Back Row (Left to Right): Jonathan, Jeffrey, Derrick, Geoffrey, Wesley, James, Martin, Gordon, Elijah, Don
Front Row (Left to Right): Rachel, Cindy, Vivian, Candace, Eva
(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/5.6, 1/200, ISO 800, Flash @ TTL)
Front Row (Left to Right): Rachel, Cindy, Vivian, Candace, Eva
(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/5.6, 1/200, ISO 800, Flash @ TTL)
Great softball, bad photos. The first in a three-part series on quite possibly the best weekend of the entire summer. More after the break.
(Nikon D60, 18-55 VR @ 22mm, f/4, 1/1000, ISO 200)
Day didn't start the way I thought it would. I overslept. A lot. Woke up at around 12:30 PM, my first reaction to swear very loudly once I turned my head to my radio/alarm clock. Good thing no one was home. Quickly showering and bolting out of the house, I made the walk to the park. It wasn't too far - as mentioned earlier in the previous post. Team Nex Gen was the order of the day. The team was originally conceived last year by my friend Jon 'JT' Tenefrancia, comprised of folks from various CCSA junior teams. Most of the team has returned this year, with some new additions to help fill gaps left by folks who were playing on other teams that weekend, or opting out of the tournament altogether.
Being a tournament, the calibre of play was much higher than usual - significantly more than that of the CCSA. Granted, the CCSA is built more around the principles of community and ministry, rather than raw athletic ability. A lot of upper-echelon (aka, cream of the crop) CCSA players can often be found interspersed amongst the various teams, forming what I would analogize as 'CCSA All-Star Teams'. As such, gameplay was very smooth and organized. I for one, was thoroughly entertained.
So much so, that I was too busy gawking at such wonderful displays of talent - the wicked defensive plays, the solid hits, the occsional oh-my-goodness-I-did-not-see-that-coming act - that I failed to capture anything significant during the first day. At least, I felt like I could've done a much, much better job.
By comparison, one doesn't tend to see too many slides or dives in the CCSA. For one thing, you could really hurt yourself diving on the lower quality diamonds (the ones Formosan used comprised of finer, almost sand-like clay versus rough gravel), but the lower level of competition in that league means that competitive players may avoid doing so to avoid a very possible injury, or don't have the mental conditioning to go diving after a ball. Hell, I wouldn't. At Formosan on the other hand, dives, slides, and bare-handed plays were about as common and frequent as acne on a teenager's face. Word of warning folks, there are a lot more bad analogies to follow.
Photography-wise, there were a lot of opportunities to be had from both sides of the field. All the diamonds were wide enough such that I could stand near the first and third base lines in the infield with my back to the fence. I dared not stand anywhere near first and third base or beyond for my own safety. For one thing, each field was entirely fenced off, so I'd have nowhere to backpedal away from a searing line drive. With the way folks were lining it during the first game I shot, there was just no way I could convince myself to stand there. I was not interested in getting hit again.
The third-base line was good for getting plays at second and first, along with left handed batters. It was a bit of a tight squeeze with a 70-200 at third though, and didn't offer the best perspective for when a play actually happened at the base itself. Nonetheless, second was certainly seeing a lot of action with many players making slides with the intent of breaking up a double play. Above is shortstop Martin recovering quite quickly to tap second base with the ball in order to get the force-out. I found I had the best time shooting from the first base line though. A lot of plays were happening at third base, and suffice to say I was convinced that any team without a solid third baseman was going to die a slow, horrible death.
Such was the case with Nex Gen, where James (above) handled the position with ease (though not to detract from the brillant plays by the rest of the team). They were able to take their third game, easily plowing through the opposing team. Though I was told that such was not the case with their two earlier games, one of which they lost and another tied.
Also present was Nick, playing on team "Over 9000". Their name is a reference to a popular scene in a dubbed episode of Dragonball Z. In addition, the team was also composed largely (if not solely) of CCSA players - many of whom attend the University of Western Ontario. As Nex Gen's game was not due to start until around 8 PM, I hung around and shot a few frames from their game. Below is Edwin, making a brilliant snag at third.
Fast-forward a couple of hours, and Nex Gen's game kicked off. Didn't get as many shots as I wanted. Low-light was killing me. Though I was still able to get some decent shots despite having to shoot wide open and cranking the ISO way up. Of course, whilst yours truly was lollygaging behind his little electronic-clickything, Nex Gen was playing at the top of their game right when they needed to, in their final round-robin game of the tournament. A loss or a tie would mean that their tournament would end right then and there, but a critical win would ensure that they'd get at least one more game and a shot at the championship.
I'm sure if you were there, you could really feel the energy from the team. Every big play drew cheers, every bobble or missed throw was followed by reassuranced by fellow teammates, every run scored fought for. For a brief moment, I sort of wished I was on the team in the hopes that I could join in. Though I quickly squashed such a thought, realizing that I had not been physically active in the last four years, let alone expect to match the level of play I was watching unfold before my eyes.
Indeed, once the final out was made and the post-game duties concluded I was reassured that my role as a photographer was where I fit best, when I took the team photo at the very top (some folks would not be present the following day). Upon further reflection, it's probably the worst photo that I took all weekend, but I don't care. To have shot for a team with such great energy and enthusiasm was worth all the pain, sweat, and hassle to stand there all day and take photos.
The best part? Nex Gen won the game, and my weekend had barely just begun. Day 2, coming soon!
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