Day 178: New Digs

(Nikon D90, 18-55 VR @ 18mm, f.5.6, 1/10, ISO 800)

Oh yeah!  New desk!  Perhaps the most immediate change one would notice is the size and shape... and a new chair!  Woohoo!  The light normally doesn't face that way, but it was impeding on the photo.  Other than the contents on top of my desk though, everything else largely remains the same.  A lot of the paper mess is gone, and there's a ton of space that's been made available on the left side, which didn't exist before.  Spent the entire afternoon moving my desk down (which weighs a helluva a lot!) and then this desk up with my parents.  There was an upper portion too, but I elected to not keep that since it would've reduced (quite dramatically) the amount of surface area I had to just plop stuff down with, in addition to blocking the window. 

Nonetheless, it is done.  I wonder how long it'll take before I trash this desk too.

Day 177: The Last of Its Kind

(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/4, 1/80, ISO 400)

Yes.  I promise, there will be no more pictures of this desk ever again.  Save for a few brief periods of house renovations, this desk has been in this room for as long as I can remember.  Many years earlier, this desk belonged to one of my brothers.  It's been good times with this desk, but alas times change, and it's incredibly inconvenient for me to try and fumble with two laptops and find space to do any writing work on.  

Thus, it must go... downstairs.  More in the following post.

Day 176: Black and White

(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/5.6, 1/100, ISO 400, Flash @ TTL-BL)

Softball on a Friday?  Ekklesia in black and white?  Oh dear.  More after the break.

Day 175: Practice Thursday

(Nikon D90, Sigma 70-200 II @ ~105mm, f/4, 1/2000, ISO 400)

It's a Practice Thursday!  As the weeks go by, I find it becomes harder and harder to shoot these practices.  I suppose technically there isn't necessarily a reason for me to be there, but I enjoy the no-stress situation of these practices.  It's okay to experiment, go nuts, try different angles.  I can actually stand on the field, without actually interfering with a game.  Granted, I put my life (and the life of my camera) into my own hands, but I it's better than just standing at the same first or third base lines that I usually occupy.

(Nikon D90, Sigma 70-200 II @ ~86mm, f/3.5, 1/2500, ISO 400)

For today, I stuck mostly with the infielders.  They were running a different drill, to rectify something that one of the players noticed in the previous game.  Without going into significant details, the drill involved an infielder tossing a ball at second base, whilst another is running towards it.  Once they get the ball and step on the base, they're to throw to either third (very top photo) or to second (above).  It was a fairly predictable drill, but also one I hadn't seen before.  Thus, with my camera set to Continuous High, I gunned it at full speed whilst moving with the players as they ran through the routine repeatedly.  Came through with several bursts that I really liked, and even kept a few whole sequences for perhaps something interesting in the future.  

In keeping with last week, I also shot a few more headshots of a couple players.

Warren Mangahas (3B)

(Nikon D90, Sigma 70-200 II @ 200mm, f/4, 1/1000, ISO 400)

Patrick Leung (1B)

(Nikon D90, Sigma 70-200 II @ 200mm, f/4, 1/2000, ISO 400)

Day 174: Shakin' Baby!

(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/2.8, 1/160, ISO 640)

On this, normal sleep-in day (come to think of it, everyday has been a sleep-in day for me...) I awoke at around 1:45ish PM to my house shaking.  Since one is always at their height of wisdom and logic when they've just woken up, I made the logical decision to go back to sleep after about thirty seconds of 'shaking'.  I'll be honest when I say that it was actually quite enjoyable... kinda like a vibrating bed.  About an hour later I awoke, and in my usual habit, started checking my online stuff, such as Facebook and emails. 

Splattered all over my Facebook feed were messages like "did anyone else feel the earthquake" or "OMG EARTHQUAKE >___>".  Seeking confirmation, I tuned into the news downstairs, and lo-and-behold: an area north of Ottawa did indeed get hit by a magnitude 5.0 earthquake.   Nothing significant really happened.  I think people were more shaken up (pun intended) than the buildings. 

As for me, just another day in the life of, I suppose.

Day 173: More Catch-Up Tuesday

(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/2.8, 1/50, ISO 640)

Well, it's clearly becoming a trend now that I spend my Tuesdays resting and relaxing from the previous weekend.  This week is no different.  Took some time to import photos from the previous day, as well as sort and sift through games that haven't been looked through in detail yet.  Yup.  Good ol' boring catch-up Tuesday. 

More to come.

Day 172: Ultimate Mondays

(Nikon D90, Sigma 70-200 II @ ~200mm, f/4, 1/400, ISO 640)

The Quick Dumpers were once again pulverized...

Or... not.  More after the break.

Day 171: Growing Phase

(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/2.8, 1/200, ISO 800)

My brother and his family stopped by on Father's Day for dinner.  Of course, that meant that Katelyn would be present too!  It's only been about six weeks since I last saw her, but she continues to grow and learn!  To some extent, she's able to eat on her own during dinner.  Although like most kids she picked out only what she liked, which in today's case was corn.

(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/2.8, 1/250, ISO 800)

After dinner, she ran around in our living room.  At one point she started dancing (top photo), and shortly after that proceeded to grab a few tissues to wipe her nose.  Problem was, she had no runny nose.  Just one of this mischievous phases I suppose, but still incredibly cute!

(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/2.8, 1/40, ISO 640)

Nothing spectacular about the camera settings.  Everything was natural light.  Our house faces west, and so the setting sun pretty much lit up the entire room.  Still, I didn't want to take chances with a speedy Katelyn so I gunned it on Continuous High at around ISO 800 on Aperture Priority at f/2.8.  Kids are hard to keep up with.  

Now I know what my brothers might've gone through with me when I was that small, hehe.  More to come.

Day 170: Blue Skies, Black Jerseys

. 

(Nikon D90, Sigma 70-200 II @ ~105mm, f/4, 1/2000, ISO 200)

Much to my surprise and to everyone else's, the weather held out.  If anything we got the exact opposite of thunderstorms - clear skies and bright sunlight.  That's all well and good unless you're out there with a black Ekklesia uniform or me with a dark navy blue T-shirt.  In my defence, I thought it was going to rain and opted to not wear a lighter colour shirt.  Heat issues aside, at least it was a nice day for some good ol' softball.  Some photos from the game, below:

(Nikon D90, Sigma 70-200 II @ 70mm, f/4, 1/640, ISO 160)

(Nikon D90, Sigma 70-200 II @ ~70mm, f/4, 1/2000, ISO 200)

(Nikon D90, Sigma 70-200 II @ ~145mm, f/4, 1/1600, ISO 200)

(Nikon D90, Sigma 70-200 II @ ~120mm, f/4, 1/3200, ISO 400)

(Nikon D90, Sigma 70-200 II @ ~70mm, f/4, 1/1600, ISO 250)

The game went well, with both teams making smart plays all around and fighting for every run.  No quarter was given by either side, with the score see-sawing back and forth during the early half of the game.  Even towards the latter end, Ekklesia didn't maintain a massive lead and the game remained intense right up until the last out.  By far the most enjoyable game I have watched this season.

Not a bad way to kick off a mid-season break.  Next games are on July 4th.

Day 169: Rain, Rain, Go Away

(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/8, 1/50, ISO 800)

T'was the Friday before the softball game on Saturday and the forecast called for, of course - thunderstorms!  Woohoo, just great.  Rain wasn't that bad - if it was light enough and didn't accumulate on the infield, the game would likely still be played.  Lightning on the other hand, was an entirely different story.  That's not exactly something you could brush off your shoulders.  With thunder storms though, there usually also incredibly heavy rain... so it's kinda like two stones killing one bird. 

Nonetheless, to avoid last week's foul up, I just opted to pack all my stuff and decided that I would be there, and be there early regardless of what the weather was.  Thankfully the umbrella was never needed, at least not during the game.  More on that in the next post.

Day 168: Practice Thursday

(Nikon D90, Sigma 70-200 II @ 78mm, f/4, 1/1000, ISO 200)

A nice, sunny day for softball practice.  Rather than showing the usual ragtag photos of folks doing the same thing (okay, we gotta have one for the headlining photo), I'd thought I'd go for a different approach - candid headshots.  

Grace "Gracie" Lee (2B/Rover)
(Nikon D90, Sigma 70-200 II @ 160mm, f/4, 1/2000, ISO 200)

Chihymn "Chi" Chan (1B - 2009 season)
(Nikon D90, Sigma 70-200 II @ 200mm, f/4, 1/800, ISO 200)

Cindy Huang (2B/Rover)
(Nikon D90, Sigma 70-200 II @ 200mm, f/4, 1/800, ISO 200)

Jordan Sit (3B)
(Nikon D90, Sigma 70-200 II @ 170mm, f/4, 1/1600, ISO 200)

Brian Leung (SS)

(Nikon D90, Sigma 70-200 II @ 112mm, f/4, 1/1000, ISO 200)

Not your usual practice shoot per say, but one that I liked nonetheless.  All shots were made in available light, in Aperture Priority.  The best part?  Shooting and processing took all of ten minutes.  All of these were shot within minutes of each other, whilst the infielders were having a pre-drill briefing.  This of course, isn't all of them, but perhaps we'll see something a little more concrete/formal in the future.  Sports portraits on the horizon perhaps?

Day 167: Closing The Gap

(Nikon D60, 35mm DX, f/1.8, 1/60, ISO 100)

Slowly but surely over the last week, I've been trying to eradicate this backlog of blog posts that've been building up.  Hopefully by today or tomorrow, it will have been cleared.  Workin' on it folks!

Day 166: Idling

(Nikon D60, 35mm DX, f/1.8, 1/25, ISO 800)

As usual, Tuesday is generally the 'take-it-easy' day for me.  One in which I kick back a little bit, and not have to worry too much about dodging softballs or getting bulldozed by an Ultimate player laying out for a disc whilst standing on the sidelines.  As such, most of my camera gear sits idle on my desk, or in it's bag if I haven't taken it out from the previous day's shooting.  

Running around taking pictures is fun, but sometimes one needs some downtime.

Day 165: Ultimate Mondays

(Nikon D90, Sigma 70-200 II @ 200mm, f/2.8, 1/200, ISO 1600)

It's an Ultimate Monday post!  This week we're back at Cherry Beach, which means it's time to crank up the ISOs and hope like hell that all the action takes place on my half of the endzone, since there were no sidelines this week. 

(Nikon D90, Sigma 70-200 II @ ~86mm, f/2.8, 1/200, ISO 1600)

Overall, I was once again happy with how well the camera held up.  Noise wasn't too much of an issue, and shutter speeds were decent enough.  Either someone cranked up the lights, or shooting from the other end of the field had something to do with it.

(Nikon D90, Sigma 70-200 II @ ~120mm, f/2.8, 1/200, ISO 1600)

Shot the entire game in Manual, wide open at 1/200, ISO 1600.  AF was set to AF-C, Dynamic AF, Continuous High shooting (4.5 fps).  Didn't want to risk the meter going nuts on me when it saw all the black background, so Manual was practically a necessity.  As with softball, a little situational awareness and peripheral vision goes a long way to prefocussing on a particular play that looks like it's just about to unfold.

(Nikon D90, Sigma 70-200 II @ ~70mm, f/2.8, 1/200, ISO 1600)

Gameplay-wise, the Quick Dumpers managed to do better today.  Though still a loss, they played quite aggressively against the other team, and certainly didn't go down without putting up a good fight.  Playoff games happen on the 21st and 28th, to determine the teams' final rankings.  Then it's off to the summer season!

(Nikon D90, Sigma 70-200 II @ ~70mm, f/2.8, 1/200, ISO 1600)

Day 164: Desk in Progress

(Nikon D90, 18-55 VR @ 26mm, f/4.2, 1/50, ISO 400)

Oh yeah.  It's a desk picture baby.  Plans are in motion to swap my desk with a larger and more laptop-friendly one from downstairs in the hous.e  As such, I've been working to slowly clean my desk.  Hoping to make the move in about two weeks (so... it'll probably pop up somewhere in Day 178ish?).  Until then! 

Keepin' this one short.

Day 163: Don't Rain On My Parade

(Nikon D90, Sigma 70-200 II @ ~200mm, f/4, 1/1000, ISO 800)

A little rain never hurt anyone, but how about a lot of it? 

Day 162: Daylight

(Nikon D90, 18-55 VR @ 18mm, f/8, 1/13, ISO 200)

It was something like, 7:30ish PM and it was still pretty bright outside.  A far cry from the dark days of Winter.  A shame that Summer solstice is fast approaching.  T'was a nice, bright Friday and I was honestly hoping that the weather would hold out for the following day, where Ekklesia was set to play two games.  Alas, that wouldn't be the case.  

Day 163, coming soon.

Day 161: Super (Practice) Thursday

(Nikon D90, Sigma 70-200 II @ 185mm, f/4, 1/640, ISO 200, Post EV +0.67)

It's a practice Thursday!  Caught the above pic of Ekklesia outfielder Albert Kong briefing the outfielders on their drills this week.  This wasn't just any regular Thursday though!  Spent part of the day with Mother Nature and Dave as we once again went for a photohike.  Much more to come, after the break!

Day 160: Gridlock

(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/2.8, 1/60, ISO 500)

Spent the day sifting through the hundreds of photos from the previous Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.  Not much else to say, except that probably 80% of it eventually ended up getting dumped, as per my standard.  I know, I know... maybe I should just shoot less.  I'm workin' on it. :-)

Day 159: Kickback Tuesday

(Nikon D60, 18-55 VR @ 20mm, f/5.6, 1/13, ISO 400)

After a hectic threedays, I took it easy that particular Tuesday.  Though I figured I'd have a little fun by posing the equipment a bit.  If those three days taught me anything, it's that I need a couple extra memory cards.  Especially during the Duane Forrest concert, where I gunned it and practically loaded up the two 4 GB cards that I allocate to my D90.  Alas, memory is often pricey (to me at least), and I prefer to only purchase them whilst they're on sale.  In the meantime, guess I'll have to become a bit more disciplined in my shooting, which couldn't hurt either.

Day 158: Ultimate Mondays

(Nikon D90, Sigma 70-200 II @ ~200mm, f/4, 1/640, ISO 200)

Finally, an Ultimate game where I'm not shooting under crappy field lights or cloud cover.  A somewhat uneventful game, as the Quick Dumpers in were once again pulverized. 

(Nikon D90, Sigma 70-200 II @ 200mm, f/4, 1/1600, ISO 200)

Granted, the margin by which they're losing is continuing to dwindle, and the team as a whole is showing marked improvements.  The initial ad-hoc appearing team is now communicating a lot better, and folks are continuing to learn from one another's mistakes.  It no longer seems like 'just a fluke' that they happen to score a point - to that end, they at least put up a good fight before going down. 

(Nikon D90, Sigma 70-200 II @ ~112mm, f/4, 1/2500, ISO 200)

As the season winds down, it seems likely that their winless streak will continue - I have yet to still see this team (the core of which was the same as last year) win, but that's not really the reason I continue to shoot for these fine folks.  Much like Ekklesia, it's the camaraderie that keeps me going.  Honestly, one couldn't ask for a better bunch of folks to shoot for.  To be with either of these teams, is to be in good company.

Day 157: Softball Sunday

(Nikon D90, Sigma 70-200 II @ ~70mm, f/4, 1/1250, ISO 250)

Originally scheduled for this day was a double header for Ekklesia, but heavy rain from the night before pounded the field (as I found out when I arrived at an empty field).  Unfortunately, no other parks were available to reschedule the first game, but the second one was luckily moved to another park nearby.  So game on it was!

(Nikon D90, Sigma 70-200 II @ ~70mm, f/2.8, 1/1600, ISO 1000)

What was apparently a not-so close game (in favour of Ekklesia) seemed quite the opposite - several other players along with myself got caught up in the intensity of the game.  Shooting-wise, it was the same old stuff.  Though I found myself switching to Spot Metering in order to avoid having the camera overexpose the scene.

(Nikon D90, Sigma 70-200 II @ ~160mm, f/2.8, 1/640, ISO 1600)

Keepin' it short.  There's still more photos to sift through, so hopefully more posts will come shortly.

(Nikon D90, Sigma 70-200 II @ 170mm, f/2.8, 1/1600, ISO 1600)

Day 156: An Apple a Day...

(Nikon D90, 18-55 VR @ 18mm, f/5.6, 1/60, Flash @ TTL + 0.7 EV)

...keeps the soul in good spirits.  Well, that's if the apple in question is one from Duane Forrest.  This particular Saturday saw the release of Duane's first album: Apple in the Tree - Act 1: Chercher.  More after the break.

Day 155: "Free"dom of Choice

(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/5.6, 1/40, ISO 400)

Red or blue?  Which do you choose?

Day 154: Practice Thursday

(Nikon D90,Sigma 70-200 II @ 200mm, f/2.8, 1/1000, ISO 800)

Talk about kicking the can... or... hitting it with a well-aimed throw!  T'was just another typical Practice Thursday, with both the infield and outfield running their respective drills.  Above is a drill for the outfielders, to help them with their aim.

(Nikon D90, Sigma 70-200 II @ 92mm, f/2.8, 1/800, ISO 800)

Above is Albert Kong, tossing a pitch during some hitting practice that was taking place for those who arrived early.  Despite the rain, the field held up relatively well, and showed no signs of puddling.  A few outfielders however did return with soggy socks.  Below is a drill being executed by some of the infielders, involving run-downs.

(Nikon D90, Sigma 70-200 II @ 92mm, f/2.8, 1/640, ISO 800)

Keepin' it short.  More soon.