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Guitar Hero-ed
January 31, 2007First and foremost...I want everybody to know that:
I was wrong...and my girlfriend was right.
Mark this day in your calendars.
I'll admit that I'm mildly addicted to a video game that I initially thought would be total crap.
My sister Kristin was right. Courtney was right. Courtney's sister Whitney was right.
Guitar Hero (and Guitar Hero II) are pretty cool games. It's no wonder that they were sold out of guitar controllers all over the country before Christmas.
If you haven't seen this game at Best Buy or any other electronic retailer...you're missing out. Basically...You "play" a guitar in beats along with dozens of heavy metal and iconic rock songs.
There are five buttons simulating frets on a guitar neck and the strumming button you have to hit in time with the notes.
It's a total two-handed game...you cannot play it with just a few fingers.
This presents a problem for the non-coordinated (like myself). It's not particularly easy.
Like I said..I was very skeptical of the game until I went with Courtney and her sister over to a friend's house and played the game. I pretty much decided it would be a fun game after hearing a few of my fave. songs of all time on the game.
Sure enough...Courtney went on a tear and had to get the game for herself. She bought both games and two guitars on Ebay....and has spent many hours over at my apt. (since I'm the one that has the Playstation 2) playing the game.
Like I said...she was right, I was wrong.
BUT...if there is any hope for society today, We'll be seeing Country Guitar Hero or Steel Guitar Hero by summer.
Sign me up for that one.
Posted by Jason Palmer at 10:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Into the pool
January 28, 2007Another one of those cases where I simply take too many pictures and the newspaper prints the ones I liked least.
I really should not give them so many options...but that's okay, I'll just post them on here.
This time it was the District 5-4A Swim Meet.
Now...it's been a looooooooong time since I've shot swimming...so, like jumping in a cold pool, it took me a while to adjust.
The newspaper ran a pair of swimmer photos from the breaststroke event.
Now, in my opinion, all swimming photos look the same unless you're underwater shooting...or directly above them. They are always splashing about and contorting their faces to breathe. It's pretty much par for the course.
The great swimming photos have a unique vision or angle...these are not great. It didn't help matters that I was trying to shoot in the equivalent a back-yard sauna. Walked in the door and my glasses stayed foggy for about 3 minutes.
Glass foggy...not that big a deal. Several thousand dollar camera lenses foggy...near panic sets in. Under the right conditions...fungus can actually grow INSIDE the camera lens. It's a death sentance for photographer equipment.
After about 20 minutes...my lenses were clear enough to shoot. Sort of.
It was dark in there...and I mean like, there were no lights and only the overcast light from the two walls of windows as the light source. Now, it was plenty bright enough to see with your own eyes, but every photographer knows that it's a world of difference between bright enough for your eyes and bright enough for sports.
Anyways, I made it work after playing around with the settings on the camera and the flash on a few of them. I have no doubt that I can shoot swimming now...but I don't want to shoot it there again.
Here are some of the ones that didn't make the paper....enjoy.
Jason Palmer/Times Record News
Hirschi senior Jacob Scott swims during the Boys 100-yard Butterfly during the District 5-4A Swimming Championships at the North Texas Rehab Pool Saturday afternoon.
Jason Palmer/Times Record News
Rider sophomore J.T. Ford won the Boys 500-yard Freestyle during the District 5-4A Swimming Championships at the North Texas Rehab Pool Saturday afternoon.
Jason Palmer/Times Record News
Old High junior Pedro Silva won the Boys 100-yard Backstroke event during the District 5-4A Swimming Championships at the North Texas Rehab Pool Saturday afternoon.
Jason Palmer/Times Record News
Old High junior Pedro Silva swims during the second heat of the Boys 100-yard Freestyle event during the District 5-4A Swimming Championships at the North Texas Rehab Pool Saturday afternoon.
Jason Palmer/Times Record News
Iowa Park senior Afton Geil won the Girls 500-yard Freestyle event at the District 5-4A Swimming Championships at the North Texas Rehab Pool Saturday afternoon.
Posted by Jason Palmer at 5:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tailgating Banned at Superbowl
January 26, 2007Yes....you read that right.
The NFL has banned tailgating on Sunday within one mile of the stadium.
No tailgating?!!?!!!??!!!
The NFL may as well punch fans in the face.
(CBS4) MIAMI Die-hard football fans attending the Super Bowl game at Dolphin Stadium are getting a rude awakening after finding out that no tailgating of any type will be allowed on game day within one mile of the stadium."There is no tailgating allowed in the Dolphin Stadium parking lots," Sue Jaquez, a member of the Super Bowl XLI Host Committee, confirmed on Tuesday. "And there is no tailgating anywhere within a one-mile radius of the stadium." "And there are no RVs allowed."
Tailgating is permitted during regular- and post-season games for Dolphins fans, a team official on Tuesday said it would indeed be allowed at the Super Bowl. According to Jaquez, however, the official has been seriously misinformed.
The Dolphins do not organize and oversee the Super Bowl, Jaquez pointed out. Instead, those duties are left up to NFL officials. And because of security reasons, no pre-game partying on (or very near) the premises will take place. Fans spotted tailgating could face charges, Jaquez said.
"This is part of the NFL, not the Dolphins," Jaquez said. "If the Dolphins are saying there's tailgating -- or think it's going to be allowed -- then they need to contact the NFL."
Detective Nelda Fonticella of the Miami-Dade Police department confirmed the Super Bowl rules.
The rules put in force by the NFL prohibit grilling or consuming alcohol within on Dolphins Stadium grounds.
People "will be warned and asked to pick up their things and leave," Fonticella said. "We're trying to make this a pleasant experience for everyone, and there will be plenty to do in the week leading up to the game."
There is no law prohibiting tailgating outside of the stadium property.
What the heck is the NFL thinking here? I mean, seriously.
No grilling or drinking of adult beverages on the stadium grounds. They could actually be charged and taken to jail. Good lord.
So basically...it'll be okay to be one mile and 10 feet and carry on drinking and grilling....but inside a mile? What..are they worried somebody has a grillmaster nuke or something?
Isn't that what parking-lot security is supposed to watch for.
Totally rediculous....every other major professional sport should denounce this action saying that they welcome the fans.
The NFL has once again proven that they simply do not care about the fans.
Posted by Jason Palmer at 2:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Borderline rediculous
January 23, 2007U.T. got their feelings hurt by Texas A&M this past football season.
Nothing more embarrassing than losing 12-7 to your in-state rival a year after winning the national championship.
But...that's not the tale of the tape, oh no.
Get this...U.T. is suing to eliminate the "Saw-em Off" logo.
The Associated PressCOLLEGE STATION - The University of Texas is countering a jab from an Aggie business owner by taking him to court over his "saw em off" variation of the familiar Longhorn logo.
The UT System Board of Regents claims in its lawsuit that Fadi Kalaouze's merchandise adorned with an inverted Longhorn logo with its horns detached is a trademark infringement.
The lawsuit argues that Kalaouze, a 1991 Texas A&M University graduate and the owner of two College Station stores, is illegally using a design that tarnishes and mutilates the trademarked Longhorn logo.
"This is not a dispute with Texas A&M. It is a dispute with a private company that is unfairly profiting from use of the UT logo and at the same time mutilating the logo," said Craig Westemeirer, director of the University of Texas Office of Trademark Licensing.
Kalaouze contends that his emblem is a parody and is protected by the First Amendment. He said in court filings that the lawsuit is a "legally baseless display of poor sportsmanship."
The lawsuit filed last month names Kalcorp, which is owned by Kalaouze and is the parent company for both of his stores. It seeks a permanent injunction to stop the company from selling the symbol, as well as attorneys fees, damages and the company's profits from selling the emblem.
UT's lawsuit says that the "saw em off" logo, which has been placed on merchandise such as T-shirts and bumper stickers, could confuse consumers because of its similarity to the Longhorn logo.
Kalaouze said nobody would mistake his emblem for the actual Longhorn logo, and he doesn't believe any Longhorn supporters have accidentally purchased one of his shirts or stickers. He has established a Web site -- http://www.sawemoff.com -- to raise money for his legal fight. "We honestly don't believe anyone is confusing this logo with their logo. We have been sawing their horns off for many years," Kalaouze said. "We just want to make sure the tradition lives on." Westemeirer said the UT logo is "one of the most recognized brands in America" and must be protected. "We want to present the logo as a consistent image to the public - that is not possible if others, such as the defendants, modify or mutilate the logo," he said. Mike Huddleston, Texas A&M's vice president for business development, said Texas A&M would likely have taken similar action if it faced the same scenario as UT. "I'm just surprised it took them so long," Huddleston said.
Funny...they didn't have a problem with for the previous 10 years. It's not a new thing by any means.
Actually...all of the trouble started last year when Texas went and got a big head by winning the national title. Fadi Kalaouze's company made a shirt of support for the longhorns, and that's where the trouble started.
If there are any Aggies who read my blog, here's the website you NEED to check out.
You can even make a donation to their legal fund if you're so inclined.
I'm going to hide my Horn's Down shirt.
Posted by Jason Palmer at 6:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Only on the Left Coast
January 20, 2007Okay...raise your hand if you were spanked as a child.
(raises hand)
This gem of a story out of sunny California.
Making spanking a crime. My mom and dad would have been put away for life.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - California parents could face jail and a fine for spanking their young children under legislation a San Francisco Bay area lawmaker has promised to introduce next week.Democratic assemblywoman Sally Lieber said such a law is needed because spanking victimizes helpless children and breeds violence in society.
"I think it's pretty hard to argue you need to beat a child," Lieber said. "Is it OK to whip a 1-year-old or a 6-month-old or a newborn?"
Lieber said her proposal would make spanking, hitting and slapping a child under 4 years old a misdemeanor. Adults could face up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.
Aides to the assemblywoman said they are still working on a definition for spanking.
Some Republican lawmakers called the idea ridiculous. But Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said he may be receptive to it even though he has concerns about how the ban would be enforced.
The governor said he and his wife, Maria Shriver, did not spank their four children and used alternative methods for discipline. For example, Schwarzenegger said they found it more effective to threaten to take away their children's play time if they didn't do school work.
"They hate that much more than getting spanked," he told reporters Friday in Los Angeles.
California law permits spanking by parents unless the degree of force is excessive or not appropriate for the child's age.
I'll admit, I'm a fan of the spanking. I don't see a problem with it as long as it's administered like it was to me.
My parents never really spanked or slapped me in public or anything like that. It was totally psychological for me.
The general method was this:
- I did something stupid and wrong.
Got in trouble for it.
- My parents confronted me about it and let me know their disappointment in my poor decision making
- I was then sent to my room to "think" about it (which was actually the worst part for me)
- Then my dad came to my room and administered the punishment. Usually with a belt.
I still joke to this day about the fear that I have of the sound of my dad's keys rattling in his pockets. He keeps his silver wedding band on his keys and silver has a particular chime to is when it's banging around with metal.
That sound coming down the hallway was horrible. And enough to make me think seriously about what I've done.
And I'll say that it worked with me and my sisters (mainly me). We're pretty much completely normal. My family as a whole is mostly normal.
A combination of good parenting and discipline and I'll do the exact same to my kids if it means they learn to make the right decisions.
People who jerk their kids around in public and beat them openly aren't doing a very good job. I think they are failing miserably as a parent.
When I was a camp counselor at the YMCA, I had kids with a wide wide variety of family backgrounds good and bad.
It only took a few weeks, and I had almost complete control of their behavior using the same mental techniques as my parents. It's amazing what a stern glance can do or a slight shake of the head that tells them "I do not approve of what you are doing."
Those three years with the YMCA completely opened my eyes. My parents were smart. Turns out...they WERE right.
Well, mostly right.
Posted by Jason Palmer at 12:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
I'm still waiting on that global warming thing
January 19, 2007If you see a snowman with a camera tomarrow...it's probably me.
Please dust me off and break my frozen shoes loose from the ground.
For the second weekend in a row, I'll be the unfortunate photographer out and about in the massive freezing weather, trying to take pictures showing people that it's cold.
In case you didn't stick your head out of the door, or haven't watched television in the last week.
People around the newspaper are puzzled with me though.
"I thought you liked taking pictures of bad weather."
I do. But in my head...there's a difference between blasting cold and regular bad weather.
Bring on the thunderstorms and the global warming.
Posted by Jason Palmer at 3:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
The Way it Goes.
January 17, 2007I found this pretty funny today.
Posted by Jason Palmer at 2:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Jack Bauer is back
January 15, 2007Okay...there are only a handful of television shows that I have been completely devoted to over the years.
But Fox's "24" takes the cake.
Last night was the season premier, and let me just say...good lord.
If you care about politics and current events...I'd suggest you tune in.
Here's a quick recap of the first two hours.
The USA has been under attack by radical islamic suicide bombers for the last 10 days...killing more than 900 people nationwide.
The govt. is contemplating rounding up all Islamic people and putting them in holding camps, a la the Japanese in WWII
They are chasing this one known terrorist, who has made it known over the last 20 years his will to destroy America, but has an apparent change of heart and wants to legitimize his organization and stop the guy who is actually responsible for the bombings.
Jack Bauer is released from a Chinese prison camp, where he's spent the last 18 months getting tortured.
Jack kills a guy by biting his neck and ripping through his jugular vein.
I mean, come on folks, what's not to love about this show?
Posted by Jason Palmer at 1:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Pizza for Pesos
January 11, 2007Now this article caught my eye today.
A Dallas-based company has started accepting Mexican pesos in their 59 stores across Texas, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada and California.
Brilliant I say...brilliant.
DALLAS (AP) - A pizza chain has been hit with death threats and hate mail after offering to accept Mexican pesos, becoming another flashpoint in the nation's debate over immigrants."This is the United States of America, not the United States of Mexico," one e-mail read. "Quit catering to the damn illegal Mexicans," demanded another.
Dallas-based Pizza Patron said it was not trying to inject itself into a larger political debate about illegal immigration when it posted signs this week saying "Aceptamos pesos" - or "We accept pesos" - at its 59 stores across Texas, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada and California.
Pizza Patron spokesman Andy Gamm said the company was just trying to sell more pizza to its customers, 60 percent of whom are Hispanic.
Wal-Mart, H-E-B supermarkets and other American businesses in towns along the Mexican border accept pesos. And some busineses in New York and Minnesota communities along the northern border accept Canadian dollars.
The difference here is that many of the pizza joints are far from the border, in places like Dallas, more than 400 miles away, and Denver, more than 700 miles.
"If people would understand that the majority of our customers are Hispanic, then it might make more sense for a company to sell pizza for pesos," Gamm said. "It doesn't make sense in Connecticut. And it doesn't make sense in North Dakota or in Maine. But it makes perfect sense here in Dallas, in Phoenix, in Denver - areas far from the border that have significant Hispanic populations."
The company said it has received hundreds of e-mails, some supportive, most critical.
While praising the pesos plan as an innovative way to appeal to Hispanics, a partner in the nation's largest Hispanic public relations firm said a backlash was inevitable.
"Right now there's a lot of anti-immigrant rhetoric going around that could make them a lightning rod," said Patricia Perez, a partner at Valencia, Perez & Echeveste in Los Angeles.
Pizza Patron proclaims on its Web site that "to serve the Hispanic community is our passion." Its restaurants are in mostly Hispanic neighborhoods, and each manager must be bilingual and live nearby, said Pizza Patron founder Antonio Swad, who is part-Italian, part-Lebanese.
The take-home menus are in both English and Spanish, and the dishes include the La Mexicana pizza, with spicy chorizo sausage; La Barbacoa pizza, topped with spicy pulled pork; and chicken wings flavored with lime, peppers and garlic con queso.
Many Pizza Patron customers have pesos "sitting in their sock drawers or in their wallets," Gamm said. "We're talking small amounts, where it would be inconvenient to stop and exchange on the way back - maybe 10 or 20 dollars' worth of pesos."
The promotion will run through the end of February and then be re-evaluated, Swad said.
In the first week, payments in pesos have accounted for about 10 percent of business at the five restaurants operated by the corporation, Pizza Patron said. The others are franchised, and the company will not get reports until the end of the week.
The company has set a conversion rate of 12 pesos per dollar, which is slightly higher than the official rate of about 11 pesos per dollar. Any change is given in U.S. currency.
At a Pizza Patron in Dallas, Veronica Verges bought a pizza Wednesday for her son Nathan's fourth birthday. She paid with pesos her father brought home two weeks ago after a trip to see family in Mexico.
She said she is an occasional Pizza Patron customer, but came that day because she could pay with pesos. Her father wasn't going to use them because he had no plans to go back to Mexico anytime soon.
"I would mostly think a restaurant would do this in a border town," she said. "But it got me over here."
Why is this brilliant you may ask....because of the massive quanity of attention they just generated for themselves.
Sure...some folks may think this is a bad idea, but as the story states...they're not the first and only company that accepts foreign currency.
Actually...most of the buisnesses along the border do, including Wal-Mart.
Along our northern border, a lot of places accept Canadian money. So what's the big deal?
Oh yeah...we're supposed to hate illegal immigrants or something.
Posted by Jason Palmer at 5:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
December Blog Stats
January 10, 2007Yay...I win.
ME - 297
Nick G - 217
Carroll - 140
Laura Richards - 91
Sure...Carroll may have stopped writing blogs in November and Nicky G. took most of the month off.
And sure, I may have campaigned for my blog on MySpace and other photography forums...but that's not the point.
I win. :-)
Posted by Jason Palmer at 2:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
What the Duck.
January 9, 2007I have tried hard to not get a phone with a camera in it for years. It doesn't do me any good at all.
Posted by Jason Palmer at 6:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
This won't happen again...
Had the funniest thing happen to me at the MSU basketball game Saturday night while shooting the game.
This is truly luck.
You'll probably never see the newspaper's sponsorship name on the message board that clearly in the photo ever again.
I thought...surely they'd use this in print. But they didn't....to bad, shameless plugs are great.
Posted by Jason Palmer at 6:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
The Best for Last
January 2, 2007So...what was my absolute favorite photograph from 2006?
Honestly..there really wasn't much of a contest. I couldn't have done a better job with this shot if I tried.
Rider soph. quarterback Shavodrick Beaver takes the stage for the Raiders on Friday nights this season. (Jason Palmer/Times Record News)
I found out that I was going to be the photographer assigned to shoot the portraits for the 2006 High School Football preview section for the newspaper. It's about a 100 page publication with season previews and photographs of just about every high school within a 75-mile radius of Wichita Falls.
I hadn't done the main photos before, but they knew that I could make something really really cool based on some of the previous sports-portrait work I had done.
The story was basically Rider High School had a pair of really dynamic sophomores who were starting in the two most prominent positions on the field....quarterback and running back.
For these kids...it was their big-lights debut and I wanted to shoot them in a theater-type setting.
So...I contacted the prettiest theatre in town. The Wichita Theatre.
The inside of this thing is amazing....and I wanted to make sure it looked it.
We used three shots total...both of them in a portrait outside in front of the theatre....and then single portraits of each of them for the inside pages.
The other shots from the entire shoot were really good too...but this one just jumped out to me and really made me excited. That's not something that happens all the time with all of the other photos you've seen from me.
Don't get me wrong, I'm proud of the things that I've done, but there are only a handful of shots that I can look at, months after I took them, and get a real excitement about the photograph.
Beaver was lit with two flash units on either side of him about 8 feet away...and I had the shutter speed slow enough to get the right amount of ambient light from the theatre itself.
It only took about a dozen shots to get it right.
Posted by Jason Palmer at 3:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
A year ago today
One of the hardest assignments I've faced so far in my career.
The aftermath of the Ringgold Fire.
Darrell McCoy walks through the burnt remains of his home in Ringgold, Texas, Monday, January 2, 2006, a day after a massive wildfire swept through the town between Henrietta and Nocona on Hwy. 82 in North Central Texas. The fast-moving fire prompted evacuations in Ringgold and Nocona, 15 miles away. No residents were injured, but 32 homes were destroyed. (AP Photo/Jason Palmer/Wichita Falls Times Record News)
This was the first and only time so far that I've called my mom and asked her to pray for me and the people I was going to meet.
The fire happened on a Sunday and I was the only photographer working on the Monday after, which was the company holiday.
The Associated Press called and requested me to be their official photographer. That meant that my photos would run in newspapers around the world from this tragedy.
No pressure.
I knew this was going to be a hard day, that's why I called my mom.
I like to think that I've been desensitized to bad things. It's my job to work at places where people have died and lost everything...that's the buisness. That's what I signed up for I guess.
But I haven't been to a scene like this where there is just total devastation. I've seen tornado damage, but there is at least pieces of stuff everywhere....when there's a big fire, there's just nothing left but black.
This photograph came after I decided to avoid the media throngs that had settled down on one area of Ringgold. I wanted to tell other stories.
I found Mr. McCoy standing in the middle of his auto yard with several other guys just looking around. It was the first time I've ever had to muster the courage to ask somebody if I could talk to them after they just lost everything hours before. Turns out...it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.
I didn't ask many questions, just let him direct me around and show things. After a few minutes...he ducked his head and kinda kicked at the ground.
Click...I had my shot.
This ended up being the most used shot from the AP wire. It ran in newspapers and on websites from Lawton to the other side of the world in Sydney and Japan.
It was truely a day that I would never forget.
Firefighters from the Lakeside City Volunteer Fire Dept. battle flames burning on the near side of a fence along an irrigation channel near Navajo Trail off of Turkey Ranch Road and Ponderosa in western Wichita County Tuesday afternoon. Several homes were threatened by a fast-moving grass fire that started around 4 p.m. (Jason Palmer/Times Record News)
Actually...the Ringgold fire wasn't my first of the raging wildfire season last year...nor was it my last.
It seemed like I couldn't go a week without being thrust into danger and smoke during the winter. There was a break...but when the summer fire season hit, I was again in the middle of things, literally.
The first thing most people notice about this shot is that I'm on the wrong side of the fire.
That was true...and I stopped shooting fairly quickly and decided it was time to retreat.
My mom didn't want to know why I was that close or on that side. She hates this photo. For her, it shows how dangerous this job can be. I'd have to say that I agree with her.
I kinda ran to a spot (through an area that had just burned). The ground was still really hot, and there were flaming piles of cow manure. It melted part of my shoes. But I really wanted this shot.
If given the chance, I'd probably do it again....but only if the coin landed the right way.
Posted by Jason Palmer at 12:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Starting off right...
January 1, 2007Happy New Year everybody...
And to kick it off...photos from my two fave. sports to shoot.
Baseball...and hockey.
Wichita Falls defenseman Paul Velo (5) catches the puck with the shaft of his stick in front of Santa Fe defenseman Ryan Peterson (2) during the second period of the Wildcats' game against the Bandits Thursday night. (Jason Palmer/Times Record News)
I'm a big hockey fan. I always have been.
It's no secret that I love going and shooting the Wichita Falls Wildcats hockey games. It's always a challenge and fun to get something really nice and from a fresh perspective.
That's why I believe that this is the perfect hockey photo....or as close to technically perfect as I can get.
How perfect is it? Lets see.
1. There is no wasted space. I believe in shooting as tight as possible for sports. No reason for their to be dead space all over the place. Sometimes, hockey is tough to do this...they carry their sticks well in front of their bodies, and sometimes you have to just deal with large areas of blank ice.
That's not the case here. Both players bodies are pretty much perfectly filling the space of the frame. That's a good thing.
2. Peak Action. The puck is on the freaking shaft of his stick. Now...that's luck. But the skill is in getting the shot with the puck in the frame to begin with...especially when he's trying get a quick shot off, or clear the puck from the zone.
3. No background distractions. At a hockey game...the background can range from people in the stands, advertisements on the boards or on the ice itself and parts of other players. Sometimes, you'll have a random stick or arm in the background that you just can't crop out.
Again...not the case in this photograph. Combine all of that with razor sharp focus and good lighting, and you've got a really eye-pleasing photograph.
This has always been my favorite hockey photograph of the year, even more so than the overhead goalie shots from a few weeks ago.
Rider pitcher Chase Anderson delivers a pitch to a Denison batter during the fifth inning Tuesday evening at Hoskins Field. (Jason Palmer/Times Record News)
Now...baseball is my sport of choice. I love shooting football, soccer, basketball and hockey. But for me, baseball is it.
It's hard. Really hard to make a good, unique image out of baseball. In every other sport, there is constant action. Baseball can have long periods of not much.
Routine grounders to the infielders don't make for really good photos. Everybody takes a picture of the pitcher or the batter trying to hit the ball.
You hope for a good story-telling or exciting play to get the shot.
This one isn't exactly exiting or story-telling.....but it's executed very well.
Again...in sports, a nice clean background is key. From the field level, there are all sorts of things to take away from the image I was trying to make.
I wanted a shot of the pitcher throwing the ball to the batter...plain and simple. Chase Anderson was dominating the game (as usual for him) and I wanted to try a new angle and see if it worked.
It took a few shots to get the ball right where I wanted it....almost perfectly inbetween the batter and pitcher.
What helps is the sunlight. Hoskins Field isn't exactly the easiest place to take photographs at. The sun sets on the third base side...almost in line with 3rd and 1st base.
Sometimes you just get lucky and everything falls into place.
Texas Rangers reliever Antonio Alfonseca delivers a pitch to Boston Red Sox left fielder Manny Ranirez Monday afternoon during the Rangers 2006 season opener at Ameriquest Field. Boston beat the Rangers 7-3 in front of 51,541, the largest crowd in Rangers' history. (Jason Palmer/Times Record News)
Guess what I did on my birthday this past year?
Got to work at the the Texas Rangers opening day game against Boston.
For me...it was the ultimate combo of work/fun. It's been my dream ever since I started this photojournalism road to shoot the Rangers season opener...and it happened last year. It'll happen again this year if I can help it.
I probably came across as a dorky kid with a huge smile more so than a professional photographer at the game. You know what, I didn't care.
That game and that day will always have a special place for me.
Posted by Jason Palmer at 12:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
