2019 Bettis Holiday Party

It started 36 years ago...

In 1983 I was working as an engineer at the Bettis Atomic Power Lab in West Mifflin.  The company was planning their first employee Holiday Party, and they wanted to give everyone a free 4x6 print of their children sitting on Santa's lap.  They asked if I would be interested in taking the photos and distributing them to the employees afterwards.

Back then, of course, everything was shot on film.  The biggest problem was making sure that the photos were sent to the right parents. Each parent filed out a card with their name and address,and we had to make sure we kept them in order to they would match up with the prints.  We also had to limit each family to one shot per family.

The one thing I remember most from those early years was the line waiting to talk with Santa stretched around all 4 sides of the hall we were in, with a 2 hour wait to talk to Santa!  After that we implemented a numbering system so that no more than 10 families were in line at any given time.

I've been shooting this with a digital camera since 2003, which has simplified things immensely.  The photos are uploaded to an online gallery, and parents can download the file to print on their own.  I have also kept previous years' files online as well, and it seems every year I have one or two parents who will go through the earlier files and order prints from 4 or 5 years' worth of visits.  I love seeing the progression as the kids grow older and new siblings are added.

Shooting digital also means I can shoot more than one photo per family.  In recent years, in addition to the standard posed shot, I've been trying to include more candid shots of the kids as they intently tell Santa what is on their list, and that they've been good this year.

If you are looking for this year's photos, please click here

Remembering Joe Denardo

This past weekend Pittsburgh lost an icon, retired WTAE (channel 4) weatherman Joe Denardo passed away.  Much was made of his forecasting skills and broadcasting career.  Much was also made about his community and charity work, especially Project BundleUp and the Moon Township Parks & Recreation Board.  But I knew Joe from another charity:  The Myron Copy/Foge Fazio Golf Classic to raise funds for the Autism Society of Pittsburgh, which I have been photographing for the last 7 years.  Joe and Myron were broadcasting colleagues at WTAE, and Joe always made it a point to come out for the event.  In recognition of his many years of support, the Autism Society of Pittsburgh gave Joe a green jacket (like the Master's Tournament) in 2012.  The 2018 outing as held last Monday.  Sadly, Joe was not there.

From a photographer's standpoint, Joe was the best.  He WANTED to have his photo taken.  Almost every year, I would get to the country club and walk into the lounge where coffee and pastry were set up.  Joe would see me and immediately call me over to get a photo with whomever he was talking to.  If he ever noticed me pointing my camera at him, he would stop what he was doing and pose. 

Everyone who met Joe always has a favorite "Joe Story" to tell, so here's mine.  Every year, at the start of the golf outing,  Joe would always take the microphone and give the golfers his weather forecast for the day.  One year rain was predicted all day, but Joe told us that the rain would hold off until 2 pm.  It was a bold prediction, and looking at the sky, I thought there was no way that was correct.  Sure enough, right at 2, it started raining.

Joe said it would...

Bettis Holiday Party

Earlier this month I photographed the kids in Santa's lap and the annual Bettis Holiday Party at Salvatore's in Baldwin Borough.  It is hard to believe that the first time I did this particular event was in 1983!  That's long enough that the little kids I photographed back then now bring their children to see Santa.  That first year we has no idea how popular it was going to be.  The line for Santa literally went around all four sides of the room.   Back then I shot it on film, and we had to get every employee's name in order so we could deliver the prints.  Now of course I shoot it on digital, and post the files to an online gallery that the parents can download from.  I still keep the previous years' digital file online, and every year I have at least one family that goes through those older files and finds their family's photos going back several years .  It is neat to literally see their kids grow up in five years' worth of photos.

2016 Swissvale Mile Race and Walk

This was the third year for the Swissvale Mile, a one mile race and walk that is a fundraiser for the Swissvale Police Department's K9 unit.  I'm proud to say that we've been a sponsor since the race began.

This year the weather was very cooperative, and we had a great turnout for both the run and the walk.  The first year there was only the one mile walk, and I took a little over 100 photos.  Last year there was both a race and a walk.  Unfortunately there was some serious rain and turnout was low.  I shot around 200 photos.  This year, with the good weather, and having a second photographer (my son), we ended up with almost 700 photos.

I did have one surprise that I wasn't expecting.  After we were done, I discovered that the clocks in the two cameras were off by almost 30 seconds.  As a result, the photos aren't exactly in chronological order.  I thought they had been in sync a month earlier, and once they are set they shouldn't be off by that much.  Moral of the story:  I've added a "Check cameras clock sync" item to my preparations checklists.

The full set of images are here.

Bettis 2015 Holiday Party

The first year I did these photos was 1983.  I worked at Bettis at the time, the Holiday Party was something new, and they decided it would be nice if every family would get a 4x6 print of their photo with Santa.  Since I was shooting film, my biggest concern was keeping track of which photos went to which employees.  I had a whole system of name cards, roll and frame numbers, and notations to keep things straight.  I needed two assistants just to keep the paperwork straight.  That first year, Santa and I were set up in one corner of the room.  About two hours into the day, I turned around and was shocked to see that the line of families waiting to see Santa wound around all four sides of the room, and almost back to where I was standing.  In the following years we added a numbering system to the name cards, with the numbers being announced in groups of 10, so no one had to stand in line too long.

Although there was a period when I took some time off, this is easily the longest running assignment I've had.  Long enough that for some of the children I'm photographing now, I also photographed their parents 20 or 30 years ago when THEY were kids.  For the last 13 years I've shot this with digital equipment.  With the advent of online galleries and social media, we no longer supply prints, but rather provide a digital file that parents can use as they wish.  They are in an online gallery for the parent to download, so it is no longer necessary to track the individual photos.  Overall, things are much more streamlined now.

I decided to try a few new wrinkles this year.  Rather than my previous years' setup of an on-camera flash mounted on a flash bracket, I decided to have two flashes firing into 33-inch white umbrellas, using the wireless trigger mounted on the camera.  The wireless trigger was the key to making this work, because I didn't want wires dangling where a child running around might trip on them.  This setup worked like a charm.  The lighting was very even, and the resulting images were very consistent, requiring a minimal amount of exposure correction from image to image.

The second change this year was to use the EyeFi card in the camera to send images directly to my iPad, so parents could get an idea what the images looked like.  This proved to be quite popular with parents, and gave them confidence that their kids looked good in the photos (other than the occasional screaming and crying toddler, of course...).

The photos can be found HERE.

Carolina's Sweet 16 Party

Sweet 16 parties are not something we have often in the Pittsburgh area.  This was only the second Sweet 16 that I've shot, the first being Carolina's older sister's party a couple of years ago.  The party was at the Treesdale Country Club in Gibsonia, which is a wonderful venue with an awesome staff.

Cara was stunning in a white dress.  The weather was great, and before the party started I had a chance to take her out on the balcony for some quick portraits.

One think that was different for this event was that I set up my backdrop and flash umbrellas as a sort of photo booth.  As I shot the images, they were automatically transferred to my laptop via my Eye-Fi card and displayed as a slide show.  We had a table of props for the kids, and they had a lot of fun hamming it up in front of my camera.

Photos from the event can be found HERE.

2015 PIIN Celebration Banquet

The 2015 Celebration Banquet for the Pennsylvania Interfaith Impact Network (PIIN) was held Sunday, May 3, at the Westin Convention Center Hotel.  This is my third year photographing the event.  PIIN is an alliance of religious groups, organized labor, and others engaged in social activism.  When you watch the local news, and you see clergy being arrested outside UPMC during a protest, or protests for a living wage, you're seeing PIIN in action.

Photos from the event can be found HERE.

Cupids Undie Run

Pittsburghers will do some CRAZY stuff when it is for a good cause!  This past Saturday I helped photograph the "Cupid's Undie Run" for fellow photographer Wendy Hacker and Clicks for a Cause.

The event was hosted by the Buckhead Saloon at Station Square.   Many of the runners showed up an hour prior to the run, to make sure they consumed enough, ahem, "antifreeze" prior to going outside.  The run itself didn't go very far, basically through Station Square, across the Smithfield Street Bridge, then crossing Smithfield Street and returning over the bridge.

The runners were actually VERY lucky, because weather conditions weren't too bad during the race itself.  The snow from earlier in the day had stopped, and winds were minimal (Other than when they crossed the Mon on the Smithfield Street Bridge!).  The snow and high winds (as shown in the photo) didn't start until 5 minutes after the last runner had finished and everybody was back inside Buckhead's.

The Eye-Fi Card (Part 1)

Eye-Fi cards are a neat technology that's been around for several years now.  An Eye-Fi card is an SD (Secure Digital) memory card (typically found in most non-professional digital cameras) that has both memory for storing the image files as well as a wi-fi chip that allows the files to be automatically sent to either one of the internet photo-sharing sites or transmitted to your laptop or tablet/smartphone.

My recent upgrade to the Nikon D800E camera opened the possibility of my using an Eye-Fi card.  The D800E is my first camera that includes two memory card slots.  One is a standard Compact Flash card (the standard memory card for most professional photographers) and one SD slot.  With this kind of configuration, many photographers will use a CF card for their primary photo storage, and use an Eye-Fi card in the SD slot to transmit the files.

For the kinds of things I do, there are several ways I envision using this technology:

1)  Currently I set up my laptop at a wedding reception.  Periodically I will copy photos of the wedding  from my memory cards onto the laptop (which means the files are backed up).  I'll then run a slide show so guests can see the photos from earlier in the day.  Besides providing a service to the client, it is also effective advertising for me.  With an Eye-Fi card, I can set it up so the files are automatically transmitted from the camera to the laptop, and automatically added to the slideshow.  Guests will be able to see the photos almost as quickly as I shoot them, and I don't need to spend time at the laptop loading the photos.

2)  I sometimes get asked to photograph events where they want printing done during the event.  The Eye-Fi card can send files to my laptop, where the clients can preview them prior to sending them to the printer.

3)  When I'm on location, shooting a portrait session or a modeling session, I can have the Eye-Fi card send the files to my iPad, so the client can get a preview of the photos prior to my posting them online.

With the D800E, the first thing I had to consider was the size of the files.  When shooting at the full 36MP resolution of the camera, each image file is approximately 50 MB.  A wifi connection isn't fast enough to send that file quickly.  What other D800 users do is shoot "RAW + JPG" (which creates two files), with the JPEG file size set to "Small" (about 9MP).  The RAW files are saved to the CF card for future use, while the JPG is saved to the Eye-Fi card for transmission.  The small JPG files transfer quickly.  It is interesting to note that what is considered "Small" on the D800E has a resolution of 3600x2400 pixels, which is larger than what I got from my original D70 dSLR (3000x2000 pixels), and is more than enough for printing up to 8x10 prints.

In Part 2, I'll discuss setting up the Eye-Fi card and how well it meets my needs.

"Photos at the Playground" Portrait Event. Sunday October 5

This coming Sunday I will be at the Swisshelm Park Playground from 11:30 am until 3;30 pm.  I'm offering outdoor portrait mini-sessions for your kids (both 2-legged and/or 4-legged). Sessions will be 10-15 minutes, approximately 20-30 photos. Photos will be posted to a password-protected online gallery for you to review and order. Fee for the session is $15 (cash or check). Post a comment on the Facebook page for the event and the fee drops to $10 (a 33% savings).

The Swisshelm Park playground is at the corner of Onondago Street and Nightingale Way, which is just off the intersection of Commercial Street and Whipple Street.

I'll see you at the playground on Sunday!

2014 Swissvale Mile

Saturday June 28, 2014 marked the inaugural running of the Swissvale Mile. This is a family-friendly and pet-friendly fundraiser for the Swissvale K-9 unit. For a first-time event, there was a nice turnout (both the two-legged and four-legged variety) and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. The walk through the streets of Swissvale was led by Swissvale's K-9 officer, Brando (pictured at left). To see more photos, please click HERE. You can download a free web-sized image from the gallery. If you wish to purchase prints or a full-sized download, use the coupon code "Brando" to save 15% on your order until July 4th.

2014 ECS Graduation Ceremony

Last night my son graduated from 8th grade at the Environmental Charter School at Frick Park.  His class is the first graduating class from the school, which he has been attending since it opened in 2007.  The graduation ceremony was held at Phipps Conservatory, which was a beautiful and appropriate venue for the school to use.  The ceremony was nicely done, with the teachers providing their insights on each of the 58 graduates.  The keynote speaker was Saleem Ghubril (pictured above), the Executive Director of Pittsburgh Promise, who gave one of the most inspiring commencement speeches I've heard (and I've heard a lot, since I photograph a number of college graduation ceremonies every year).

I'd like to thank the teachers and administrators at ECS for all their hard work, and contributing to much to my son's education and growth.  He's become quite the young scholar, and I think they've prepared him well for his future educational experiences.

Photos from the graduation can be found HERE.

2014 PIIN Banquet

The 2014 banquet for the Pennsylvania Interfaith Impact Network (PIIN) was held this past Sunday at the Westin Convention Center Hotel.  This is my second year photographing the event.  PIIN is an alliance of religious groups, organized labor, and others engaged in social activism.

Photos from the event can be found HERE.

Celebration of Friends

Last Thursday I photographed the annual "Celebration of Friends" presentation put on by the Friendship Circle of Pittsburgh, which was held at the JCC in Squirrel Hill.

Friendship Circle is a non-profit organization that unites high-school age Jewish teens with young members of the Jewish disabled community.  My son KJ, who has autism, has been attending for several years.  There are a variety of sponsored activities that support a wide range of interests.  KJ always looks forward to getting the postcard in the mail announcing upcoming activities.

Last Thursday's presentation was an end of year wrap up to recognize everyone's efforts.  Especially those students who are graduating seniors, and will be moving on from Friendship Circle.  This year's colors are purple and gold, as you can tell from the photos.

Photos from the event can be found here.   The password is "volunteers", because they are the ones who make Friendship Circle work as well as it does.

The Pittsburgh Marathon

Sunday, May 4th, was the Pittsburgh Marathon. I was lucky enough to get a chance to photograph it this year.

For the last couple of years I've been working for a national company that photographs graduation and commencement ceremonies around the country. They have a sister division that covers major marathons and similar events. I was contacted mid-week because they needed additional photographers to help cover the Pittsburgh Marathon.  This is a huge production from the photography side.  They had a total of 37 photographers, and they expected to have over a quarter-million photos when we were finished.

My assignment was to photograph the runners after the race, in front of a Pittsburgh Marathon backdrop. There were ten of us assigned to do this, each with our own backdrop set up after the finish line. As the runners finished, we invited them to come over for an official portrait. Having 10 stations meant the runners shouldn't have to wait long. This type of assignment doesn't depend on a photographer's technical expertise. But it does depend on the photographer's ability to interact with their subject and get a great photo quickly. I found that a simple "How'd you do?" was a great way to start (they just finished a race, after all).

Things started rather slowly, but once more people started finishing, we got very busy, very quickly.  All 10 backdrops had multiple runners waiting to get their photo taken.  The most amazing moment for me: photographing a woman who was 5 months pregnant and still completed the race!   The weirdest/funniest moment was the two girls who came up for a photo together, and they couldn't decide which was their good side.   Really??? You just finished running 13  miles.   Your "good side" disappeared 10 miles ago!

Things were going smoothly for the first three hours, then the wind started to pick up, amplified by the concrete canyon we were in.  Our backdrops were attached to PVC frames, which were zip-tied to the temporary crowd-control fences that were set up.  The backdrops were like giant sails, and one by one they blew over, until only two of the original ten were still standing.

Thus ended my day photographing the Pittsburgh Marathon.  All in all, a great time, and I wouldn't hesitate to do it again.

Spectrum Charter School 15th Anniversary Dinner

This past weekend was the fifteenth anniversary for Spectrum Charter School in Monroeville.  Spectrum is a high school specifically set up for autistic students, and my son KJ is graduating from there this year.  The dinner was both a fundraiser for the school (with a variety of raffle and silent auction items), as well as an opportunity to recognize board members, staff, students (past and present), and their parents.  The food was excellent, and everyone had a great time.  Of course, they asked me to photograph the event for them.  Photos from the event can be found HERE. The password is "puzzle".

2014 ECS Bloomin' Bash

This past weekend was the "Blooming Bash" fundraising gala for the Environmental Charter School arts programs.  This is our third year participating in this event.  It is always a lot of fun, and everyone has a good time.  Even though our youngest is graduating this year, we're looking forward to doing this again next year.  We had a photo booth set up (backdrop, flash umbrellas, and goofy props) and printed 4x6 prints on the spot using the Epson PictureMate printer.  The PictureMate is great for this, because the prints come out fast, and are waterproof and smudgeproof.  Photos from the event can be found here.

2012 "Propel for Peace" 5K Race

Last Sunday (November 4) I was photographing the first "Propel for Peace" 5K Race and Fun Run, which was sponsored by the Propel Charter School in Homestead.

The race started at the Pumphouse at the Waterfront shopping complex in Homestead, and run out-and-back on the Great Allegheny Passage trail. Over 250 people showed up, in spite of the cold cloudy weather (fingerless gloves are perfect for shooting in that kind of weather!).

Photos from the race can be found here:

http://photos.paulrichardwossidlo.com/g/2012_propel_for_peace

Myron Cope-Foge Fazio Memorial Classic for Autism

This past Monday I had the opportunity to photograph the Myron Cope - Foge Fazio Memorial classic for Autism at the Montour Heights Country Club. This is an annual golf outing that is a major fundraiser for the Autism Society of Pittsburgh. We had donated a gift certificate to their auction (my oldest son has autism), and they contacted me at the last minute to get candid shots of the golfers on the course and at the dinner afterwards.

It's been a lot of years since I've photographed golfers (back in high school!) so I was a little concerned about it. I used my long 80-200/2.8 zoom so I could keep my distance (and minimize any distractions I caused). Fortunately the course was quite hilly, which made it easy to get great high or low vantage points for shooting the golfers.

This year's event was hosted by WTAE's Bill Hillgrove (the Voice of the Steelers and Panthers) and legendary local weatherman Joe DiNardo. There were a lot of former Steelers and former Pitt players in attendance, including Andy Russell, Dwayne Woodruff, John Banazak, Robin Cole, Joe Walton, and Sam Clancy. Of special note was American Junior Golf Association Tim Novik (pictured above) who donates to autism for every birdie he makes in amateur competition.

CHAMPS

Status
Currently I have the first 19 events posted. I do have images from all 70 events, and do plan to post them online. I'll update this as more events are posted.

Background
This was my first year shooting CHAMPS, and it was definitely an experience! The one thing I wasn't prepared for was just how many photos we would end up taking. A month earlier I had shot a two-team meet in the same venue, and had taken approximately 750 photos. Based on that, I had figured we would shoot a total of 3000 to 4000 photos for the entire meet. In the end, I ended up with a total of over 7500 photos. That's a record for me, and twice as many as I've ever done on a single assignment. Besides have that many photos to go through, the sheer quantity takes up a lot of space on the computer

Photo Gift Card Codes are Still Available for a Limited Time
At CHAMPS I had a $20 Photo Gift Card Available for $18. This gave you a chance to save an additional 10% on your photo order. To make up for the delay in getting the CHAMPS photos up, I'm making Photo Gift Card codes available for purchase online. For a limited time you can purchase a $20 Photo Gift Card code for $18, or a $40 Photo Gift Card code for $36. Because these are online purchases, you will be emailed the code you use when you make your purchase, rather than mailing you one of the cards I had at the table at CHAMPS. Please note that your savings with the codes are in addition to any discounts or sales that may be going on.

The codes work the same as a store gift card. When you make you purchase, there will be a space on the payment screen to enter the code. When you enter the code, the amount will be deducted from your balance. If the amount of your purchase is less than the code value, then the code will have a balance remaining that can be used on a future purchase. Note: You can only use one code per purchase. If you have multiple codes, please contact me directly (before your purchase) and we can consolidate them into a single code.

If you wish to purchase a gift card, select your amount and click on the button below. You will receive your gift card code via email within 24 hours.

Save 10% on Photo Gift Cards

$20 Photo Gift Card $18.00 USD $40 Photo Gift Card $36.00 USD

If you have any questions about the gift cards codes, please don't hesitate to contact me.

What About the Early Bird Discount? Will it be Extended?
Typically when I first post an event online, I set up an "Early Bird" discount of 15% for the first one to two weeks. Currently the CHAMPS discount expires April 15. I will keep extending it until the last of the photos are posted.

To go to the CHAMPS photo gallery, please click HERE