Some close games tonight, some not so close games tonight… 🙂  C’est la Vie when it comes to the All Star Tournament!  16 games in the books so far….
On to the “Photo of the Day”! Â I pretty much knew when I took this I was going to use it as my photo of the day! Â I just like it! Â RC Catcher, stop by and see us!
We’re back at it out at Governor’s Field again!!  Eight games in the books so far! The  9-10 year olds and 10-11 year olds tournaments have started, the 11-12’s will start on Saturday.
I’m going to have my “photo of the day” going again, so keep an eye out here on the blog or on Google+ or on Facebook to see if YOU are today’s “photo of the day”!
The 10-11 Truckee All Stars are sporting some new white with red pinstriped uni’s this year! Â Here’s a diving grab from their center fielder last night! Stop by our tent for your “free prize”… (shhh don’t tell anyone… but incase you didn’t hear we have instaimage water bottles we give out if you’re the “photo of the day”)
Here’s the grab…
…and here’s the proof!
The Blue Jays ended their season today with a double header against Spanish Springs… and thus ends my season of high school baseball…. I want to say a special thank you to the fellas and the coaching staff this year.  It’s a pleasure to have the access that you guys give me, it’s a lot of fun and I really appreciate it!!  Thanks Fellas!
I’d also like to say a special thank you to the parents of the Carson High Baseball Program. Â You have welcomed me and made me feel like a part of the program, I appreciate that! Â I’ll see you around but most certainly will see you next season!
It was a BEAUTIFUL day today for baseball!!
Today I got to see a couple new faces in the dugout and on the field… Here is some action from today!
… and when all is said and done… smiles in the dugout… thanks again fellas!
I’ll let the photo speak… This is the Manager of the Carson City Little League Major Giants, the City Tournament Championship was tonight… Congrats!!
First and foremost, a big Congrats to Chase Blueberg!  I don’t normally draw on photos… but I just did it to help those of you that don’t read the scoreboard for more than runs… 🙂  And I’ll confess, I was so busy playing around with stuff tonight that I didn’t even realize until the top of the 7th what was going on… 🙂
The photo should say it all but Chase pitched a no hitter tonight in the first game!
The real photo on the site doesn’t have my drawing… 😉
Here’s Chase in action on the mound…
… and a very happy smile afterward…
I’ve started to go to games with some type of game plan, something I want to try, something I want to focus on… tonight I was playing with putting extenders on my longer lenses… I got some interesting things… but when all was said and done and I was choosing photos to post tonight… no ONE of those made the “cut”. Â If found that very interesting… I like some of them, they’re in the gallery… but they’re just not my favorites from tonight. Â So… I learned some valuable things tonight.
When I went back to the “normal” setup I started looking for something “different”… and spotted this and had to get a shot of it…
… and in the later game…
… and I’ll be the first to admit, I cannot tell you if it’s good form or good anything… Â it’s just something that happens and I find it kinda interesting what you can see at a game when you start looking.
You might see a trend here tonight with my photos, there are a lot of Casey and Chase… they both pitched… so that gave me a steady “target” to work with in my  “playing”… so I’ll get the non Casey, non Chase photo up here now!
Normally I get Luke with his head down (I’m guessing because the pitch is lower…)… I showed him… “… is that the one where I popped out…”  😉  I cannot tell a lie….
I’ve talked before about how right before the sun dips at the Carson field how you can get this really nice warm light on the pitchers… Here’s an example…
… vs. just after the sun dips… which one do you like better? (I’m also anxious to figure out what is causing the lighting on the first base side of his face in the above photo… maybe the windows in the “luxury box” area… 😉 ….)
And in the first game Casey played shortstop for a few outs… I had to get a shot of that….
… and just for good measure… Casey (again…) laying down a bunt… Â I have one of him during the regular high school season so I needed one in a different jersey….
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… Â 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….
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. Â 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!
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… Â 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… Â 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. Â 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… Â This first shot was taken at 1/800th of a second. Â See how the ball is elongated, like a tube? Â That’s at 1/800th of a second. Â 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.
What a day of baseball… the weather was amazing, the field looked great… today Carson hosted Damonte Ranch and Bishop Manogue played Galena. Â The first game didn’t end well for Carson… their journey into the championships is now over. Â 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. Â 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. Â 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! Â 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! Â It has a lot of things that sum up the game!
... and late in the game a very LOOONNNGGG stretch for an out!
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. Â 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. Â 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. Â 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…) Â 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…” Â 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. Â 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…)
