Whew!! Spring portfolios are done!!!

I hope all our Shooting Star fans didn't think we abandoned them. The site hasn't been updated because the past two weeks were devoted exclusively to preparation of the spring portfolios, and I'm happy to announce that they are completed and ready for delivery! Preparation of a Shooting Star Sports Photography portfolio is no simple task - each one is a meticulous and painstaking endeavour, and a minimum of 12 hours goes into every portfolio. While I frequently use the word "we" in these posts because I do have some excellent contract photographers and even a great high school student to help with some tasks, I flew solo this spring and handled the whole workload myself. The total: 14 portfolio athletes, plus substantial contract work for Cal State Bakersfield athletics, Bakersfield College baseball, and my former employer, The Bakersfield Californian. In all, just over 10,000 images shot and 2,783 photos delivered to our clients in their portfolios! Above is our new client Dwight Mashburn of Bakersfield Christian High School.

Fittingly, one of our best moments of the spring happened on our final shoot, when client Bryan Maxwell of Centennial High launched this homer in the exciting playoff game last Friday against arch-rival Stockdale High. I love the reactions of all the people in the photographs. I'm sad Bryan's homer didn't hold up for the Hawks, but I'm also happy my pal Dan Lemon and his Stockdale Mustangs made good on the victory by winning a second straight section championship. Check out the sequence below, and please click the photos to view larger versions.

Cooper Thompson wins state JC javelin title!

Cooper Thompson of the Bakersfield College Renegades, whom we profiled earlier this week, (see post from May 10 below) has won the state junior college javelin title at San Mateo College with a throw of 222 feet! You can read The Bakersfield Californian article about Cooper's big win here. Congratulations, Coop!

Going in style: Tori's Senior Day slam

It was Senior Day on the Bakersfield Christian softball diamond Thursday, and Tori Hoffmann was likely playing her last home game for the Eagles (pending playoff seedings this weekend.) Tori's had an outstanding senior year. A hitter on the volleyball team, she helped lead the Eagles to an undefeated league season and the section championship. As a catcher and infielder for the softball squad, she was batting .403 with three home runs. But when Tori came to bat in the third inning against Taft with the bases loaded, she was looking at something she had not done in high school. A grand slam. Three homers is a nice number in prep softball, but in 80 plate appearances, it was not a given that Tori could launch one here. But it was Senior Day. Mom and dad in the stands. Maybe her final game at Bakersfield Christian. Could she do it? Uh, yes. This was a no-doubter, a rocket shot over the left field fence. The big hit in a big three-for-four, 5 RBI game that powered the Eagles to a 15-5 victory. But most importantly, a memory of a lifetime.

These are our images of Tori launching her grand slam and a thrilled Tori after the big hit.

Think about being able to tell that story. And being able to pull out the set of pictures that captured the moment. We were happy to be there, delighted to capture this moment for Tori and her mom and dad. Tori is headed to Abilene Christian University in Texas this fall and hopes to make the softball team as a walk on. She is the daughter of Tom and Beth Hoffmann.

Oh noooo! Here comes Black Friday

Kelly Hosey of Garces High will not encounter any Black Fridays during her varsity career. Her mom has booked her portfolios for the next two years!

Shooting Star has three bad days every year. We call them Black Fridays. It's the day when parents, sometimes more than a dozen at a time, call us frantically trying to hire us to photograph their athlete on the last day of the season. Almost always, their athlete is a senior playing his or her last game. And we have to turn them all away, because we just are not an "on demand" business. When we meet prospective clients, we beg them - no make that we plead with them - that if they want our services they have to book us before the season begins or at worst, very early in the season. We painstakingly explain the incredible juggling act we must do with the schedules of as many as two dozen athletes competing in different leagues. We explain how the earlier they get us, the more opportunities we will have to photograph their athlete. We explain that we set our schedule months in advance, and once we schedule our clients, it's pretty much locked in granite. We stress it over and over. Yet on three Fridays every year, the last days of the fall, winter and spring seasons, the calls pour in. It's really sad.


Blake Campbell is also "Black Friday-proof" as his entire high school sports career has been booked four years in advance.

Tomorrow is Black Friday. The first call will come in around 7 am and continue throughout the day. We'll be at Garces High photographing our clients Blake and Grant Campbell and Nick Sakowski. The Campbells book us four years in advance, no Black Fridays for them! And the Sakowskis booked very early in the season. The moral of this little story is we don't sit around waiting for clients. You are in a competition for our services just as your athlete is in competition against his or her opponent. You have to book us early or we just can't help you. So please, please, please - see, we're pleading again - books us early or we're just not going to be able to shoot for you.
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Anything more special than Senior Day?

Is there anything more special to a family than senior day, when the athletes take to the field for their last regular season home game with their parents and give their moms a rose? We were able to photograph the Bakersfield Christian High School baseball seniors Tuesday since we were there photographing our portfolio clients Dwight Mashburn and Riley Showers. Non-client parents may purchase our photos. Dwight and Riley's photos will be included in their portfolios. To see how good these special images are, we want to direct you to our full-size image galleries. You may purchase prints and or original digital files. Just send an e-mail to johnharte@johnharte.com for prices and details.
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New sport, new championship for Cooper

During the past 10 years, we've photographed more than 400 of Kern County's best athletes. But even among the very best, some are a notch, or several notches, above the others. Garces grad and emerging Bakersfield College track star Cooper Thompson is easily among the very best athletes we've photographed. A standout at Garces High, Cooper played key roles in leading the Rams to the CIF section championship in football during his junior year and the section championship in basketball his senior year. He also competed in the long jump and triple jump in track. But this year, Thompson has accomplished the remarkable - he took up the javelin and almost immediately was throwing among the best in the state. Then this weekend, just four months after deciding to give the javelin a try, he won the Southern California junior college championship and will compete for the state title later this week.





Check out The Bakersfield Californian article about Cooper's incredible journey by college reporter Jeff Evans. Below, take a look at some of the photos we shot for Cooper during his outstanding varsity years at Garces High. And of course, we wish Cooper the best of luck this Friday and Saturday at the state championships in San Mateo.
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Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Greg Sanders: Just in the nick of time!

It was last Tuesday and Greg Sanders was pitching his final game for the Bakersfield College Renegades. It was a beauty; Sanders had a shutout going against Citrus and was working the final innings of his two-years for Tim Painton's 'Gades when I was introduced to his dad, Jerry. Like so many parents, Jerry didn't know about Shooting Star, but asked if I could get him some pictures. Normally that's not possible, as I am totally focused on my clients, sometimes as many as eight or nine at a time. But on this day I was finishing up on Jarett Martin, who was the designated hitter, and was able to catch Greg, who attended Liberty High, pitching the final two innings of his career at BC. And of course we got a great set of photos for Greg, including him being embraced by his teammates as he came off the field, and are happy to welcome him to the Shooting Star family of athletes!
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BC's Martin named first team WSC

We offer congrats to slugger Jarret Martin of the Bakersfield College Renegades, who has been named to the Western State Conference first-team. Jarret was selected as the all-conference designated hitter. Jarret is Bakersfield's lone representative on the first-team squad, comprising both the northern and southern divisions of the conference. A tremendous hitter who is also being coveted by several major league organizations as a pitcher, Martin tied the Bakersfield College home run mark with 11 this season. He batted .331 with 35 RBI, scored 32 runs and had 44 hits, including 9 doubles. You can see a gallery of our images of Jarret here.
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Jarret delivers the first base hit in the
newly-remodeled Collis Field on April 4.

A graduation congratulation: Cody Stone, Southern Utah

Cody Stone walked the walk as an outstanding quarterback for the North High Stars, the Bakersfield College Renegades and the Southern Utah University Thunderbirds. On Saturday, Cody walked the aisle in Cedar City, Utah as a college graduate, with a degree in communications. We shot Cody's portfolio during his outstanding 2006 season for the BC Renegades, when he threw for 10 touchdowns and rushed for two in leading the 'Gades to an 11-2 record and a trip to the Southern California junior college championship game.

At Southern Utah, Cody became the starting quarterback late in his junior season, and remained the starter for the 2008 season. He started all 11 games and threw for 2,664 yards and 22 touchowns. Cody lit it up during the game at Cal Poly, throwing for 469 yards and four touchdowns. He completed 34 of 59 passes. He had another four-touchdown game against UC Davis. He was a standout athlete at North High and earned all-area honors during his senior year, when he threw for more than 1,700 yards and rushed for more than 300. Cody's mom and dad are Elissa Loop and Bob Stone. Congratulations, Cody!
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Slide shows to post online in super-high quality

Two-time Shooting Star athlete Tori Hoffmann.

Our Shooting Star clients will now have a new way to share their multimedia slide shows with friends and relatives who can't get over to the house to watch the DVD. Utilizing some of the same technology that the major networks and Netflix use that lets you watch shows and movies online in super-high quality, we will begin posting your slide shows online this spring. We've resisted this for several years because we just weren't happy with the size and quality that was previously available, but the breathtaking and rapid changes to the online landscape have changed that. As a matter of fact, the shows online are even clearer than those played through a conventional DVD player!

We've posted a demo show featuring athletes Tori Hoffmann of Bakersfield Christian High, Jarret Martin of Bakersfield College, Chad Pollard of Liberty High (now a Bakersfield College Renegade) and Alana Alexander of Centennial. Check it out and please send any suggestions! To view the sample show, click here.
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