HAPPY NEW YEAR 2012

 The story about the owner and key photographer of CEI Sports, Charles Sotto

 The Photography of Charles Sotto - Cincinnati Scenic/Sports Photographer

In 1975, at the age of 14, Charles picked up his first camera. He tried to experiment with many subject matters. His journey took him through taking  pictures of family events, flowers, trees, and buildings. His love for photography grew by figuring out things like lighting and other techniques that were necessary to "GET THE RIGHT SHOT".

After some photography courses while in high school, he knew that this hobby was something that he enjoyed very much.

 In high school, he was asked by the school newspaper to cover sports. He had never thought that taking pictures of school events like this would be fun.

It was more than fun. It turned into a passion. Charles graduated from Sycamore High School, in Cincinnati Ohio. He went on to the University of Cincinnati and enrolled in the College of Art and Sciences. He earned his degree in the field of Economics.

 While attending UC, he became involved in working with the school Newspaper, The News Record.

 His passion for sports gave him more opportunity to hone his skills shooting, football, basketball, and current events on campus. His assignments also included covering the entertainment circuit in Clifton. This included taking photos of local bands and some National acts, like Huey Lewis and the News, Boston and other Jazz musicians like Kenny G and Jeff Lorber.

 Charles graduated from the University of Cincinnati with a degree in Economics. Although his degree was not in the art of photography, he was able to augment his income with many cool images of the city of Cincinnati that were sold in local gift shops and even some large department stores that he composed and produced as a finished product.

His passion led him into the Television and Motion Picture Broadcasting industry where he learned how to work with television cameras and video taping equipment.

He continued to shoot subject matter that was marketed in the local stores and his style began to take form.

 After successfully learning about the Broadcast television industry, he secured a position with Sony, which gave him the opportunity as an executive. He held the  position of National Account Manager in the Hollywood television and film industry.

 Charles spent close to 10 years in that market, and had the responsibilities of demonstrating and selling equipment to many famous people that created television shows for the National U.S. market. Charles was fortunate enough to become a part of the design team that created the direct to home satellite business, now known as DirecTv. His business and relationship building skills help play a key role in the development of Sony participating in designing digital video and proprietary software and workflow processes in the business model that was during the infancy of the mpeg world.

 After spending over 18 years in the broadcast industry, he continued to travel the country and shoot sports images of baseball and football. In 2003, Charles left the industry to further develop his sports photography business under the name of CEI Sports.  Charles took his knowledge and skills and applied them to the local sports photography industry at the pro, collegiate and high school levels.

 Charles has been published in many national, regional, and local magazines. His latest publications were in Spin Magazine for the film by Barking Fish Entertainment on the Documentary film of the life of Pete Rose during his playing career in baseball. Charles is an Associate Producer in this film and his work and many other images that he solely owns are being used in the movie production.

CEI Sports was contracted to capture all of the still images used in the movie production.

 Charles specializes in action sports, aerial, and architectural photography. His services are available by contacting him through CEI Sports in Cincinnati Ohio.

 CEI Sports has acquired the rights to many other images besides the Sotto pics. They own outright all the images and works of William F Schildman Photography. They have also purchased images from the WLW Crosley library and The Arthur Rickerby library.  Over 50,000 images are owned by the CEI Sports library!

October 20, 2011  

Hello Everyone!

Here are our upcoming events:

Ken Griffey Sr signing

George Foster signing

Mike Lum private signing November 21st

Holiday Gift Show Nov 18-20  Cincinnati Convention Center

Redsfest December 2-3

Bobby Tolan and Pat Darcy will be our guests in our booth

on Saturday Decmber 3rd

Holiday Hours for CEI Sports Blue Ash will be extended to include the weekends after Reds fest until Dec25th.

December 6th 2010

I want to thank you all for a great experience at Redsfest this year. It was our best so far! Many great patrons returned yet again to get 

updated on all our new designs and ideas. We sold out of many of the new items and apologize for not having enough to meet the overwhelming demand for those items. We have more back at the store, so stop on in.

Happy Holidays from CEI Sports!

May 1, 2010

So many things have happened since our last report so here's a bit of what we've been up to :

Tony Pike signing in March: What a great guy. Free autographs to all who attended

David Fulcher signing in March: you couldn't ask for anyone better than "Fo Rock"
 

Mardy Gilyard signing in early April:  He's the best.- Items now in stock.

Johnny Bench-Tony Perez-Pete Rose-Joe Morgan private signings at CEI through the month of April  Thanks to all who participated

and of course, the Crowning of the Hit king project.  Read about in NOW in Spin Magazine

CEI Sports and Barking Fish Entertainment have entered into an agreement to work on a documentary telling the story of the playing career of Pete Rose. This will be a made for theatrical release in September 2010. Watch the trailer, www.4192movie.com for a little taste.  CEI Sports will be a part of this production in coordination and support for still material in it's 50,000 image library. Many new images exclusively owned by CEI Sports will be seen from their library, in this production.

October 21, 2009 

CEI Sports will once again participate as a sponsor of Redsfest 2009

Two former 1976 Reds retired players will be appearing in the CEI Sports Booth  on Saturday.

Pat Zachry, the 1976 Rookie of the Year, and catcher Bill Plummer will be in attendance in the CEI Booth. Tickets are 10.00 each for any item.

One autograph per ticket. Stay tuned for more information in the coming weeks.

Septmber 19, 2009 

CEI Sports hosts Hall Of Famer Tony Perez for a public signing at Sports Depot - Newport on the Levee.

It was a great time for all who attended as Tony was signing multi signed items for a reduced price for the first time since the Big Red Machine show last year which was also hosted by CEI Sports. A nice steady crowd of young and old, got a chance to talk baseball with Tony since the new book, The Machine, was released this past week. Tony was surprised at some of the stories and was laughing along with the crowd.

 September 6, 2009

CEI Sports covered and captured the film and digital images of  the Elder / Colerain Matchup - this was a nationally televised game on ESPN. New pictures of the game,  The PIT, and other Elder images are available through the Elder Bookstore  call Dee Dee at 513-921-3744  We have many images available today! Please specify what angle and what size.

August 17th, 2009

 Johnny Gomes visits CEI Sports
on Monday August 17th after his amazing
3 Homerun game on August 13th

Baseballs signed "3HR 8/13/09 available for 59.00

regular baseballs signed 49.00

8x10 signed photos 39.00

16x20's signed 59.00  or signed and framed for 149.00

available now!

May 22, 2009 Cincinnati OH

CEI Sports acquires autographs from the following athletes:

Adam Rosales - Reds Rookie Infielder,  Joey Votto - Reds Infielder, Chris Dickerson - Reds Outfielder, Johnny Cueto - Reds Pitcher      Don Gullett - Former Reds and Yankees Pitcher, Johnny Bench - Former Reds Catcher and Hall Of Famer, Pete Rose - All Time Hit King,   Dave Concepcion - Former Reds Infielder and Reds Hall Of Famer, Ken Griffey Sr. - Former Reds and Yankees Outfielder, George Foster, Former Reds and Mets Outfielder.  Pricing and inventory of these players are now available. call us at 513-489-3400 for more info.

April 1, 2009 - Cincinnati OH

 Visit our latest commercial installation at Skyline Chili Downtown 4th and Sycamore St. Over 50 images now adorn this great restaurant with the theme represented in Reds players and Cincinnati ballpark images.  This design also includes images from the CEI library and the Schildman photo library of historic images.  This is an ongoing project and continues to expand periodically, based on the clients needs. CEI Sports, is a Cincinnati Ohio based company specializing in sports memorabilia, custom graphics design, digital photo printing, and commercial custom image framing and installations. for more information, contact 513-489-3400 ext 20 or you may send us an email at ceisports@gmail.com.