Day 238: Practice Thursday

(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/2.8, 1/30, ISO 1600)

The last Practice Thursday post for the year.  It's been a good run, and a long one at that.  The usual practice with folks going over their drills and some such.  Once again, I shifted towards doing some video stuff rather than shotguning in more photos than I really needed to have (I promise I'll get around to editing that soon).

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

Took note of the nice clouds towards the latter end of practice.  Did not take note of my ISO rating.  D'oh.  Well, still looks pretty.

(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/2.8, 1/2000, ISO 1600)

Shortly thereafter, we departed Warden Park for the last time this season.  Big weekend posts coming up  soon.

(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/2.8, 1/2000, ISO 1600)

Day 237: Just Keeps On Goin'

(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/2.8, 1/1000, ISO 200)

Been sidelined by school.  Photography has pretty much ground to a halt for the most part with the periodic blip here and there.  

Likewise (as I'm sure you've noticed) blog posts have just kept on piling.  Went downtown on what should've been a day off, to attend a TEDxRyersonU marketing team meeting.  Not too much to talk about, as it was pretty brief.  Got on the bus at the right time though, as it started pouring about ten minutes in.

Keeping this one short.  Tomorrow would be Ekklesia's last practice.  

More to come.

Day 236: Cozy At Home

(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/2.8, 1/125, ISO 200)

Been out a lot the last couple of weeks, so I decided to take the day off and just relax at home as I was bound to be out every other day of the week for one reason or another.  Post processed the photo a little heavily with some Fill Light and Recovery in Lightroom.  

More to come soon.

Day 235: Ultimate Mondays

(Nikon D90, Sigma 70-200 II @ ~130mm, f/2.8, 1/250, ISO 3200)

First playoff game of the summer season, though it felt like a regular game to me.  As always, games would either be at one of two places, Sunnybrook Park during the evening, or Cherry Beach at night.  You can probably tell where the game took place judging by the picture, or looking at my Aperture/Shutter Speed/ISO settings. ;~)

 (Nikon D60, 35mm DX, f/2, 1/250, ISO 800)

This week's team was a rather interesting bunch.  Tall hulking folks that liked to make long passes and - in the case of a few of them - trick throws.  It was kind of like a "David and Goliath"-esque match up... physically. 

 (Nikon D90, Sigma 70-200 II @ ~130mm, f/2.8, 1/250, ISO 3200)

Early on the Quick Dumpers got stung pretty badly by said long passes, but after team captain Lawrence called a time out to outline a solid defense (as pictured above, with Lawrence showing how it's done) the team began to stop the bleeding and start clawing back with a few points.

(Nikon D90, Sigma 70-200 II @ ~130mm, f/2.8, 1/250, ISO 3200)

In the end QD ended up losing, but not before putting on a wicked show of blocks and interceptions.  In my mind, they won, although the scoreboard would disagree with me... but who cares about that right?  Scores are overrated.

(Nikon D90, Sigma 70-200 II @ ~185mm, f/2.8, 1/250, ISO 3200)

Day 234: The Home Stretch

(Nikon D90, 18-55 VR @ 18mm, f/8, 1/500, ISO 800)

This weekend was the first week of playoffs for the CCSA Senior Division.  The first two rounds would be played during this weekend with two divisions playing on Saturday and two more playing on Sunday.  Since Ekklesia finished at the top of their division, they received a bye to the second round of playoffs and thus were only required to play one game out of the whole weekend.  They would be squaring off against Missisauga Chinese Baptist Church Messengers who were able win their first game earlier in the day.

(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/4, 1/640, ISO 200)

There was one snag however.  One of the parks - Parkway - got hit hard by the bad weather over the weekend and was pretty much knocked out of commission for the day.  All games scheduled at that park were thus bumped to the park that Ekklesia was playing at, leading to twice the number of games being squeezed into the same amount of time.  Despite the extra hecticness though all teams managed to take it in stride.

(Nikon D90, Sigma 70-200 II @ ~145mm, f/4, 1/800)

If you recognize a familiar face on the other team, then you're correct.  Joanna (above two photos) from Quick Dumpers was playing on Messengers - pitting her against her own church.  All in good fun of course. 

(Nikon D90, Sigma 70-200 II @ ~82mm, f/4, 1/800)

For the most part Ekklesia managed to keep things under control for most of the game, though the Messengers did rally during one of the later innings in which they scored six of their seven runs.  Quite the inning where everything seemed to go right for them, including some big hits, nice runs, and capitalizing on some Ekklesia errors.

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

After that inning though, Ekklesia managed to stop the bleeding and rebuild on their lead, eventually winning the game.  Good time was had by all, and there was a ton of support from ETCBC too.  Afterwards most of the team as well as several of the fans headed off to our beloved season-long pub: The Owl and Firkin.  

A good start to the playoffs.  On paper the playoff road favoured Ekklesia going to the finals, but of course no one was taking anything for granted.  Still, a win meant that the season was extended at least one more week for the team meaning that you, the reader get at least one more weekend's worth of softball blogging.  

More to come.

Day 233: United

(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/2.8, 1/1600, ISO 200)

Lazy Saturday.  Headed out to the nearby CCSA diamond to catch a game that Themelios was umpiring.  Also playing was TCAC United, a team whom I shot for the season prior. 

(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/2.8, 1/2500, ISO 200)

Didn't really shoot much during the game.  Left the house light, with only a 35mm and D90 in a small shoulder bag and periodically ripped some frames from the first base side of home plate.  Kept mostly on the low, pretty much chatting with Elijah in-between innings.

(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/2.8, 1/640, ISO 200)

Was interesting to watch United.  Though most of the team remained the same as last year, it looks like they've spent a lot of time honing their skills.  Plays were smoother, and hitting - especially from their girls - a lot more consistent.  Below are a few more frames from the day.

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

(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/2.8, 1/400, ISO 200)

(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/4, 1/125, ISO 200)

Headed out to dinner with some of the folks from Themelios afterwards.  Then proceeded to York Mills park with Elijah to catch the very end of a Dunamis game.  Capped off the day with Elijah and JT with some evening gaming.  Great start to the weekend, and it's only going to get better with Ekklesia playoffs scheduled for the next day.  More to come!

Day 232: Shine A Light

(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/4.5, 1/50, ISO 200, Off-Camera flash)

It's a TEDxRyersonU Friday!  Just some work in progress stuff in this post.  Started shooting the group portraits, for which the idea is essentially based off of what Zach Arias did for the Gulf Photo Plus group photo back in 2009.

(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/4.5, 1/50, ISO 200, Off-Camera flash)

The idea is simple enough:  Hover a speedlight over someone, make sure you nail focus and exposure, then bring it all together in Photoshop with some layer masking and some-such.  Shot entirely on the 35mm lens, with my camera stationary on a tripod.  Focus confirmation was done via live-view as determining via the viewfinder would've been way too difficult and the fact that I don't completely trust the lens' ability to focus on something so small.

(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/4.5, 1/50, ISO 200, Off-Camera flash)

Flash was an SB-900 on good ol' manual.  Triggered via the D90's pop-up flash.  Power was in the range of 1/40 to 1/32ish.  Didn't have to pump that much in given the proximity of the flash to the subject's face. 

(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/5.6, 1/50, ISO 200, Off-Camera flash)

Still working on the final product, and awaiting a few other members to have their photo taken.  Will update when the final product is complete!