What do you get when you combine a softball tournament with a Halloween theme? Monster Bash!!
Posts Tagged ‘Sports’
Monster Bash
October 12, 2008One Year Anniversary
October 2, 2008The Nascar race was nostalgic for me as it marked one year since I first purchased my Canon Rebel XTi. I didn’t have this blog back then but I decided to take a trip down memory lane and list the top 5 things I think have helped in improving my photography skills:
5. I’m constantly trying to learn new things. The web is your friend, there are hundreds of tutorials that can help you learn whether you don’t know – all for FREE. Right now – I’m trying to learn photoshop lightroom, we’ll see how quickly I master it.
4. Following other photographer’s work. I counted up and I have 29 different photographer blogs that I follow in my RSS feeder. Granted I don’t look at everyone’s everyday but they give me ideas and more importantly inspire me.
3. I started shooting in RAW immediately. I was very surprised today see the pictures from my first weekend with my camera in RAW. For those that want to get better at photography and if your camera is capable then DO IT. No it won’t make you a rock star photographer instantly but it’s easier to fix mistakes after the fact. Granted I’d rather have my pictures perfect right from the camera but at least I can make it look like they were.
2. From the get go I’ve only shot in manual mode. Granted it shows with my first several month’s worth of pictures because it would take a lot of trying bad shots before I got the shot right. I think it’s paid off though now because I can quickly switch between settings on my camera and although it may not be the perfect settings with the first shot it’s usually pretty close to what I want.
1. Starting this blog – at first it was REALLY difficult to find new things to take pictures of or focus on new things even though I loved my new toy. Having the blog keeps me accountable to take more pictures – especially when I know others are looking at it.
OK that’s it for now, thanks for the quick trip down memory lane. We’ll see how my work looks in another year. Sorry for the long book, I know no one comes to this site expecting to read 
Here are some shots I took at last year’s Nascar race.
Top 10 Things I Learned about Nascar
September 29, 200810. Take a picture of the number in the parking lot so you’ll know which acre to look in later.
9. The race is way more exciting with a fanview so you know what the heck is going on
8. It’s the only sport that allows you to bring in a cooler of alcohol.
7. If you’re a loyal Nascar fan you’ll have your driver’s flags on your RV/Truck/Car
6. CVS Pharmacies is the #1 distributor of Jack Daniels in the entire state of Missouri. (okay not really Nascar related but I was surprised)
5. If you have a fanview (see #10) then people will inevitably be asking you the entire race how their favorite driver is even though the info is on the board.
4. Cautions can take up half the race without any exciting crashes or fires to watch.
3. People can sleep even when there are 40 car engines blasting out 130 decibels each.
2. Going to the race solo is awesome if your intent is only to take pictures. You don’t have to worry about slowing someone down or hearing “How many more pictures you going to take?” or “What are you taking a picture of now?”
1. Don’t mention out loud any driver sucks unless unless you want to get in a throw down with a fan of said driver.
Race for the Cure
August 16, 2008Race for the Cure was last Saturday. I went out there with some of my girlfriends and braved the other 22,000 people that were there. We had so much fun and if you haven’t gone then you should next year. Plus it’s for a great cause.
Seeing this woman there really touched me because she’s actively fighting against cancer. Cancer impacts so many and breast cancer in particular can be so vicious.
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A lot of the racers wore “In Memory of ” or “In Celebration of” signs and it listed their loved one who has fought cancer.
I know absolutely nothing about this man except than he was waiting intently for someone at the finish line holding the rose.
Two Breast Cancer Survivors
Twins vs. Royals Game
August 15, 2008Saturday night I went to the Royals game with some friends. We had a blast despite the Royals lost and there were a TON of twins fans there.
Bike Race – Part 2
June 3, 2008I had a ton of pictures from the bike race last week. So I had to do a second post because trying to limit my favorites to a couple was just too hard.
Always make sure your tires are pumped up before the big race.
Part of my bike
Ofcourse I couldn’t post about the bike race without some shots of Amandus and Lucas.
Bike Race – Part 1
May 29, 2008Last night I was in the bike race for Corporate Challenge. This was my first year doing it and while I didn’t do as good as I had hoped they had better watch out for next year!
My coworker Dustin was in it as well and I hung out with his two sons – Amandus and Lucas – while he raced. Aren’t his boys handsome?
Dustin figuring a game plan before the race:
Yay Dustin!!!
He was a smart dad and brought toys and coloring books to entertain his boys.
I would have totally won if I’d had this helmet!!
Doesn’t Lucas look just like his dad?
Don’t worry I still have plenty of pictures left from the race to blog about. You’ll be seeing a part 2 post shortly.
Heritage Park Triathlon
May 19, 2008Yesterday I enjoyed watching my girlfriend Julie complete her first triathlon of the year at Heritage Park. She completed an IronMan last November so this was a piece of cake for her.
Julie’s 2 hour triathlon at Heritage took less time than JUST THE SWIMMING section of her Ironman. Yes I know, she’s officially demented if she chose to swim for that long. If I had to swim for 2 hours straight I think I’d know I’d die. Don’t get me wrong, I can doggy paddle with the best of them but if it takes more than 10 minutes – please party it up at my funeral. Anyway, now that we’ve established her mental capacity she obviously makes up for it physically.
Fortunately it turned out to be a gorgeous day. Although that didn’t change the fact that Julie was swimming in 70 degree weather but that part was her choice so what do you expect with the aforementioned lack of logical reasoning?
Julie before her swim. At least she was smart enough to wear a wet suit.
Can I tell you how hard it is to get a decent picture of someone riding a bike during an event? People are always walking in your shot. Hello people can’t you see I want to take a picture?
Apparently these guys dress up crazy for this event every year.
Here’s Julie’s medal she got for finishing. Way to go Julie!!
Fireworks Friday
May 11, 2008Side note: – who would have thought I’d have 3 different posts on just on one Royals game? Well, I don’t like putting 40 pictures in one post. I used my entire 4GB memory card that night (that includes weeding through the obvious bad ones) so picking my favorites was really difficult.
Even though the Royals didn’t win at least it was Fireworks Friday. One can easily be convinced after 15 straight losses to go buy a ticket only because you’re guaranteed to see behemoth explosions.
Who doesn’t love the smell of sulfur and burning metal while ash falls down on you?? Ahhh… they should make a perfume that smells like fireworks. I’d totally buy it. Plus you’d know who all the otherwise-anonymous-pyros are out in public. It would be like our secret handshake but even better. You’ll think they’re “normal”until their holy holiday arrives – the Fourth of July. These pyros are the ones driving to Missouri and spending half their paycheck on items named “Excalibur”, Super Magnum Artillery, or fireworks that are illegal in 38 states. That’s the only great thing about Missouri – THEY SELL FIREWORKS YEAR ROUND!!!! I have no clue what I’d do for this holiday if I didn’t live so close. Thank God for the NRA.
You’ll recognize these closet pyros without a doubt on the 5th of July. They’re the ones yelling during the conference call because they tried to throw a mortar shell, it bounced back and blew out their eardrum. You’ll notice burns on their arms from the Roman candle war they were in. Fools – everyone knows to bring armor and PVC piping.
On a note about the pictures – I only brought my 55-200mm lens and it wasn’t nearly wide enough for these firework shots. I try to limit what gear I carry but I didn’t consider the fireworks aspect at all. Don’t worry I’m sure I’ll be at 20 more games this season so I’ll bring my kit lens with me next time for some better shots.
Oh Yeah the Royals Game
May 10, 2008I got so preoccupied with David Cook on my last post that I totally forgot to blog about the actual Royals versus Orioles game. Kansas Citians don’t typically have high expectations of their teams but who else are you going to root for? At least the Dolphins beat the Chiefs at being the worst in the NFL last year. Don’t worry Miami we’ll take the title from you this year. One thing you have to give credit to us for – as a city we are definitely thickheaded loyal to keep cheering for our teams year after year despite their pitiful records.
We were in a suite which totally rocks since there is free food and drinks. Bonus you don’t have to worry about the inebriated guy behind you screaming blatantly obvious things way too loudly like “HIT THE BALL” or “CATCH THE BALL”. I’m certain the team didn’t realize how to play baseball until you pointed it out tonight. Thanks for pointing that out dude, you should be the coach.
Grudzielanek getting a single.
Mmmm hot dogs!!!
Cheering them on
