Baseball Begins

      This is not a typical post from me but I felt the need to share my other passion of playing baseball. Other than photography and video, baseball is the thing I'm most dedicated to. I feel that writing about this on my blog truly completes who I am and represents me well. I also included photos of me playing baseball which I did not take for obvious reasons, but did edit them. Also a couple I did take.
      Tryouts begin this friday and I've been shaking off the rust at weekly pitching and hitting clinics on the weekends for the past month. Although I made the team last year it can always be a bit stressful to participate in a tryout. I can't say I've been the greatest hitter over the years but what does set me apart is the fact that I'm a left-handed pitcher. This gives me an advantage against batters, making it more likely for me to get on a team as well.  I've been playing baseball for as long as I can remember and began pitching not long after. Pitching is what I truly love and what I devote most of my efforts towards. I don't see myself playing on any high level college teams but I would like to continue to play and don't see myself quitting any time soon.
     These are two pictures that I took on my birthday last year and I feel really sum me up well because they were taken with my first camera and truly combined my new and old hobbies. Also for being taken from deep left field without a tripod or fancy dslr camera I think these photos came out quite well.

Here are a couple photos of me playing:

Kicks In the Cold

    Just a few weeks ago some of my friends went to play some soccer at the Blair turf. It was in the low 40s but that did not stop them from playing and that did not stop me from bringing my camera and working on my sports photography. I had taken pictures of basketball and a little baseball but never soccer so this was an exciting new opportunity. There is a chance that I will take photos for Silver Chips so every bit of experience helps.  

    While they played I attempted to capture some interesting angles and use the harsh sunlight to my advantage. The one thing that I had to be sure to do was use a high shutter speed because soccer can be very fast paced and you want to capture the moment without any blur. Here are some of the photos I took. Hopefully by next week we will have finished our one minute films and I will post that.

Art Photography

  For the past year or so I have been taking pictures of my brother's art. He got into ar several years ago and started taking pictures of the pieces and posting the them online. Because of my interest in photography I volunteered to take on the job for him. This allows him to exhibit his work online so his friends and the public can see his art.
    At first I thought taking pictures of art was simple and all you had to do was snap the photo and upload it. I quickly realized that there is much more to it. First you must frame the shot so that either the the painting is framed perfectly which is more challenging or frame the picture so that when it is cropped none of the painting is cut. This can be tricky and often takes several pictures to get one that does not clip the painting too much. The second thing you must consider when taking photos of art is that it is correctly focussed. Often times I would take an image and only realize how blurry the image is once I had put it onto the computer. To combat this you need to use a high f-stop so the depth of field is greater.  Finally you must make sure that the colors on the image match those of the painting. Depending on the cameras settings and white balance, it can change the color of the painting slightly. To preserve the artist's work you must be careful not to change it at all.
   This weekly assistance I give to my brother is very rewarding because it helps both him and me. He is able to put is art online quickly and I am able to refine my photography skills and learn how to work around new challenges. To see some more of my brother's art click here. His drawings are especially interesting.