Tae Kwon Do kid

Here is our favorite Tae Kwon Do child model. We used a few backdrops to see which one we liked best for when we do more of these where he takes his lessons. The first one is a little "edgier" than most of our others.
Just looking at that kick makes me say "ouch!" He sure can kick high. Here's a different blue backdrop -- the one we'll probably end up using.
And here's a solid gray background. I like the simplicity of this one.
Let me know if you have a favorite.

Photo Booth Event Portraits

Our event printer has been getting a workout lately.

We volunteer at our kid's middle school for their canteens (get-together, social gathering, dance) with a photo booth. The kids get together with a group of friends (or just a couple) have their photo taken. There are hats, glasses, scarves, and other crazy things they can wear if they want to.

The last one we did was really crazy. We ended up printing 278 prints in just under 2 hours! That includes arranging the people, taking the photos, picking the best one, and then sending them to the printer. That's definitely the most we've ever done in that amount of time.

Then, a week later, we photographed a Father/Daughter dance for the Creature Canyon Council (formerly knows as Indian Princesses). That time we had all the photos printed and put into frames by the time the girls and dads were leaving. We didn't print as many, but we also spent a little more time on each one. We had two stations going to get everyone's photo taken within a half-hour of the dance starting.

Sorry, no pictures this time -- we don't have releases for them.

Baby Bonanza Was A Success

If you've followed this blog, you know that the Baby Bonanza was held this past Saturday. As usual, it was a lot of fun and we had a blast. Also, as usual, we were completely beat at 4:00 when it ended. Having a complicated booth, we were the last ones out of there. We had a lot of framed portraits in our double booth. Here's what our booth looked like (with our wonderful helpers):

And from the other side.

We passed out over 200 gift certificates ranging from $10 to $75 and they were pretty evenly distributed. Our "lollipop" game was a hit with both the kids and their parents.

There were some games for the dads. The object was to strap the baby (doll -- not a real baby!) into the stroller:

Then race through traffic cones to the other side, where they had to change the baby's diaper:

This one was a close race:

And then race back to the starting line.

There were also three "diaper derby" races. The lines on the racetrack are just for show. The babies didn't stay in their lanes very well.

Here's one winner:

And here's another. Each winner received a trophy!

Some of the babies got a slow start -- even after the winner had been announced:

Then there was a fashion show:

Even some of the dads walked the "runway" with their model kids and babies.

Another diaper derby later in the day:

The heat is on!

And another race for the dads:

A princess stopped by to give a tea party for whoever was interested. I was bummed that I had to work -- it looked like a lot of fun.

And, finally, some gymnastics on stage.
There were even more events than this.

Thank you to all the folks who came out to see us -- and the other booths, too, I suppose ;-) We'll see you at next year's show.

Baby Bonanza this Saturday!

The third annual Baby Bonanza is coming up this Saturday, the 14th. It's a big show for "everything from pregnancy to preschool" at the Aladdin Shrine Center (directions) over by Easton. We've been a part of it for the past two years and we're excited about this third show.

This year, we'll be giving out bookmarks, lollipops, gift certificates, and having prizes drawn every hour. We'll also have a bunch of new samples for everyone to see.

Admission is $5 for adults, $4 for grandparents, and children 12 and under are free. If you go to the Baby Bonanza web site, you can get a dollar off coupon.

I couldn't finish this without some pictures, so here you go:

The Little Gym Dance Recital

Once again, we photographed the dance recitals at The Little Gym here in Dublin. We had a backdrop set up for posed portraits and we also got the action on the dance floor. No slideshow or anything on this one.

Baby Bonanza 2008

You may remember the post last month about the Baby Bonanza. You also may be wondering what happened, because I never blogged about it. Well, it did happen! I'm just a bit behind in my announcement posts. It took place on March 15th and it was a whirlwind of a day for us.

Not only did we have the show (where I photographed the events, too), but our son's Blue and Gold banquet for Cub Scouts was the same day. It was his last year, a crossing over ceremony, so we couldn't really bail on him. We had someone help out in the booth for the last couple hours and pack up. I drove back as soon as I could to help load up the car, then back to the Cub Scout banquet.

Anyway, the Baby Bonanza took place at the Aladdin Shrine Center near Easton. It's an interesting venue with tiered levels and lots of stairs. Thankfully, there are a lot of ramps for everyone with strollers, so that wasn't a big issue. It made it easier to load and unload the booth, too.

And while I'm on the subject of the booth, here are some pictures of it. This year we had a double booth and it was so nice having the space to talk and visit with people.
We even had a coloring table so the kids had something to do while they waited for their parent to finish talking. You can kind of see it in the picture below down on the right. Parents loved that their kids had a place to hang out instead of haning on ... to them. ;-)
One of the highlights of the Baby Bonanza each year is the Diaper Derby. Yes, that's right -- baby races. Who knew they'd be so fun? Well, if you're a parent, you can understand why they're funny, at least. Here they are at the start of the race. Off in a flash!
There was much concern when one baby didn't understand the rules. These two stopped and tried to give an explanation, not realizing that another baby was racing toward the finish line.
After the grueling race, the winner had no comment.
There were also activities for parents like how to use your stroller as a piece of exercise equipment and how to cook meals quickly that the whole family will eat.
And, of course, there was fun for parents and kids together.
That parachute looks like so much fun. I think we have a smaller one somewhere. I should go find it.
There was a lot going on throughout the entire day. And, of course, there were tons of vendors who had all kinds of things for your kids. I can't wait for next year. Though I hope that's the only thing we have to do that day. We were exhausted at the end of the day.

Worthington Kilbourne Baseball 2008

A couple months ago I was asked to put together the baseball schedule for the Worthington Kilbourne Wolves baseball team. We had done this once before, two years ago, and it was a lot of fun, so we were excited to do it again.
The poster usually has a photo of the seniors on the team along with the schedule. This time they had a theme for the poster (last time they didn't want one). We were lucky in that we got one of the only warm days in March. There was a big snowstorm the day after these pictures were taken. In the top picture you can see the storm clouds rolling in.

Team EAS in Columbus

If you've been following this blog, you know that I occasionally do some commercial work for Abbott Nutrition. Last week, for the Arnold Classic, several members of Team EAS (EAS is a division of Abbott Nutrition) were at Ross Park (near Easton) for media training and to visit with people. I was there bright and early at 7:00 and stayed until about 1:00, when everyone else went downtown to the convention center.

Then, in the afternoon, we drove to Dayton for the convention (see post below).

55th Annual PPO Trade Show and Convention

I think the title of this post is almost as long as the post.

Lynn and I went to Dayton last weekend for a big regional photography show. We got some great new ideas and managed not to spend a fortune. We saw (and heard) David Jay speak -- always great stuff.

Here's a picture of me, Lynn, Sticky Rammel, Jim Cook, David Jay, and Camille Ackerman.

Cub Scouts

Well, this is the last year of cub scouts for us (at least for now). The Webelos 2s are getting ready to cross over at the Blue and Gold Banquet coming up in a couple weeks. So, I guess this is the last time we'll be taking pictures of all the scouts.

Baby Bonanza on March 15

The Baby Bonanza is Back! For the second year in a row, on March 15, we'll have a booth filled with our work -- and portraits of your kids! We'll also be offering discounts on products that we're discontinuing. Things like photo jewelry, photo bags, and photo coasters.

There will be drawings for prizes, a kids' area, and probably chocolate -- and that's just in our booth. Check out the Baby Bonanza web site to see what will be going on and who else will be there.

Be sure to print out this blog post and bring it to our booth for a gift.

Creature Canyon (Y-Tribe) Father-Daughter Dance

Last month we did portraits at the Creature Canyon father-daughter dance. This is the third year we've done this and it's always so much fun. The group is a part of the Y-Tribe (formerly known as Indian Princesses) through the YMCA. What's really cool is that the dads do all of the work to make it happen. They do the decorating, planning, and facilitating. Everyone is always so nice there -- it's great that everyone thanks us after taking their portrait. And the girls are so pretty in their dresses.
This year we used our high-speed printer to get all the photographs printed and in frames before the event was over. It was great to be able to take the portraits, choose the best ones, have all 130 5x7s printed and then put in frames in just over two hours.

Please let us know if you ever want us to do the same type of event for your group. It really is amazing how fast we can get the prints.

Sorry there are no pictures on this one -- we don't have releases from the dads.