Author: instaimage

Summer League High School Baseball…

Just some pics… it’s been awhile since I posted, been quite busy trying to finish up all the leagues this week… City Tournaments going on this week… Little League All Stars announced on Friday… Renegade/Hooligan tourney starts Monday, June 18th…  All Stars start Wednesday, June 27th… it will be here and gone before we know it!

Right as the sun is setting you get this great warm light… I’m sure it a bear to try to see if you’re having to look into it… but it makes for some nice light on the players…Gotta give the outfield some love… this was last night against Manogue…… and Casey tonight against Douglas…

Gehrig has been hitting (… and playing…) very well… so I thought I’d try to get a shot like this but with him hitting the ball… didn’t expect him to get hit by the ball instead!Wonder if the umpire ever saw this ball pop out of the glove?  He was called safe anyway… 🙂… and the last bit of outfield love… Chase played left field tonight… gotta throw in a batting photo… although the runs didn’t come tonight….

Soap Box Rant… as posted on Facebook…

I posted this to Facebook to try to get more “traffic” with my statement.  Some people need to get a serious grip on the reality of youth sports.  We live in Northern Nevada.  This isn’t the MLB World Series… even those guys don’t take things THIS seriously!  I’m the picture guy for crying out loud!!!

… as posted to Facebook…

“To the parents and grandparents of youth sports leagues….
Please understand all of the people that are on the Board of Directors of any youth sports league as well as the vendors that work a great deal of hours to support these leagues are human beings and deserve to be treated as such.

To use an age old saying, “walk a mile in my moccasins”, please please please try to set an “adult” example for the youth of today by treating others with respect and consideration. YOU do not know their situation. YOU do not know what goes on in their lives. YOU do not know the time, effort and energy they put into making it possible for you to show up for your four hours per week to watch Johnny or Suzie play ball on Tuesday and Thursday.

Orchestrating a league of any size is a TREMENDOUS undertaking, both from a League Administration perspective and from a vendor perspective. PLEASE keep this in mind when you decide to start criticize, belittle, berate and act in anyway other that courteous and considerate. We don’t all have to like each other but we MUST act appropriate, considerate and set a good example for our youth, they are watching your actions.

Today I had the single worst episode in my “professional” career happen. I take my business VERY VERY seriously and most of the time to the detriment of my family, my health and my overall wellbeing. I try very hard and work very hard. I’m quite confident that those involved will not think anything about it beyond today. I carry things like this for a great deal of time as it is radically contrary to how I was raised and taught how to treat others.

I’m VERY VERY rarely one to rant. I will be the first to admit that I don’t always get things right, but I make them as right as I possibly can when I find out I’ve got it wrong. I’ll admit that I will, have and will continue to make mistakes, but I do what ever I can to rectify the problem. I also know that I have only so many years left on this earth and I refuse to spend more time with people like those responsible for my longwinded rant here… about all I can say is karma is a….”

Summer High School Baseball… @ Carson High

The summer high school baseball season kicked off a week ago… Carson played their first home game tonight at McNutt Field against the Black Sox from Galena.  The Blue Jays have had a tough season so far loosing some close games (mostly one run…) but the fellas are having a good time and playing hard. Summer ball is all about learning and growing as a team… a very intense season, something like 26 games in 30 days… a lot of baseball!

Here are some shots from the evening…

At the change of sides this hawk landed in left field… probably looking for his dinner that Coach Manoukian had to get a shovel and toss over the fence when he was there mowing before the game… He was on the field for a few minutes then moved to the fence right in front of the folks watching from the left field bleachers…

Luke went sliding right on past second base and had to crawl back before the tag…Luke at first base… (is it me or is he practicing Jedi Mind Tricks on the ball…)

Gehrig ran this one down and very nearly made the throw in time… the photo’s a little deceptive… he’s throwing from the grass… that’s a ways back from second…Nevin adding to the hits… with the nice sunset lighting him…

Don’t you wonder what they’re talking about… nice to see a smile on Jace’s face!  🙂  Maybe a good joke, who knows!

What was supposed to be…

Well… I had every intention of shooting the NIAA 4A State Baseball Championship game… as I’m sitting here at home typing… it is JUST now starting… the original game time was 3:00… two “if” games in the two other NIAA State Title games being played at Peccole Park at UNR pushed the 4A game back… I’m heading out of town tomorrow and have 100 things to do and time for two… 🙂  So goes spring for us!

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.

NIAA 4A Regional Playoff Baseball @ Carson High

What a day of baseball… the weather was amazing, the field looked great… today Carson hosted Damonte Ranch and Bishop Manogue played Galena.  The first game didn’t end well for Carson… their journey into the championships is now over.  Damonte came out swinging and kept right on swinging themselves into a ten run sixth inning win over the Senators…

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!

Carson Douglas Baseball… the final meeting of the 2012 season…

The Last Carson Douglas game of the season ended with one team going on and the other ending their season… there were a lot of hits, a lot of base runners, some errors, a crowd that was active in the game… all the things that make an end of season tournament game exciting!

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 High Baseball vs. Galena, first round of playoffs 2012

A beautiful day for baseball today!!

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 vs. Manogue Baseball @ Carson

What a whirlwind week… and what a crazy scenario with so many results moving the standings… and therefore changing who plays who for the first round of the playoffs, which start Tuesday at the top four schools (McQueen, Reno, Manogue, Carson).

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…

Carson vs. Manogue Baseball @ Manogue

The Miners took the first game of the series today at home… tomorrow’s game is at Carson @ 3:45…

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!

Carson High Baseball vs. Galena… at Carson

The Senators hosted Coach McNutt’s Galena Grizzlies Wednesday for the second game of the series (Galena won @ home Tuesday)… In front of the program’s sponsors (Sponsor Night at the Park…), Carson split the series winning at home 7-3.  Here are some shots from the evening.

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!