State Championships images up for Nevada Union!

Good news!

We have finished uploading all State Championships images for the Div I match between Nevada Union High School and Lakewood High School.

Additionally, we have posted all images of Nevada Union from the season - from Super 8, Senior Night, Section Finals and State Finals. That's a lot of pictures!

So, to make them more fun to look at, we have pre-designed collages from the images.

Check them out here!

College & Highschool volleyball section updated ...

If you've seen us out at a game of yours recently and are looking for images, chances are this is the section you will be looking for.

We've begun posting some of the images from the season online for families to view and order. If you don't see your team here, give us a nudge and we'll see if we can get them up quickly for you.

Ripon Christian Team Pictures Updated.

Hey there!

Thanks again for having us out last week to photograph you - we had a great time. We have updated your section with some sample images.

Check them out!

Marysville Team Pictures Updated.

Hey there! Just a quick note to let you know that the section for Marysville High School team pictures has been updated.

You can see it here!

Sheldon Team Pictures Updated ...

The Sheldon Volleyball team pictures have been updated.

Check them out!

Family pictures anyone? ...

We just photographed a family portrait for a volleyball family we have known for some time - you can see a couple of the images over on our portrait site!

Just a friendly reminder for our Central California customers that received our Fall Portrait certificates - Fall is marching by. Be sure to take advantage of it!

Elk Grove HS Team Pictures - UPDATED

Just a quick heads up everyone - I've updated the Elk Grove team picture section with samples from the shoot.

Check them out!

Elk Grove HS Team Pictures.

Looking for information about Elk Grove High School's team pictures?

You've come to the right place!

Follow this link to learn more and place your pre-order.

Good news - Festival Shipping Notices ...

Great News! I'm starting to get Shipping Confirmation emails from our lab regarding the recently submitted Festival orders.

So, for many of you, the orders are on their way.

This email confirmation is a new feature that the lab and I have been working on, so I don't yet know if I am getting all of them, but it's a good sign that they have started coming in.

In the future, I will be integrating these emails into our order management system so that I can automatically notify you of your order status and get you a UPS tracking number.

In the meantime, keep an eye out for a brown truck coming your way soon!

Festival Orders completed!

Great news! We have completed all processing for Festival Orders and they have been uploaded to the lab for printing and shipping. It took more than 17 hours just to get the completed orders uploaded, but they are there and the lab should begin printing them tomorrow. I expect that they will all be printed and shipped by the end of this week.

Shipping time is typically 5 business days from Wisconsin (where the lab is) to California (where most of our orders originated).

So expect to receive your orders by the end of next business week.

This is right at the end of our estimated 4-6 week delivery time for Festival and is quite honestly the fastest we've ever been able to process Festival! (In the past it has taken 8-12 weeks)

CDs for all Festival orders were shipped on the 1st of August - so those customers that ordered CDs should have received them by now.

Remember - CDs and prints are shipped separately, so if you ordered prints with your CD, then you will be receiving a separate shipment for those.

Those teams that earned free Team CDs should expect to see theirs in about a week - we are working on those now.

Thank you again for your support - we hope you enjoy your photographs for a long time to come and look forward to seeing you at future tournaments!

Festival Orders being processed ...

Now that we are back in the office and have gotten a bit of rest after the 20 hours days of the Festival (I'm still tired!), we are beginning the process of backing up the images, compiling orders for processing, billing credit cards, stowing our tournament gear for the summer, etc.

You will shortly be seeing that we have billed your card for your purchase at Festival. If you do not see that, get in touch as it may mean that the charge has been declined for some reason. We will likely not have the time to follow up on declined charges until we have completed processing all other Festival orders.

We're all excited to begin the image processing - I look forward to seeing the images you have selected and the collages you have designed.

We thank everyone that placed an order with us and helped us make this a successfull Volleyball Festival. We hope to see all of you again next season!

And remember ... we're much more than just volleyball photographers. You can see our portrait work at: Micheal Hall Photography.

Another Season Done ...

Well with Festival done, we close the books on another season of club volleyball.

This season was a fun one with us photographing in:

• Alameda, CA
• Sacramento, CA
• San Jose, CA
• Reno, NV
• Seattle, WA
• Corvallis, OR
• Denver, CO
• Indianapolis, IN
• Atlanta, GA

We hope that everyone that has purchased prints and collages from us this season is thoroughly enjoying them. We've given you the best that we know how to produce and are still looking for ways to make our photography better.

One thing that we are looking to improve this next season is our booth staffing. That was a major issue for us this year - I don't think people are used to working as long and hard as we have to to run our booth at tournaments. We wear them out too quickly!

So I wanted to give a special thank our recent Festival booth crew. This was their first tournament with us and it was the longest of the bunch - I don't know if they really understood what they were getting into! They made it through with (mostly) flying colors and I hope they had a good time.

So thank you Shell and Jen and Chels and Devon! All of us really appreciate your help this last week and hope that you'll want to work with us again in the future. We couldn't have done Festival without you.

Headed to Festival ...

We just wanted to give everyone a quick heads up that we will be out of the office for the next week and a half or so.

We are leaving early tomorrow afternoon for Festival in Reno and will be there all week. After that, we'll likely take a few days off.

So, if you don't get a response to your email or phone calls during that time, you know why!

If you would like to sign up for pictures at Festival, come by the booth to do so. To make sure that I don't miss any last minute online requests, I am removing that option from the site.

California Finals processing completed!

We have completed the processing for all California Finals print and collage orders and are submitting them to the lab for printing this weekend.

They should arrive no later than the end of next week!

Yes, that's nearly 3 1/2 weeks faster than we originally quoted.

We're in the happy position of being ahead of schedule on this tournament. Please let us know what you think when your order arrives!

California Finals Processing, in the works ...

We are currently hard at work on the processing of all California Finals orders.

Our goal is to have them completed and into the lab for printing and shipping by the end of this week so that we can go into the Volleyball Festival knowing that we are all caught up!

If you are attending Festival, then your prints will likely be on your doorstep when you return home. You may want to have a neighbor or friend keep an eye out for them on your behalf.

Willamette Classic & Emerald City Classic order processing completed

Just a quick note to mention that the Willamette Classic and Emerald City Classic order processing has been completed and all orders are at the lab for printing and shipping. We expect all orders to have shipped as of today and to be arriving in the next 5-7 days.

Please let us know when they arrive - we look forward to your feedback!

Far Western & Power League Championships order processing completed ...

Some good news on the order processing front. We have completed the processing for all orders placed at the Far Western Junior National Qualifier and the Power League Qualifier as well!

These orders are at the lab for printing and you should start receiving them towards the end of this coming business week (15 June) depending on how far you are from Wisconsin! (Though we do all of the image preparation and collage design here in Sacramento, all printing and shipping is done from our lab in Wisonsin.)

Generally, ground shipping to the West Coast from WI takes about five business days.

We hope you enjoy them and look forward to hearing from you when you receive them!

Check out a few new features ...

I've updated the What's New section with a few new features that have made it into our ordering software over the last few days.

Check them out!

Sign up for Emerald City photographs at the tournament - online requests closed.

Online requests for photography at the upcoming Emerald City Classic are now closed - we're on the road!

You can still sign up for photographs onsite at our booth in the Edmundson Pavillion.

See you there!

Still time to sign up for Emerald City Classic!

There's still time to sign up for pictures at the Emerald City Classic! We will be closing all online requests as of this Wednesday night, so be sure to get your requests in before that!

At that point, you will have to sign up in person at the tournament and that fills up very quickly, particularly when online requests have already taken up some of our capacity.

So go sign up for Emerald City Classic! This may be your last chance this season for pictures, so make sure you take advantage of it.

2007 Willamette Online Requests Closed ... sign up at the tournament!

Because we are on the road on our way to Corvalis, we are closing the online portion of our requests for the Willamette Classic (we want to make sure that we don't miss any).

If you would like to put in a request, come by our booth and place your request in person!

See you in a bit ...

Looking to sign up for pictures ... ?

Are you looking to sign up for pictures at either of the the two Pacific Northwest tournaments we are photographing this season?

You can sign up for pictures at either the 2007 Willamette Classic or the 2007 Emerald City Classic right now (and for you 2007 Willamette Classic teams, we recommend you do so right away - time is running out!)

You can learn about our requests here.

We look forward to photographing for you!

Far Western & Power League Championship RUSH Orders shipped ...

Just a quick note - those of you that requested RUSH service for your Far Western or Power League Championship orders should keep an eye out for them. They were printed today with overnight shipping specified - so you should be receiving them tomorrow or the next day.

Where in the world are we?

Looking to get in touch? We're in San Jose at the moment photographing the Power League Regional Championships. We'll be back in the office Monday, the 7th of May.

If you've not been having much luck in getting in touch with us, I apologize. The volume of emails and calls has been incredible. I'm doing my best between events to keep up, but have not been completely successful.

Don't lose heart though - we're still very much around and busy and it is important to us that we answer every email or call that we get ... and we will! As soon as we can. :)

In the meantime, I have updated this page (below) with answers to a couple of questions I'm seeing often.

Far Westerns Images ...

For those of you who are looking for Far Westerns images online, unfortunately you will not find them.

We do not post our images online. Images are available for ordering at tournaments only. For this we bring our servers, our staff, our samples, our ordering stations and our help across the country to make things as easy as possible.

One major factor is that we cannot use our custom software online, and it is this software that is required to allow our collages to be designed (we had to write the software because no other software existed).

If you would like to order images from Far Westerns 2007, we will be happy to help you do so at any of our remaining tournaments.

Atlanta Big South Orders ...

For those of you that are wondering about your Atlanta Big South ordesr ... perhaps some of your teammates have received their orders, but you have not received yours, don't be concerned. We were able to complete half of the Atlanta orders right as we were sending that big Colorado order in to the lab for printing and that is why not everyone has received their order from Atlanta. Now all orders have been completed and are ready for printing. The 2nd half is at the lab now and will be arriving very soon (by early next week). If you have not received your orders by about the 21st of May (the 23rd at the latest), please let us know and we will find out what is going on.

Far Western Online Requests Closed.

Online requests for Far Westerns are now closed.

This is to prevent any missed requests while we are in Reno setting up and getting ready for the tournament.

We will be accepting requests onsite at the Convention Center starting 8am Friday. Please bring your play schedule!

We currently have about 30 request spaces still available for the tournament - we expect these to fill within a very short time, so be sure to sign up as quickly as you can!

Crossroads Orders Shipped!

I have confirmed with the lab that all Crossroads orders submitted have been shipped!

Metallic orders began arriving today. Orders with standard prints should begin arriving in the next few days.

I hope you enjoy them and look forward to hearing from you!

Current Crossroads Order Status ...

I know that many of you are probably wondering about the current status of the orders placed during the Colorado Crossroads tournament in Denver, CO at the beginning of March.

I am happy to report (as the entry below mentions) that processing of all orders is completed and they are all currently at the lab for printing and shipping.

Unfortunately, our lab has a bit of a backlog going and they were not prepared for the number of orders that we sent to them (we do all image prepartion - including custom adjustments and collage designs, but they print, package and and ship all of the orders) and this has resulted in an unexpected delay in getting them out (the lab we use typically works directly with studios and does not often drop ship to end customers, so this much volume is a large increase in traffic for them).

They are working on the orders now and they should begin arriving shortly. This will likely put them just outside of the anticipated six week delivery time quoted during the first week of the tournament.

Thank you for your patience - we look forward to hearing what you think of them!

Crossroads Order Processing Completed!

Just a quick note to let everyone know that we have completed Crossroads processing and that everything is going into the lab for printing and shipping!

Looking for Crossroads Images?

So we have understandably received quite a few calls and emails regarding viewing and ordering the images from the 1st weekend of the Crossroads tournament.

Unfortunately, there is currently no way to view them outside of our booth at the tournament itself. The software that we use to display and present images for ordering is custom software we have written but that is not available online. For this reason, we always suggest to anyone attending that - if they are interested in ordering - they do so at the tournament.

Whenever we can, we post the images online where economy (unadjusted) prints can be ordered. However, due to the extended length of our trip and the lack of upload bandwidth/speed, we simply cannot post the images from the tournaments we photograph while we are still on the road.

If you would like to order images from the tournament, they need to be ordered at the booth. So, be sure to come by the booth yourself or - if you cannot attend - appoint someone whose taste you trust to design you a collage.

We hope to see you there!

We're in Denver!

Just a quick update - we're in Denver!

The Colorado Crossroads tournament starts tomorrow and the entire crew is in Denver to photograph the tournament. I will have email access during days between the tournament weekends, but not during, so if you email, expect a reponse next Tuesday.

Keep an eye on the Crossroads section of the site for updated tournament information!

Presidents Day Processing completed ...

Processing for all orders from the 2007 Presidents Day tournament is completed!

All orders are currently at the lab being printed and will be shipped directly to you upon completion. You should expect to receive them in the coming week or so.

If you have any questions, please direct them to us via email. We will be out of the office for approximately 6-9 weeks traveling the US, photographing Qualifier tournaments and we will not be easily reachable by phone. However, I will be doing my best to keep up with all email inquiries while on the road.

Presidents Day Images Posted!

All Images from the 2007 Presidents Day tournament have been posted!

Please see the Presidents Day section for more information.

Thanks for a great tournament in San Jose!

We've made it back into the office (we worked a 21 hour day yesterday and got into town at about 4am this morning after tearing down and driving back last night).

We're glad to be home and are getting settled back in - it was really nice seeing everyone!

I am working on getting the images uploaded to our site now - if all goes well they will be visible tomorrow.

In the meantime, I will probably be spending quite a bit of tomorrow answering emails and phone messages - there are quite a few of them!

If you have a question, please contact us.

Follow this link, if you would like more updated information on the Presidents Day Tournament.

Placing a Photography Request for Presidents Day?

So we're just about the leave the office for the weekend to photograph the Presidents Day tournament in San Jose.

If you would like to place a photography request for this tournament, please do not do so online. Our internet access for the rest of the weekend will be questionable and we do not want to miss your request.

Just come on by the booth to place your request!

P.S. - Everyone that has placed a request has a photographer assigned, so we're good to go! (Everyone except for Mid Valley 16s that is - I can't find you on the schedule. If you see this, make sure you come by the booth to give us your schedule.)

Power League Qualifier Processing Completed ...

Processing of all orders from the Power League Qualifiers has been completed and all images have been submitted to the lab for printing!

Expect to receive your prints in 5-7 business days. Prints 8x10 and smaller will come via USPS. Those larger are shipped via UPS Ground, unless otherwise specified when ordering.

We have posted a small gallery of some of the finished images in the Power League Qualifier section.

Remember, if you want to order images from this tournament online, the deadline is this Friday, the 16th of February!

Delta Valley Team Picture Processing Completed!

Processing for the Delta Valley Club pictures has been completed! We are preparing all orders to be uploaded to the lab for printing.

We have updated your section of the site with a small gallery of images. We hope you enjoy them!

If you are a Delta Valley family and have not yet placed an order for team pictures, you can still do so.

Power League Images Posted ...

Images from the tournament have been uploaded!

You can view them in the Power League Qualifier Section.

The images will be available for viewing and ordering until the 16th of February. Only economy (unadjusted) products are available from the site.

If you would like to purchase a collage, please contact us to arrange for alternate purchase instructions!

Power League Qualifier Update ...

A quick update for those coming to the site to view Power League Qualifier images: they are currently being uploaded and will be available for viewing later today.

Unadjusted, economy prints will be available for ordering until February 18th 2007.

Due to software limitations, collages are not available online.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact!

Out of Office for a few days ...

So it's time for another tournament - this time the Power League Qualifiers at the Sacramento Convention Center!

We'll be out of the office for the next few days, so please keep that in mind when emailing or calling. We'll be back in the office Monday.

If you are coming to the tournament, be sure to come on by, say hello and put in your request for pictures, or just take a look at the new things we have for you this season!

I look forward to seeing you there!

Your thoughts appreciated ... An informal survey.

If you have a quick moment to spare, could you do me a favor?

I'm thinking of offering this collage at tournaments (starting with NCVA Power League Qualifiers). But, before I go to the effort of updating the system with the design, having samples printed, etc. I thought I would post a few images of the collages and ask for thoughts from our visitors.

I am considering the following two image collage ...

Prices would start at probably $45 for an 8x10. The studio style portrait would be taken at the tournament (we'd setup a small portrait booth, which is another reason I wanted to survey - I'd rather know if people liked this design prior to going to that much effort).

My question is ... what do you think of the collage? It's definitely more about the portrait than the action image. The action image is more spice to show another facet of the athlete in the portrait - I decided on black and white and faded for the action image so that the images don't clash or compete to much. Obviously, I like the design, or I wouldn't be considering offering it. I really like the idea of offering a nice portrait in uniform along with an action image.

However, I'd really appreciate your thoughts ...

California Kickoff Processing Completed

We have completed processing all orders from California Kickoff and are uploading them to the lab. They should start being delivered to your doors in just over a week - probably sometime in the 5th - 7th of February range.

In the meantime, we have posted a small gallery over in the Cal Kickoff section ...

NorCal Select Team Picture Update

Just a heads up for NorCal Select families that the team picture section for you guys has been updated.

There is a calendar of dates for all teams showing the location and time of your photographs, as well as samples of the team picture style we are offering this year and the ability to save on your team picture packages by pre-ordering online.

If you have any questions, be sure to let me know!

A few What's New notes ...

For those of you keeping track of our improvements and changes, I have updated the What's New section of our site with some notes and observations on how our planned improvements performed at the recent California Kickoff tournament.

We're excited - things are definitely improving! :)

Thank you Delta Valley Families!

Thank you Delta Valley Volleyball Club and famlies - we had a great time photographing you yesterday morning. Lots of laughter and fun - you've got a great group of girls there.

Things looking small? You may need to adjust your font size ...

I've gotten a couple of comments in the last two days that the fonts on our site are very difficult to read.

The design is actually setup to be very comfortable for most to read even up to 1280x1024 screen resolutions without a change in default font sizes. Since the vast majority of viewers are reading our site at a lower resolution of 1024x768, the site should be even more comfortably viewed.

In at least one of those cases, the viewer's browser had been set to display fonts at their smallest, making it impossible to read the site. (It's very easy to do this accidentally on the keyboard).

In both Internet Explorer and Mozilla, you can easily change your font display size and - if you are having this problem - it may be because your display is set to use smaller font sizes.

These graphics show how to change both browser's font sizes. On the left is IE and on the right is Mozilla:

I hope this helps and if the problem persists, please let me know!

California Kickoff Images Uploaded

The California Kickoff section of the site has been updated - all images from the tournament have been uploaded and are available for ordering.

Delta Valley Club Picture Information

If you are Delta Valley Volleyball Club member and looking for information about your upcoming team shoot, you can find the photography schedule, packages, pricing and pre-ordering ability here!

Back in the office (16 January 2007)

We're back! We are going through our emails and messages now and will be getting back to everyone as quickly as we can.

We have a small gallery of un-retouched images from the California Kickoff posted here.

Keep an eye out for an updated gallery soon!

Out of Office ...

Just a heads up to anyone that tries to get in touch with us or places a Photography Request over the next few days.

We'll be in Alameda photographing the 2007 California Kickoff and will be out of the office until Tuesday, 16 January.

So, don't expect any calls or emails from us during that time.

If you're at the Kickoff this weekend, be sure to come on by and say hello (and buy some pictures! :)

Important Notes (10 Jan 2007)

It has come to our attention that several of the tournaments on our calendar will be held in multiple locations.

We do not have the capability of photographing in more that one site per tournament. We have updated the Request form and the Tournament specific sections of our sites with notes regarding where we will be photographing for each multiple site tournament.

Please take note of this information when placing your request!

New Stuff (7 Jan 2007)

This section of our main page will be dedicated to noting any recent changes or additions to the site on an ongoing basis.

• Our Calendar of Events is updated for 2007 and online. Checkout where we will photographing this year so you can plan for us!
• We are now offer (and strongly recommend) online photography requests. We are actively taking requests for the entire 2007 season in advance. We are trying not to have to take requests during tournaments themselves so that we can better concentrate on helping you at the booth and getting you better images! Our goal is to be fully booked before the tournament begins, so if you wait for the tournament to put in a photography request, chances are good we may not be able to help you - so check out our calendar and put in your requests now!
• Events prior to 2007 have been expired. To order from prior seasons will require that you get in touch and there will be a small adminstrative fee for re-uploading the tournaments to our server.
• The What's New section of the site has been added to keep you up to date on what we've been working on since you last saw us at a club volleyball tournament. There's some great items that we're really excited about, so be sure to check it out.

Welcome to our site.

Welcome to our newly re-designed volleyball home on the web!

We hope that you find it easier to locate items of interest on this new site and we welcome any feedback you have regarding it.

As a very quick orientation to the site, content is organized into sections (like What's New, Event Calendar, etc.) and each section will have multiple entries related to that content. Each entry in a section will have a quick-jump link in the 'On this page' bar on the left side of the page, which is very handy for longer pages.

You can jump from section to section using the navigation bar below the header image on each page.