Monday, June 26, 2006

Montreal begins

In honor of me leaving for my annual trek to Montreal, I thought I'd throw up a photo from last year (I just hope the weather you see in this photo somehow becomes this week's weather too!)

This is a shot of the city skyline from Mont Royal. It was taken with my Canon powershot s200 point-and-shoot. This year, weather permitting, we'll likely go to Mont Royal again and I hope to take a cooler shot with my new camera. Hopefully the weather will hold.

Check back here throughout the week as I intend on updating this blog daily with new shots -- as long as the weather gives me the opportunity to take photos!

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Swing through it

Another photo from the state softball championship. I really liked this photo because I thought it showed a lot of action. From the swing, to the miss. It's also a pretty good swing because you can tell she is keeping her head down and all. This girl hit a bomb in the first game up there, but her team lost in the state championship. This team is incredible. Year in and year out. They've won our Section 12 straight years and made it to at least the state semis in 11 of those years. They have six state titles, although they've lost in the final the past two years.

Teach specs (75-300 mm lens): iso 800, 1/500th, f5.6.

To those who actually stop by this blog, sorry for the lack of daily updates recently. Work has been busy, so it's been hard to go out and take a lot of photos. However, I leave for Montreal in less than a week, so I think I'll have a ton of shots to hold me over for a while. I'll also be updating daily from up there as long as the hotel has the "free wireless" it says it has!

Saturday, June 17, 2006

Michael Jack Schmidt

When we went to Philadelphia earlier this year to catch a game and take a tour of the park, I actually got an unobstructed view of the statue of Michael Jack Schmidt. He's the man when it comes to Phillies, in my eyes. And a true Phillies phan knows it's Michael Jack Schmidt -- not just Mike Schmidt. It's too bad the Phils don't have a third baseman like him now!

Tech specs (18-55mm lens): iso 200, 1/2,500th, f4.

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Here's the pitch

I was happy I got this shot. I was actually attempting to get her in an early part of the windmill, but I snapped a little early. What that did was get me a shot of her as she was starting to go into her windmill motion. I like the look on her face, too, as it shows some determination. This was likely not enough action to worry about getting it into the paper, however. So I figured I'd share it here!

Tech specs (75-300mm lens): iso 400, 1/1,000th, f5.6.

(As always, click on the photo to see a larger image).

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Hold up!

I took a lot of softball photos covering the state softball tournament this weekend, so I'll probably have some up for the next couple of days. This one was actually in our paper as it was likely the best one I took over the weekend. Not too shabby, I thought. What I like about this is that it's a slap-hitter and she's pulling her bat back on a high pitch. The ball seems to be caught in motion.

It was kind of a crappy day out. Gray and cold. It had rained for several days before. I was actually shocked they got the games in. Of course it followed a 2 1/2 hour delay. But in the end, I left freezing. Good times! I'll have some other softball shots over the next couple days. I had forgot my monopod that day, so I didn't get a lot of great shots, unfortunately.

Tech specs (70-300 mm lens): iso 400, 1/1,000th, f5.6.

Monday, June 12, 2006

Americana

I had been wanting to take this shot for a while and did it in April. What I liked about it is it's in a rural area and that's a gate to block a private road. Shows an American who is proud, I think. The kicker is the posted sign on the left. Kind of reminds me of the ol' "Don't tread on me" saying!

Tech specs (18-55mm lens): 1/320, f6.3, iso 200. I'm pretty sure I was on one of the auto settings.

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

Another jump


For those of you who actually stop by this blog to check out my view of the world, allow me to apologize for the lapse in posts. For the past four or five days, every time I tried to access the part of this blog that would allow me to make a new post, it would time out or just not allow me into the page.

Now, things seem to be working, thankfully. So, let's get back to the photos! I need to get out and start shooting again because I'm starting to run out of shots! However, I have a couple I've held back as well going to the state softball tournament this weekend, so I should come away with different shots.

I opted to go with another high jump photo. As I was looking through some of the photos from the one track meet I shot, I really liked this one. It was of the girls high jump and this girl barely clipped the bar as she was going over. I thought I clicked it at the right time.

Tech specs (75-300mm lens): iso 800, 1/800th, f5.0. Lens extended to 105mm.

Saturday, June 03, 2006

Up and over!

I took a couple of shots of this kid on the high jump. Another one went in the paper and was a little better. But I figured I'd share this one as it wasn't published. His form seems a little off, but he ended up clearing around 6-0.

What I like about the photo is that it shows action, for one. Also, the weather that day was sketchy and rainy. So with that, his hair was wet. And as you can see, it shows his hair going up in what looks like a mohawk. Kind of a cool part. He also has a pretty good facial expression.

Tech specs (75-300mm lens): Extended to 90mm, iso 800, 1/800th, f6.3.

Thursday, June 01, 2006

Water falls


The came from one of the first days worth of shooting I did with my camera when I got it in January. It was a warmer winter day, so we wandered out to Falls Mills in Delhi and checked out the bottom set of falls. Got a lot of shots, but this was one of my favorites because you can see the whole set of falls as well as note that it is winter out.

Tech specs (35-80mm lens): Set at 35mm, iso 800, 1/160, f10.

This was also before I started using the manual choices. This was one of the auto modes.

(click to enlarge)