It was another breezy day for baseball.  The JV teams of Sycamore and Mason played this past Monday.  The Sycamore pitcher confused me for a little bit.  I saw him warming up left-handed and made a note of that on my paper.  Then he started pitching right-handed to the batter.  I will admit that sometimes I write things down wrong but I have never messed up which hand a pitcher pitches with.  Made the correction on my sheet and continued to photograph the game.  Then he switched his glove to the other hand and pitched left-handed to another batter.  Okay, that’s unique.  First time I have ever seen that.  His glove is made to work on either hand so he can still field.  Below are a few of my favorites from the game.

Pitching right-handed.

Getting a hit.

Pitching left-handed.

Making contact.

The catcher is checking all the runners while the dust swirls around.

Making a pitch.

Going for the double play.

Another battle between Lakota East and Lakota West.  This time in softball.  It was a nice day for softball except for the wind.  I know going into any softball or baseball game that things are going to be dusty.  This was definitely an extreme though as the wind was blowing out across the field.  By the end of the game I felt like there was a nice layer of dirt all over me and my equipment.  Is dirt considered a protein?  Pretty sure I ate some that blew into my mouth.  I can only imagine how the players felt, especially having to battle it to make plays.  Here are a few of my favorites from the game:

Getting the face paint on before the game.

Bunting.

Small collision by players going for a foul ball.

Some batting instruction.

Moving the East player out of her way.

A little muscle flex after a hit.

Making the catch.

Pitcher fielding her position.

A March Track & Field meet is can be pretty iffy because of the weather.  That was definitely not the case on March 29, 2012.  The Lakota East Track & Field team was competing at the Fairfield Invitational.  It turned out to be a gorgeous day for the meet.  Perfect temperature and only a lite breeze.  When I first got to the track I kept thinking something was different but I could not figure it out.  Then it hit me, there was no fence on the inside of the track.  I was extremely happy about this as in the past it definitely added a challenge when getting the runners and even a bit for the long jump.  Without the fence I was definitely able to get more images during the meet as I could do some field events and track races at the same time.  Below I included a few of my favorites from the meet.  You can view more by clicking the Game Images link above.

Clearing the last hurdle.

Barely avoiding the bar.

A hand-off during the relay.

Getting out of the blocks at the start of the 400 meter dash.

Long jump attempt.

Competing at the high jump.

Sprinting towards the end of the 200 meter dash.

I debated for the longest time whether or not to get a new camera.  My current cameras are approaching their stated shutter actuations which played a big role in my decision.  While I know cameras will not die when they reach that magical number I definitely wanted to be prepared.  I use Nikon cameras and the D4 was announced at the end of last year.  It sounded amazing but I was pretty sure I was just going to get the D3s.  It would be one step up from my current cameras and had the functionality that I needed.  But then I started to read the reviews on the D4.  There was praise on both the still and video features of the camera.  Still unsure I went ahead and submitted my priority purchase application through Nikon Professional Services.  When I got the email from Roberts saying that my camera was on the way to them I was thrilled.  That told me I was making the right decision.  I have had the camera for about a week now.  The second day I had it I went to my nephew’s basketball game so I could try it out on sports in low lighting.  It took me about half the game (12 minutes of running clock) to figure out the settings I liked.  I guess I could have read the manual a little more and not guessed as much.  More fun through trial and error when the event does not matter.  I also have played with the camera in non sports settings.  Below are 2 images taken in our yard as Spring has definitely arrived.

Cannot wait until these blooms become cherries.

Dodged the bees for this image.

After a really long break from blogging I am starting back up again.  There are so many reasons why I stopped for awhile but there is really no point to getting into them.  In truth, I am a horrible writer and not the best of speakers.  I am definitely one who loves being around people but am content to let others carry the conversation.  The thing is, I have all kinds of wonderful things going on in my head (least to me) but they never come out the same way.  I wrote this post in my head probably a 1000 times over the past two weeks.  Yes, it has taken me that long to actually write it.  There is nothing bad to say, I just have to admit to the world that I got discouraged.  Every once in awhile I let other people’s idea of success influence my idea of success.  They talk about stats, number of comments, likes on their Facebook page, number of followers on twitter, connections on LinkedIn and so on.  I do believe all those tools are beneficial but I got hung up on stats.  Mine are not high and sometimes I let their talk get to me.  In the end, I have to remember that everyone has different goals and ideas of what success means to them.  I would be lying if I said I would love for my stats to improve but I want them to improve the right way.  No gimmicks.  I want people to like, follow, comment, etc because they love the company and\or me.  In turn I want to be able to communicate with them and least know a little bit about them.  Anyways, I decided to return to blogging because it shows my progression as a person and a professional photographer.  While I would love comments I’m not going to get hung up on it anymore.  Least I’ll try not to.  Even better if at least one person learns something or appreciates the images.  Thanks for putting up with the break and I hope you will continue to read future posts.

And since I really like to include images in my posts I thought I would post some pictures from basketball season.  In a twist I thought I would show some images of coaches.  Here are a few of my favorite ones captured over the last few weeks of the season:

Disbelief of a call.

I believe she coaches from the ground so she does not leave the coaching area.  She is a passionate coach.

This is what a coach looks like after his player travels when there is no defender around.

Arguing a call.

Intent on communicating with his team he does not realize he is out of the coach’s box.

And then bolts back to the bench in hopes the refs will not notice.

At another game, same method.

The assistant coach cannot believe what just happened on the floor.