful hockey project in my world? Well, I not only completed the video in time to show a true finished product at the end-of-season party, I even had copies of it to hand out that night to the families. On top of that, I also had a CD for each family that included pictures of their hockey player. Each CD had anywhere from 250-500 pictures—all taken by me!

I was pretty excited that I was able to be so organized this time around. Okay…true confession time: DS#2’s video was very, very similar to DS#1’s video in that it used almost all the same music and followed the same template. 😉 But, I still had to change all the pictures and text and adjust the timing, so there was plenty of effort involved! I also had still had to go through videos for this team, and it was video not taken by me, which meant I was seeing it for the first time and that always takes longer. But it was well worth the effort…the video was very positively received by both the kids and their parents!

One positive thing I did do before I even started creating the video was use Adobe Lightroom to tag every photo I’ve taken at each of the games with the names of the kids in the picture. If I had been doing that all season long after each game, it wouldn’t have required so much effort at the last minute, but I’m still glad I did it, because it made finding pictures for the DVD much easier. Lightroom is my new favorite software for sure! I discovered last week that, if I do tag all the photos properly, I can find specific images with just a single click. It was so nice to be able to click on a kid’s name and see all 500 pictures of him at once! In fact, it was so easy, I can very quickly give you a few shots of both of my kids, since all their photos are tagged, as well as a few from the spring season of kids on DS#1’s team, which have already been tagged. 🙂

Love the wordless celebration shots.

 

My DS#1 in action, ready to send the puck to a forward.

 

Oops, I watermarked that one poorly. 🙁 But you can certainly see this center’s look of concentration as he gets ready to take the face-off.

 

Look really close…you can see the puck landing in his glove!

 

This one makes me laugh. That’s my DS#2 on the right, and that kid that he is fighting (and beating!) for the puck is actually now one of his teammates on his current team. 😀 They were buddies even when they were playing against each other, because their older brothers play on the same team.

 

That’s my DS#2 on the left, once again being aggressive about “his” puck.

 

Awww…he’s so little. I love him. He is so enthusiastic about hockey, and when he’s playing hockey, he looks like a mini version of his older brother. 🙂

 

Gosh I love this picture. It’s a bit blurry, but I honestly think that gives it character. Such a timeless hockey photo.

 

I love getting good shots of our goalies! They are so fun to watch, because they are so dedicated to their craft!

 

Those are definitely some of my favorites. 🙂 While I was working on the DVD for both teams, I discovered something pretty surprising. I used my own pictures, of course, but for DS#1’s team, I also purchased photo CDs from the pro photographers at two of our tournaments (since the pros are certainly better than me, what with their awesome equipment and the fact that they shoot directly from the bench).

I went through all the pictures and tagged them by kid to help me sort them. Later, while I was putting them in the video timeline, I would sometimes see a shot and think, “Wow, great shot!” and then I’d invariably check to see where it came from—me, or one of the two pros. I was astonished to find, over and over, that the shots I felt were really impressive were very often my own! That made me feel so good!

What I’m discovering is that, while I certainly don’t have the equipment or always the best “vantage point” for my pictures, I do have a very vested interest in every kid on my sons’ teams. I know them all, I know their strong points and where they excel, and beyond that, I truly care about them. So while my pictures may not be perfectly crisp and clear and amazing all the time, I do have a knack for anticipating what the kids might do, and that helps me capture some pretty cool shots.

Doing those two DVDs really helped me see how I’ve improved over the course of two years since I got my DSLR. I have had so many parents compliment me on my photography, and it’s such a great feeling to know that my hard work is enjoyed and appreciated. While I know I have plenty of room for improvement, I’m excited about what I’ve done and look forward to continuing to take pictures of these kids that are so dear to my heart. 🙂

Okay, that’s it for tonight. We’re still quite busy around out house, with 4 hockey games in three days coming up, as well as a spring concert that we had tonight for DS#1’s class. So my update on my other blog topics (healthy living and exercise) will have to wait a couple of days. Meanwhile, thanks for indulging my desire to post these pictures that I’m quite proud of! 🙂

Thanks for reading!