So… I still got some shooting in today, just a bit… in the first NIAA 1A State Championship game Virginia City faced Pahranagat Valley…  These shots are from that game. (side note, Game 2 in the books, Pahranagat Valley is the 1A State Champ!)

Having only seen NIAA Northern 4A baseball… seeing this game was interesting!

First let me say… photographically, the light was AMAZING today!!  Check out the photos, NO shadows on the ground!  That’s a DREAM!  You also don’t get the nasty harsh shadows across the faces that hats create!  My findings are this is very rare for an outdoor stadium in late May….  I’ll take it!

What appears to be an OUCH pending… but… it led to the next photo…

So… this photo isn’t all that interesting or impressive or… but it’s the first time I have every taken a photo of the player to the left of the umpire throwing the ball to third… I can’t even say 99 times out of 100 you have the catcher to the right (it’s more…)… I thought it just looked odd, things out of place…  This throw to third was a very common occurrence in this first game as the Virginia City team was being very aggressive with the base running. Here’s another… the result was a stolen base for Virginia City.

(remember I mentioned the light… check out the lack of shadows on the ground and on the faces…!!!)

Photo lesson time…

See the next two photos.  Focus on the ball.

Just last night someone asked me about cameras… what should they buy? Here’s a perfect example of how your settings effect your results…  This first shot was taken at 1/800th of a second.  See how the ball is elongated, like a tube?  That’s at 1/800th of a second.  The second shot was taken at 1/3200th of a second… the ball is STILL blurred a bit but not nearly as much as the first image… to freeze the action, you can see what you’re facing!

… and to finish… just some other random shots… nothing as exciting as the last game’s photos…

I really like how the colors of the Pahranagat Valley team’s jerseys POP!  That bright yellow against the blue… call me a simple color guy… primary and secondary colors at their best!  :) (my family is rolling their eyes at my color wheel soap box…)Laying down a bunt… This was a VERY VERY different place for me to have to be… I’m used to much better “access” at home.  :)  more photo lessons… never a dull moment in the life of a photographer.

The second game, Manogue vs. Galena was a great baseball game… probably the best I’ve seen all year.  I think all the elements that make up a great “competition” all wrapped up into one game… and right until the end it was a close battle… It’s always very interesting for me to see new teams and see their “style”…. Galena took the win from Manogue ending Manogue’s run today.  Galena will play Damonte tomorrow at 1:00 PM at Manogue (the Regional host) and the winner of that will play McQueen at 4:00 PM.

I’m going to get straight to the photos because I have some that I’m very happy with after all the action today!  Some really fun stuff!!

This throw didn’t quite hit the mark… Rory knocked it down to keep it close… made for a pretty cool shot!

This one hit the mark and the runner’s out!

I haven’t seen TJ pitch since 2008… the look on his face when I told him I was going to dig one out of the archives…  Not trying to embarrass you TJ, just showing where you’ve come from…

This shot is from the 2008 Hooligan tournament in Gardnerville…  I’ll remember this tournament for a long time!  Carson American and Carson National ended up meeting each other in the Semi-Final… TJ was “notorious” for that tournament, he threw it hard, I think he hit a few kids… he was “feared”!  :)  Good times!

… and on to the second game…

There was A LOT of action in this one!This is actually a bit out of historic sequence… but… the helmet and the arm wrapped around the leg… I love it all!I covered Ryan at Douglas a few years ago… I wish the ball was in this shot but the runner blocked that shot, love the flying throw!This was a great effort to keep the ball in the infield… but it wasn’t quite enough… and led to the next shot….

This is one of my favorite of the year!  It has a lot of things that sum up the game!... and late in the game a very LOOONNNGGG stretch for an out!

In the end Carson took the win from Douglas 7-6 to advance in the NIAA 4A Northern Regional Championships.  At 1:00 PM Tomorrow Carson will face Damonte Ranch who upset Manogue in the first round 1-0 and who lost today to the League Ranked #2 Reno High team today.  The 4:00 PM game at Carson tomorrow will be Galena vs. Manogue.

Here are some photos from today’s action.

My season shooting Douglas started with a very similar photo to this first one of Caleb Foster.  Stay tuned everyone… Caleb’s a freshman!

I needed a horizontal shot of TJ to replace a photo in “the book”….  Hope you like this one better TJ! We were all kinda scratching out heads on this play…  Sorry Carter…I just had to get that leg kick… trick is though he doesn’t do it when there are runners on base… so you have to watch and notice these types of things.… one of Senior Cody Begovich’s last at bats as a high school player…
Gonna pick on Carter a bit more… (Sorry Carter…)  This photo reminds me of a goalkeeper coach (soccer, and no, I didn’t play goalkeeper but when you’re young you learn all the positions…) that I had a VERY VERY long time ago (about ten year before these fellas were even born…)… but he said something that has stuck with me all this time… “… always make it look easy…”  I’ve included this photo to poke a little fun at Carter but also to make mention of what I’ll call some photographic luck.  Carson’s field sits such that the sun blasts in later in the afternoon making a lot of what you’re shooting backlit… So if you’re paying attention you can get a really cool rim light effect around a player from the sun… like in this photo, see the top of his arm and the side of his face, the top of his leg, his glove, etc… but here, the underside of his arm is being lit by his white pants reflecting back onto his arm, almost as if you were using a reflector or a light source to get some light there… kinda cool luck! (I know, photo geek stuff…)

Carson hosted Galena in the first round of the NIAA 4A Northern Region High School Championships.  The Grizzlies jumped out to a lead in the early stages of the game an never looked back… hitting a grand slam to beat the Senators 8-2.

Galena goes on to meet McQueen at McQueen tomorrow while Carson hosts Douglas at home tomorrow at 4:00 PM… another Carson Douglas matchup…

Here are a few shots from today… I tried a few new things today… the idea is a touch more “extreme” based on the camera I’m using… so… always working on creating better images!

I love this dust poof… This is the result of the “trial” I was working on today.

Carson hosted the second game of the Carson Manogue series today… and it appeared early that they were going to ten run the Miners but that wasn’t to be… they did however win and that secured their first round playoff game at home!

Here are some shots from the day…  I’ll start it with the “OUCH” section… I think there were four batters hit today… in reality it was only three as Luke got hit twice… both times driving Rory in for a score…

… and then some shots I liked from the day… I was trying for something different today… In the last two days I’ve seen six different pitchers for Manogue… so in the gallery there are  A LOT of pitching photos… so none here…

This is one of my favorite shots of the year…

Love these “ball almost there” shots…

And I just liked this one… something different…And a little Manogue love too!  Their yellow and green shirts really popped today!  I’m a color guy, usually sports have bright primary and secondary colors that really pop on a nice bright sunny day… today was no exception.  Maybe a little pop off the bat too…

I’m just going to put up a gallery here of photos from the day… Manogue threw four pitchers today… with 17 total runs today there was a lot of hits and a lot of running… we were commenting on the bus coming back that it was kind of a strange game…

Carson is fighting tomorrow for their first round playoff game to be at home… if they win, they seal their own fate and will play the first round at home on Tuesday… time will tell!  See you at the field tomorrow!

Here’s me messing around with something that I think looked pretty cool… Nick’s glove threw big puffs of dust for every pitch… here are two, one really tight from the backside and one so you see more of it all…

Brock batting has been elusive to me the entire season… I went 3 for 3 last night!  :) This first one was earlier in the evening before it got really dark… (notice the ball starting to blur…)… and here with the sun gone… I always try to explain to people how dark it is to the camera… ever seen a baseball tube?

Have to show some love for the Coaches!  :)  It think this was after a dozen cookies…

Jace started on the mound… threw five innings….

… then Cole relieved… tried this from the other side this time… (see that streaked hand… did I mention it’s DARK out there?)

And last but not least… the play that led to the “discussion” that got Coach McNutt thrown out of McNutt Field… (… sorry couldn’t resist that one…)  I don’t have a shot milliseconds prior to this to know when Rory got the glove on the base runner so we’ll never know… the call on the field was YOU’RE OUT!

Both teams have three days rest before a four games in four days end to the season… then playoffs!

Here are some shots from today…

A quick shout out to the Carson Douglas JV Teams… check out your school galleries, your photos are up, it’s just late, I have a league shoot tomorrow and need to get some sleep…

I have to single this photo out… Prom is tomorrow for Carson… Cole was showing the fellas his moves… still photos don’t do it justice, a video would have been much better… maybe next time!  :)

Before I get to the Carson Douglas baseball games… when I arrived at Carson today I was pleasantly surprised that the Carson Softball Team WAS able to get their game that was scheduled for tomorrow moved to today… so I was able to get some shots of the girls before heading over to the JV Carson Douglas Baseball game…

Here are two shots of the girls putting the bat to the ball to take a win from McQueen…

Douglas hosted Carson today for their two day back to back games (@Carson tomorrow night under the lights 7:00 PM game…).  With the season getting down to the wire and with the middle section of the NIAA 4A Northern Region standings about as topsy-turvy as it can get with teams needing wins to stay in the hunt… game 1 of the Carson Douglas home and away was… well… it’s kinda hard to candy coat it… the game was ugly.  But a win is a win and Carson left Tiger Field with a 5-4 8th inning win.

I’m going to let the “journalists” write about this one… I’ll just put some photos up to show some of the shots I got today… click on them to make them larger… see all the images at the links on the side.

Come on out tomorrow to Carson under the lights!!  Should be a great evening of baseball!