AL & Larry SportsBlog

Another season starts next week. I’m looking forward to it. At least right now, by late October… The site is growing and we are making a few changes. Nothing drastic.

One subtle change you will hopefully notice will be in our shooting style. We will still be taking lots of action photos, but we are going to mix in “feature photographs.” These are photos that try to capture moments that make up the atmosphere of high school sports. It may be fans tailgating, band, parents or more sideline photos. Any number of things that happen around the field of play.

Why the change? Well, it is a way to include more athletes who may not get that much playing time. We’d like to be less repetitive. We tend to get very similar pictures of the same kids from each game. We are not a news service, so it is not imperative that we get all of the key plays of a game, though it is nice when we do. It is also partly selfish. We really enjoy this type of work. It is what we do best and we want to do more of it.

We think you’ll enjoy this approach. In 20 years you may not remember the the third down pass in the third quarter of the first game, but you will probably remember the energy, atmosphere, fun and excitement.

– Al Fuchs

We made it through another year. I won’t bore you, or me, with the stats of how may games we were at and how many galleries we posted from those games. But it was a lot. Along the way we made many new friends. And although the season is over, June is a very busy time for us with making prints and posters for all the Seniors out there. Posters make great graduation presents so we are putting those together now. We hope we will be able to meet many more of you as we start booking Senior Photo sessions. If you are, or have a junior - becoming a senior, now is the time reserve some time with us (we’re giving away a digital camera or iPod to the first five who order our Gold level package).

Over the summer we will look at our efforts and figure out two things. The first is how to deliver a better product. We have some ideas in mind of some things we can offer, but really, we would like to hear from you. What would make the experience of viewing and ordering photos an easier one? What products would you like to see? Are we taking the right kind of photos? Are we covering the right events? Let us know.

The other thing we will look at is what we will cover the next school year. We added two schools this past season (Trinity and Rocky River). We also added girls volleyball as a sport. Over the summer we will take a look at the various schools, sports and levels and see what we need to do next year. Our criteria for selecting what we do is primarily based on sales. But we also look at the number of people that signed up for our watch list from each school (other than students) and other factors. And with the price of gasoline, we now have to take into consideration the cost of travel. So there may be some changes for next year, and we’ll let you know when and if we we make any.

So if you have a minute, drop us an email and let us know your thoughts. - Larry Kasperek

While thinking of a topic, I started to think of about blogging and how it is yet another technology/communications tool that we are adapting to and how things have changed.

Both Larry and I started out as newspaper photographers and we both photographed quite a few sporting events, from t-ball to the pros. Working for newspapers, shooting black and white film (which we processed and printed ourselves), we shot a roll or two of 36-exposure film and were happy to produce two or three photographs worthy of publication. Which was usually decided by a very picky photo editor.

Sports photography generally requires telephoto lenses. They were very big and very heavy then. Manually focusing telephoto lenses was a skill and photographers who mastered it were rewarded with the best sports assignments because they could consistently produce the best images. It is very hard to describe the difference the fast and accurate autofocus function made in sports photography.

Most sports photographers resisted switching to autofocus early on because they could actually outperform the early versions of these lenses and there was a certain bravado to it. The lenses quickly became better and better. Younger photographers adapted to them more readily, as with most new technology.

When I spoke to one one photographer, who I consider one of the best in the country, what he thought of the new autofocus, he just shook his head and said “Al, it’s just not fair.” He was afraid of being replaced because he thought everyone would now be able to shoot sports. More and more people were able to shoot sports, but the new technology in the hands of a great photographer made him an incredible photographer.

Early digital cameras produced images comparable to what can be made on today’s camera phone. And they cost $18,000. Each. The internet was something you read text files on using a service called Compuserve.

Soon we were able to send images using a laptop. No more setting up a darkroom in a hotel bathroom. Now, if we need to, we can transmit photos from our cameras on the sideline directly to a laptop. I’m betting that soon we will be able to send photos and video to your phones while you are watching the game. We’ll then get a text message “be sure to get #22!”

When I thought of this I laughed. Today with digital cameras we shoot hundreds of images and post 50 or more images from each game. We, and others, are able to capture action shots that we could only dream of. How we get them into your hands will be the next wave for us. - Al Fuchs

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I like food. It’s been kind of a love/hate relationship most of my life. And I am too large. So I’m trying to lose weight, but it’s a struggle. Because of my preoccupation with the tastier things in life, I feel marginally qualified to comment on them. I even worked as a chef for a year or so if that lends any credibility.

We said we would be talking about sports and such in this blog. Part of sports is the concession stand. We can’t always eat at home, or on the way to a game, so we have to grab a bite at the stadium. It’s the same situation for parents who have to do the driving or just want to see your son/daughter play and by the time you get home it’s almost 9 p.m. So why not get dinner at the snack bar?

Which leads me to the fact that I don’t believe I have ever read anyone review concession stands. So here goes.

About a week ago I attended some lacrosse games at St. Ignatius High School. The first thing I ask at the window is “what is your special.” In this case it is the Riche burger (pronounced ‘Reesh’). The Riche burger ($3.00) is a 1/4 pound beef patty, cooked on a gas grill. It was named by inventor Rich Clark several years ago but continues as a favorite. But what makes it special is the burger-sized hash brown patty, also grilled, placed on the burger. You add the condiments. I’ve had them before and perhaps it is the fact that the same person doesn’t always do the grilling that there is some inconsistency. At their best, fresh off the grill, burger and hash brown patty both, is a wonderful thing. Cholesterol be damned. A little mustard or catchup and it’s quite filling. Add a soft drink (16 oz. bottles from a cooler) and you have a terrific meal. My recent experience was a bit dimmed in that the burger had been wrapped in foil and sat for a while, depriving it a bit of the “fresh off the grill” taste, and it was a bit soggy. My advice? Get one fresh off the grill, even if you have to wait. And to the cooks, as long as you are grilling, some grilled onions on top of it all would be killer.

On Saturday I was at the Rocky River freshmen and varsity games. It was a beautiful day and between games I stopped for lunch. The concession stand special was a basic Ballpark Frank, grilled on one of those large portable George Foreman type things. It was cooked to perfection, kept warm in foil, but not soggy. Condiments on the counter included real Stadium Mustard, relish and freshly chopped onions. For $3.00 total, including the ice cold Diet Pepsi, I considered it a bargain. They also serve breakfast sandwiches, with the first game starting at 10:00 a.m. That will have to wait for another day.

And Special Thanks to the booster clubs that spend thankless hours preparing the food and manning the booth. – Larry Kasperek

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The weather finally cooperated and we were able to get off to a fast start with spring sports. Over the past seven days, we were at 13 games and posted more than 750 photos! We were able to get events from every school we cover with the exception of St. Ignatius. They will not be left out.

So as a parent, or student, you might be thinking “750 photos and none of my kid.” Well, that happens. Here’s why. Sometimes we aren’t there an entire game, or the light goes away on us. We edit each image, looking closely at exposure and focus, so some images don’t make the final cut. And much depends on our position relative to the players, sometimes we get blocked by other players, coaches and refs. A particular athlete may not be in a position (relative to us, we do move around) to be photographed during a game. And of course, there is always luck. We just can’t get every player every time. That is why we try to cover at least two games of every sport, every level, every school.

But the season is young, so we’ll keep trying. One of the best ways to help us is to join our Watch List. You provide us your name, athlete’s name, school, sport, level and jersey number. We’ll put that number on a list for each game and make an effort to get the athletes on the list. You will also provide us a valid email address and we’ll notify you when we post a gallery from that game. And we appreciate all the students who join the watch list so they can see photos of themselves on our site – but keep in mind that we know that it is the parents who buy the photos, and this is a business for us, so we prefer to hear from a parent. Case in point. We recently received three notifications from players on the same team at a school who all said they want to buy photos - but none provided a valid email address. Hmmm. There is a handy form on our site that you can fill out to joint the list.

Keep the good weather coming. – Larry Kasperek

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Hello to all our friends. This is the first installment of our blog. Yes, we have been brought kicking and screaming into the 2000’s. We hope to use this space so that you can learn more about the how and why of Al and Larry Sports. As we progress through the seasons, we hope to observe on the events at the hundreds of games we attend. We also hope we can give you some insight into sports photography and photography in general. We welcome your comments and questions and will try to respond as thoroughly and quickly as time permits. The basis for many of the first entries will be centered around our Most Frequently Asked Questions … things such as how do we pick the games we attend, or the schools we cover, and how this whole process works.

Today is the first of April, and according to the school sports schedules, it will be pretty hectic over the next six weeks as we try to cover as many games as possible, weather permitting. And that seems to be the biggest factor this time of year. We are already getting game cancellation and postponement notices. We plan on covering five sports this spring, baseball, softball, lacrosse, track and rugby. In addition to Al and I, we have two other photographers that are part of our team. Jim Baron covers most of the Mentor sports for us, and Scott Evans will be helping with the West side sports, particularly Rocky River, which is new this season, and Bay Village. We hope you will be seeing their contributions to this blog.

If you see one of us at a game, please say hello. We welcome your thoughts and ways to improve what we do. We will always find time to answer questions, but please remember we are there to work for you, so between periods, before and after games is best for us. And, to you aspiring high school photographers, we welcome your questions and will be glad to give you some tips to improve your work for your school or yourself.

See you on the sidelines! - Al and Larry

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