And the Winners Are....

At last weekend's THS Basketball Tourney we had a drawing from all of our customers. We drew 5 names and each winner will receive a Custom Single Image Print, like the example here, of their athlete. It can be either an 8x10 or 11x14.

The winners are:

Michael Ellis-Lansing Girls'

Tim Dieker-Silver Lake Girls'

Jana Hague-Eudora Boys

Deron Johnson-Silver Lake Boys

Janet Gripka-THS Dance Team

Congratulations to all! We will be in touch soon!

Yours truly, Mark

To see all the tournament images click this line.

Tongie Tourney is complete!

The 50th Annual THS Tourney is now complete! After 24 games and over 1800 images it is time for a day's rest.

This year's Girls' Champions are the Lansing Lions!
Great job Lions!






















The boys Championship game was between Tonganoxie and DeSoto! This is the first time in my 5 years that THS Boys made it to the final game. Congrats THS!
Unfortunately, the game didn't go quite the way they would have liked. DeSoto pulled away in the 2nd quarter and never looked back.








Congratulations to the DeSoto Wildcats!









Thanks to all the teams, parents, coaches and THS families
that made this 50th Annual Tournament a wonderful week!

Mark


To see all the tournament images click this line.

It's Tourney Time in Tonganoxie Again!

This morning I travel to Tonganoxie High School. It is time to hang my lights in their gym for tonight's first game of their annual basketball tournament. This is a special tournament as it is their 50th anniversary of the Tourney! It has grown to now include 8 girls' teams as well as the 8 boys' teams. This is my 5th consecutive year to offer tournament photography coverage for them.

This year the teams playing are:
Atchison, DeSoto, Don Bosco, Eudora, Jeff West, Lansing, Silver Lake and Tonganoxie.

Games start at 3pm today. They will have 4 games tonight and tomorrow, Tues. And then 4 more games Thursday and 4 more Friday. Then on Saturday they will have all 8 finals. It is always a fun filled and very busy week.

And last but not least, the hospitality room. The past 3 years THS has gone thru some major renovations to their school. This year they have taken what used to be their old theater and made it the Chieftain Room. A great multi purpose room! During the tournament it is the hospitality suite. If any tournament wants to learn how to run a hospitality room, look no further! The booster parents do the best job taking care of teams, officials and any tournament workers of any tournament I have ever been to! You guys are the best!

Yours truly,
Mark

OE Boys Swim Team

Next, we traveled to California Trail to take the OE Boys' Swim Team pictures. The ONW coach referred us to the OE team and we have been taking their team pictures for 4-5 years as well. Thanks Hank!

These first four images are the four class groups that we do for the team for their end of year banquet. This group has always been fun to work with as they express themselves and their spirit!

Here is the team picture with one of the individual images. We wish the Team and Coach Dave a great season!
























Mark

ONW Swim and Basketball Teams

Just before Christmas break we were with the ONW Ravens Boys Swim Team. We have enjoyed the opportunity to take their team and individual images for five years now. A great group and always fun to work with! Good luck this year!

Then, just after the holiday break we gathered with the ONW Girls' Basketball team. Again, we have been their team photographer for five years. The last two years we have taken the individual images at the backboard. It takes a little more time than the usual pose on the floor, but it is worth it! And our thanks to the coaching staff to give up a little more of their practice time to get these unique individual images. And hats off to the girls, as some of them have not or very rarely ever climbed a ladder! Here are the two team pic's and a sample of the individual shot and one really fun buddy picture!

Great job Teams!

Mark

Our Holiday Time

It has been a busy Christmas and New Year season! Our oldest daughter has once again moved. She visited a high school friend who has moved to Prague, that's right, the one in Czech. She came back crazy about him again and announced that she was moving there on Dec 17. So away she went! We get to visit with her on Skype with a webcam. My first experience with Skype and now our other two daughters, one in Georgia @ UWG and the other @ Butler CC are also set up so we can not only talk with them but see them a little more often.

Our Georgia girl, Jenna, was only home for a bit more than 3 weeks and time just flew by. She spent as much time as possible with her Czech bound sister for 3 days before she left and fought a cold for a bit.

Our youngest, the Butler girl, had almost 6 weeks off! I think it was almost too much as she had a hard time going back and getting in the grove again. Mikenna is only a bit over 2 hours away, so we still see her on weekends no and then.

We got the family a Wii for Christmas! What a great break in the evening and cold and snowy days to have something at home besides the TV. My personal favorite is the tennis. We also enjoy the bowling. It made our daughter want to go bowling for real and she came home with a new view on how hard it really is. We had dinner with family before Ciara moved to Prague, and my dad enjoyed Wii enough to go get his own the next week.

Mark