No one got hurt.

Our 50+ Old Ballers Baseball Team played three games in a tournament in Welland, ON this past weekend - and came away without a win. In one game we were so bad that the opposing team’s pitchers threw a no-hitter at us – the first time that has ever happened to an Old Ballers team. Oh well, at least no one got badly hurt, except for the usual minor finger, arm, and knee injuries. Not a great weekend for the team.  I did get some pictures of the sad affair, though, and as usual, they are at Zoom Photo.

Big event around the home office today. Many of you know that we have been living through on-going major renovations to turn an attic into an office – well, today, a large part of the hardwood floor got installed. That means we are getting close! Pictures and move-in coming soon.

Canadians On Ice

I had my first experience at photographing an actual game last night, as the Carleton Place Canadians held an intra-squad game. Hockey is generally known as one of the most difficult sports to photograph, since lighting is typically terrible (at best), and the action is very fast all the time. As you may know, getting enough light into a camera is crucial, especially when you are not really close to the action, and it is moving all the time. It is very easy to get lots of blurry, out of focus pictures. It doesn’t take too long to realize that you can’t possibly get pictures of players skating past you, and you eventually start to settle on spots on the ice where the action should eventually be. In front of the net is a good place, the corners along the boards are good, and some spots along the bluelines will usually present a good shot. So it was a learning experience, for sure. My trusty new, very fast, low light lens didn’t let me down, and I got a number of reasonable shots. As usual, they are at Zoom Photo.

Off to Welland, ON this weekend for an Old Ballers tournament – pictures and stories on Monday. Have a great weekend!

Men in Skirts

This past weekend’s photo assignment was the 26th annual North Lanark Highland Games in Almonte, a small town about 15 minutes down the road from Carleton Place. This is a well-attended, very successful event with lots for everyone to see and do – strong-man competitions in stone throw, hammer toss, sheaf toss, and caber; pipe band competitions; dance competitions; and an extensive array of Scottish-themed food and display booths. This was a very interesting day.

Also this past weekend, my Old Ballers baseball team held its 19th annual Long Ball Championship. This is the event where we each get ten attempts to out-slug each other and take home a trophy in either the over 35 or the over 50 division. This can be a tough event for an old guy like me who is used to hitting singles up the middle   This year’s best shot was a 359′ blast by 52 year old Bob Ritchie.

As usual, all the pictures are at Zoom Photo.

My First Hockey Pictures

My 5 year old grandson Austin is at hockey camp this week, participating in the Ottawa Senators Start Right program. He is on the ice for an hour each day, doing drills and taking instruction from a team of coaches that includes Ottawa Senator Chris Campoli. So I took the camera along and got some great shots – I’ve posted the best of them at ZoomPhoto.

And my test assignment with the EMC newspaper was well received – today’s edition had one of my pictures on the front page, and the second section front page was entirely covered with five other images of mine. The newspaper is not on-line, unfortunately, so I can’t link you to it - but it is cool to see my pictures in print!

Fun at the Fall Fair

Spent Saturday morning at a small town fair in Pakenham (about half an hour down the road from here), on assignment for the EMC. Haven’t been to one of these fairs in a long time and it was quite interesting. The horse show and the 4-H Club calf/cow competitions were the main events of the day, and they included dozens of entries of all ages from the surrounding area. It was quite fascinating to watch the competitors – there were confident young men and women, nervous ones, and clearly frustrated ones, as they struggled to control unruly horses and cows. I tried to capture some of those emotions, and got quite a few good images. The star of my camera was a three year old cowboy who worked with his Dad to lead his full-grown horse around the show ring. My Flickr photostream has my favorite image of Tyson, and all of the rest of my photos will be on ZoomPhoto shortly. Have fun at the fair!

Another Photography Job

There are still a few t’s to cross and i’s to dot, but it looks like I’ve come to an agreement with one of the local newspapers to do some freelance photography work for them. I’ll be doing a test assignment this weekend at a local fair, and we will proceed from there. Although our Carleton Place population is only around 10,000 people, the EMC is part of a family of area newspapers, and the total circulation across the Ottawa Valley is almost 500,000 – so this is a good opportunity.

Interestingly, they presented me with an agreement requiring that I relinquish the copyrights to all photos I provide for them. This has become a MAJOR issue with many photographers and their customers, and to the EMC’s credit, they immediately understood my objections and have presented a second, much more appropriate agreement with proper licensing terms. I am impressed.

And my camera came home! Total turnaround time was just over two weeks, but I would rather have Nikon fix the issue than run into it in the middle of a shoot some day.

Happy Birthday Sarah

Our youngest daughter (third of four children) turned 25 today! Happy Birthday Sarah! We had a crowded kitchen of brothers, sisters, grandparents, cousins, nieces, nephews, and parents – 11 of us in all. Lucky we are all family!  Didn’t have much room since most of the rest of our house is still under construction - but we are making progress.

Lorrie baked a cake, of course, and presented Sarah with a gold locket that she bought when Sarah was born – it has has her name and birthdate on the back and her baby pictures inside. And my backup camera (my D5000 is apparently on its way home from the service depot!) captured the cake.

That was a busy weekend!

The Carleton Place annual country music festival – Riverside Jam - was held this past weekend. I had a press pass and saw at least a little bit of just about every performance – some 15 different shows in all over the three days. I had a rental Nikon D90 (my D5000 hasn’t come home yet), and managed to take over 900 shots. The experience was incredible, as I worked with sunny conditions, overcast skies, and night photography on a poorly lit stage. I hung around backstage and got some great candid shots, and generally felt like the dreaded paparazzi! 

This is Canadian country music superstar Terri Clark, who closed the weekend on Sunday night. Terri is the only Canadian female member of the Grand Ole Opry, and she puts on a tremendous show.

 

On Saturday night, Canadian country rock star Doc Walker took the stage. A big hit with the female part of the crowd, he puts on an energetic and exciting show.

Overall I learned a ton, and came away with a worthwhile set of photos. My favorites are posted on Flickr, and there are over 300 on ZoomPhoto. It was a very busy weekend!