RWS Photography - Pittsburgh children's photography » Ivana Hong

“Purple” – i heart faces

Ryan — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 23:51:34 +0000

Since I spent the entire weekend watching gymnastics, I thought I would enter a gymnastics photo into this week’s i heart faces photo contest. The theme? Purple.

Link to the challenge page here.

Can’t hang it on the wall? Make it a book.

Ryan — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 09:00:48 +0000

This post is for all you gymnastics fans out there! Anyone? Bueller?

Last year after my trip to Nationals I was stuck with the dilemma of “what to do with all of my favorite photos from the meet?”

My solution? Photo books. I made a photo book to put on the shelf and keep the rest of my gymnastics books company. This was so much fun for me since many of my photos never make it off of my computer. Some of the lucky few (my absolute favorites) make it to my walls, but if I were to hang every photo I loved, there wouldn’t be a millimeter of clear space. Although, if you have ever been to my house, you probably know that adding more books to my overwhelming collection isn’t the greatest idea either. But hey, I can lie to myself and say that piles of books are a good thing, right?

This first book is a layflat hardcover book. When it sits on the shelf with my other books it looks right at home!

This second book is something I made for one of my gymnasts. We did a really fun photoshoot a few summers ago so I took a bunch of her photos from that day and put them into a little linen softcover book. I really love how this one came out. Of course, this one is much more personal to me.

You can see the linen paper pretty well in this shot.

A two-page spread.

I am in love with the photo on the right.

This last book is from a meet earlier this year. This was the first elite qualifying met I have ever been able to go to. I had a blast. It was so fun to be able to watch all of the up-an-coming gymnasts try to qualify for the presitigious National Championships. There was SO much talent in one meet!

Front cover

Two-page spreads.

And those photos I mentioned at the beginning of this post? You know, the hundreds of favorites for which I have no space? You can check them all out here.

Success!

Ryan — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 23:45:12 +0000

I have been an album-designing fiend lately, and I wanted to show you one that turned out much better than I thought it would! (You will have to excuse the terrible product photography going on here.)

I had been twirling ideas around in my head about making a hardcover book of my favorite photos from Nationals this year. I had a long debate with myself as to which company I wanted to try, and decided to go with Mpix Pro. I am a professional member with them and I love their quality, but I hadn’t tried any of their press products yet. The final decision ended up being an 8×12 hardcover layflat book. I love it!

This is the cover and two spreads.

This is a spread of the Junior and Senior National Teams, the binding, and a little outline of Ivana Hong I put on the spine.

It is now sitting on my bookshelf with all of my other gymnastics books and I am thinking I am going to make this my project for every major gymnastics meet I attend. What do you think?

If you missed out on the galleries from Nationals, they’re still here.

Nationals photos…the rest of the best

Ryan — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 19:28:36 +0000

So they are finally here…almost. I have started to process some of the 1,500 photos I took (As in I saved 1,500 photos. I took about 3,000.) from August 12th through the 15th.

I am starting with the Junior women’s prelim session and going alphabetically down the line. I have been able to add about 30 new photos per night so you can check out the galleries each morning for a little morning pick-me-up or you can wait until I announce that I have completed the uploads for each session (you’ll have to follow along on Facebook or Twitter if you want to know when that happens).

And a big “Thank You!” to all of the girls who are some of the most amazing subjects a photographer could ask for!

**Complete photo galleries from the 2009 Visa Championships**

First step to the World team is complete

Ryan — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 22:47:19 +0000

The Finals session for the Senior women at Nationals still managed to be exciting despite the diminished number of competitors. It was so much fun to try to guess who was going to win.

Probably the best thing of the entire week was the AA title coming down to the last two events. I think that is the first time since this open-ended code has been implemented that the end of a meet has been that exciting! Hit floor routines and STUCK vaults took it down to the wire. Any one of the top three girls had a chance to win it. Congratulations to Bridget on her new National AA Champion title!

2009-2010 Senior National Team
Jana Bieger, Coconut Creek, Fla., Bieger International Gymnastics
Rebecca Bross, Plano, Texas, WOGA Gymnastics
Mackenzie Caquatto, Naperville, Ill., Naperville Gymnastics Club
Kaitlyn Clark, Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., Precision Gymnastics
Olivia Courtney, Orlando, Fla., Orlando Metro Gymnastics
Ivana Hong, Lovejoy, Texas, WOGA Gymnastics
Kytra Hunter, Frederick, Md., Hill’s Gymnastics
Alaina Johnson, Tyler, Texas, Texas East Gymnastics
Mattie Larson, Los Angeles, All-Olympia
Anastasia Liukin, Parker, Texas, WOGA Gymnastics
Chellsie Memmel, West Allis, Wis., M&M Gymnastics
Samantha Peszek, Indianapolis, Ind., Sharp’s Gymnastics
Samantha Shapiro, Los Angeles, All-Olympia
Bridget Sloan, Pittsboro, Ind., Sharp’s Gymnastics
Cassandra Whitcomb, Cincinnati, Ohio, Cincinnati Gymnastics
Kayla Williams, Nitro, W.V., Gym Nest Inc.

Congratulations girls!

Good luck on your journey to World Championships!

Seniors – New faces and comebacks

Ryan — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 21:34:01 +0000

So many of the Seniors are in the process of coming back from their Olympic success last year. The downside to that is that there weren’t very many girls doing all events. The upside to that is that they went one at a time (a la Olympic Trials) so it was really easy to see every routine.

I have to give a “Congratulations!” to Kayla Williams from Bozhis. I have had the opportunity to watch her come up through the ranks since 2004 and it is great to see her on the National stage doing so well.