Go Phils

My son and I attended our first Phillies game of the season yesterday. We had a great time - weather was great, crowd was fun, and the Phils won. I lugged my 300mm lens to the game and from the 13th row behind 3rd base I got a few nice shots.

First for the pre-game entertainment. It was the Phanatic's birthday (free t-shirts for the kids), so to celebrate they held a magic show on the field. It was kind of fun being mystified - and trying to figure out how they did the tricks.





Then the game. The pitcher was Chan Ho Park, and he had a mediocre game. By the fifth inning the Phils were down 4-0, although they were getting a few hits.












We decided to take a mid-game walk around the ballpark to get something to eat, and we found the 2008 World Series trophy on display. Too bad I wasn't thinking and stood right in front of the trophy - at least I didn't completely block it.



Here's the left-field display honoring long-time Phils announcer Harry Kalas.



Later in the game the Phils picked up the action and started scoring. Jimmy Rollins hit a late-inning pinch-hit home run that got the score to 4-3. Nice job J-Rol.



That took us to the bottom of the ninth, down by one run. After Ryan Howard got on base it was Raul Ibanez to save the game, and with a home-run shot to right field the Phils took this game 5-4. What an exciting finish.

Galleries Updated

I've added about 11 new images to the galleries. This includes a few bird photos, and a bunch from my trip to Italy. The newly added photos are on my New Work page.

The following image was taken at Lake Maggiore, on the west side. The distant snow-covered mountains were spectacular - a few weeks later and I think much of this snow will have melted.

Lake Maggiore

Another from Italy, this one taken in the town of Arona on Lake Maggiore. When I first arrived I was treated to a partially fog-covered lake, but the fog quickly began clearing and exposing this ancient castle, which I believe is Fortress Angera Castle. I was also joined by a local fisherman, in a small colorful motorboat. The result is the image below.

Although there was not a lot of color at this time of year, since Spring was really just beginning in this region close to the Alps, the cool mornings frequently produce a lot of interesting and dramatic fog. And there were still not many tourists and other visitors to these small towns, so the pace was really easy.

Impression of Italy

I just had the pleasure of spending a week in Italy on a business trip. Of course I could not pass up the chance to photograph the areas I was visiting, which was Milan and the lakes region, including renowned Lake Como.

It was an incredible week spent with a friendly bunch of colleagues in various companies. Besides the productive meetings we were able to accomplish there were amazing sights, fantastic food, and historic Milan.

It will take a while before I get to process all of my photos, but I've attached one to get you started. I hope to pass along more photos and stories in the days ahead.

The town of Bellagio on Lake Como, taken from Lenno.

Getting Springier

It's still cold here in the Northeast, even a week into Spring. But there are signs everywhere - Spring is here and its busting out. I stopped by the local nature center on the way to work recently and the bird activity was tremendous.

Here's a nice shot of a female cardinal among the pussy willows.

Happy Spring

As I've said before I've found winter to be difficult photographically. I'm glad to have spring upon us.

I've decided to purchase a bird feeder for our yard. I enjoy photographing birds, and I thought it would give me a lot more opportunities if I could set up my equipment in my backyard instead of driving to parks and nature centers.

Near the feeder I have set-up a larch branch that has fallen in the trees behind our house. This will serve as a natural-looking perch on which to photographs the birds.

Here is one the early visitors. He and his friends sometimes like to take a big seed and fly away quickly, but other times they stick around for a while. I was surprised to find that the birds have taken to this feeder so quickly. I'm sure I'll have many nice new birds images this year.

Spring Approaches

It has been a very cold winter in the northeast U.S. this year. I have not been able to find the time to photograph much in the past few months. I guess as I get older I become less interested in braving cold weather for any length of time.

Recently we've been getting a few breaks in the weather, so I've gone out to a local nature center to see what birds are around. Now I'm not much of a "birder", in fact I know very little about birds. I can only recognize the most popular kinds of birds, but I enjoy photographing them nonetheless.

As many nature photographers well know there are a few minimum attributes to a good bird photograph, and these are two that I concentrate on:
- Sharpness, especially the eyes
- Uncluttered background

Of course exposure and composition are also important, as they always are.

Below is a photo in which the background is cluttered, but I like the lines and how the direction of the bird's body flows with the branches. Even the direction the bird is looking is along the line of biggest branch. Now you wouldn't necessarily think about these things if you were simply trying to enjoy this photo, but I think little things like these can either make or break a photo.

Hiatus

It may have seemed like I've been on a hiatus for a while. I have not posted any new images in a few weeks. Between the changeover from fall to winter, which is a difficult time to photograph scenery, and the holidays, I have not been highly motivated to create new work.

We have had a lot of cold weather, but not much snow. Today we were lucky to get a soft snowfall during the day. I took advantage and made haste to my local park to try and photograph the covered bridge there. I was able to get a few nice images, although the one I "wanted" was not possible since the higher water level prevented me from reaching the position I have used before.

I am finding photographing snow difficult. There is always a contrast between the brightest white, mid-tones, and the shadows. The sky was overcast today, so that lessened the contrast, but that can lead to drab images, especially of the gray sky. On the other hand a sunny sky would have pumped up the contrast to the extreme, making the scene very harsh. I think I prefer the overcast conditions, where I have more control on making adjustments.

Box Design

In a followup to my previous post where I show my home-made box for transporting framed prints, I have put together a rough diagram of the design I used. It includes a materials list and a cut list. I have omitted the assembly since that is (a) more difficult to document and (b) should be self-evident to someone attempting to build a box like this. Just be careful to make the box as square as possible.

Below is the diagram. Click on it to make sure you are not seeing it compressed by Blogger.

I have not yet settled on a good lining material. I picked up some thin rolled-up blue foam insulation at Lowes, so I'm going to try putting that in. I'll let you know how that works out.

Spyware = Bad

I've just overcome a bout with spyware on my main computer. And I must say: Spyware creators are Evil, and Thank God for smart people who provide great free tools to eliminate this evil.

One of my children visited a "bad" site and maybe clicked on a pop-up she shouldn't have. After a few hours of getting nowhere I found a site that recommended Combofix. This is a program that performs some real magic and it eliminated the spyware that other tools could not. It's not a commercial program - it's a freebie that someone developed with a very crude user interface. But it got the job done, and that's all that matters.

Thank you smart spyware-removing people.