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I've been busy...
June 29, 2007This has pretty much been my world this week.
Lots of water...
This is me in Lucy Park, if I don't look happy, it's because I'm knee deep in flowing floodwaters.
Posted by Jason Palmer at 05:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Drying Out...
June 26, 2007Good lord... I haven't been out in rain like what happened this morning in a very long time.
I've got to dry out and finish doing some other stuff, but I fully intend to put flying pictures and oil bowl stuff up soon.
peeeeeace...
Posted by Jason Palmer at 02:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Two weeks later....State Baseball
June 22, 2007Okay...this is way late and I'm sorry about that.
So, J.Scott Russell and I headed down to always fun Austin (Round Rock more specifically). Already, the trip is more fun than the previous two trips down the Hwy. 281...simply because now I have somebody to talk to on the way down.
We goofed off, listened to loud 80's rock, he took a nap (I couldn't....since I was driving). The hours flew by a heck of a lot quicker.
Now, generally speaking, baseball isn't my fave. sport to shoot. But it's easily my fave. sport to watch. Shooting baseball isn't easy, because there aren't a whole lot of chances for really great art, and when those chances happen...you have to be lucky and in the right spot with the right lens.
Archer City's semifinal game was kinda boring if you ask me. I mean, they won and all, but there wasn't a lot of action...and when there was, I wasn't lucky enough to be in the right spot. I still got some good photos.
So, without further delay...here are some baseball stuffs.
One of the things I here from folks who are into sports photography is how "hard" it is to get a good bat on the ball photo during the game. It's not...you just have to have quick reflexes and good timing.
The trick isn't to rely on your camera's motor drive (The D2Hs I use can shoot at 8-frames per second). This isn't a sequence of shots like in football where you could have the running back breaking through the line....
This is a split second....I was lucky and nabbed a bunch of near ball on bats. But I nailed two of them on each day.
The trick is to get a good shot of a base hit or homer...instead of a ground ball out. Both of my hits were important to the game...and lots of fun to look at. I didn't know an aluminum bat would bend like that.
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So what do you do when the game is boring but you need photos?....try something different.
Move around the ballpark and take chances, or shoot things that you might not normally. This case, with a runner on first base, there's always the chance that you'll get a steal at second (Which I call the "cover your ass" shot).
Because of the positioning of the photo wells at the Dell Diamond, this shot was possible.
Another angle was to go up in the stands and behind home plate...but I didn't want the catcher or the umpire in the way...so move a little to the right and you've got an isolated shot with no background clutter (from being up higher) and no home plate clutter. I love these kinds of shots becase you can move the angles a bit and change the entire photo easily.
Another case of trying to make something different happen on a boring game... I had enough length on my camera lens to shoot from the outfield bleachers (or grass berm more accurately). I was trying to get a shot of the batters hitting the ball, but didn't get anything worthwhile.
So, I decided to shoot the Archer City baserunners coming up to first....it worked out well with a low throw and good stretch. Just a bit of a different angle.
So...when you have a boring game, your only hope is to get good post-game reaction. You have to be quick and pay attention to, because you hope for stuff like this....
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Now...the ultimate vindication for shooting hours of baseball can happen at a moments notice, and the bigger the game, the bigger the moment will have an impact and the bigger fool you look if you don't shoot it right.
Archer City had one of the good moments..... then the pure joy that is winning a state title.
Easily my fave. baseball photo of all time (the first one in this series)....
So the end of the game is nearing, and Archer City is mowing them down in the last inning, I was just in the stands down the first base line waiting to jump onto the field and shoot the jube that was soon to follow.
I had already taken my 400mm f2.8 lens off one of my cameras and replaced it with the 17-55mm f2.8. The other camera had the 70-200mm f2.8 lens for the further back joy shots.
The last batter sends a popup towards right field, and I knew that if the kid caught it, he was going to go crazy, giving me a few frames before I would swing back around to the dugout and pitchers mound where the dog-pile would most likely take place.
So I turn the camera towards Weldon Stallcup, and he's running.....and running....and running towards the foul line. I never looked away from the viewfinder and as he started to dive, I pushed the shutter and held it down for about 20 frames.
The three panel photo ran in the paper the next day.
I had more to choose from...but I wanted the peak-est moments. Here are those three...and seven others in a sequence.
Then...the party was on.....
Posted by Jason Palmer at 10:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
What the Duck!
June 18, 2007They keep getting better and better...
Posted by Jason Palmer at 10:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Crazy weekend...
June 12, 2007Everything from State baseball in Austin, to Weird Al on Sunday and a day in Fort Worth yesterday.
I'll get caught up on blogs here in a bit, I've got baseball photos to show off and stories to tell of course.
give me a sec.
Posted by Jason Palmer at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Ahahahahahaha!!
June 05, 2007Yet another reason why I love this comic so much....freaking hilarious.
Posted by Jason Palmer at 12:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
State Baseball Bound...
Well, J.Scott and I are heading back down to A-town today to get ready for the UIL State Baseball Tourney.
Archer City seems to be the team of destiny, after losing one of the most potent bats in the entire area to injury earlier this year, they are still the #1 team in the state.
Hoping they win on Wed. and play again on Thursday (the longer away from Wichita Falls the better in my opinion....I love road trips).
peace out...
Posted by Jason Palmer at 09:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Black Flies
June 04, 2007Everybody has been freaking out for about the last two months about the mosquitoes with all the rain we've had.
Don't get me wrong, I don't like them either. They have always left a nasty little bite on my skin. My mom says it's because I'm so sweet. That's why they like me so.
My mom had the perfect medicine for the bites too....I don't remember what it was called, but it looked to be about a 30-year old bottle.
Brown glass...hard plastic applicator....and it burned like fire.
It was the external equivalent of ipecac...that stuff would mess you up. I knew it would work every time and I would stop scratching at the bites, but the price you had to pay for relief was massive temporary blinding burning pain.
I'd buy that stuff again in a heartbeat, but I don't know where to find it. Perhaps a voodoo medicine shack. It may have had snake venom in it, I couldn't tell you.
Eventually growing up...I got to the point where I could treat myself with it...then nearly pass out in the bathroom floor.
Anyways....this year, it's not the mosquitoes that are bothering me....
It's those spawn of Satan black flies.
I made the mistake a few weeks ago of playing golf at River Creek without spray-on protection and came away with no fewer than 12 agonizing bites around my ankles and lower legs. I didn't know at the time what they were, but I knew they weren't the usual blood-suckers.
I didn't even scratch them and they were driving me crazy. These little buggers meant business.
Now, I'm usually pretty good at resisting the scratch, but there were so many and it was such a different kind of pain. So I went looking for the brown glass bottle solution.
Of course, I didn't find it, but I did pick up some general antiseptic stuff that was in a small green bottle. It looked similar so I figured what the heck, I'd give it a shot.
It's helped a lot.....those dozen or so bites went away.
Now...there's a new one, right on the top of my left foot....no doubt from my wearing sandals all weekend. Good news, I've been treating it with the snake oil...bad news, I've gotta wear tennis shoes at some point.
I'm ready for winter...so a freeze will kill off all these vermin.
Posted by Jason Palmer at 01:37 PM | Permalink
Spammer Arrested
June 01, 2007This made my day today....unfortunately, I still get spam comments on my blog.
Guys like this should be locked away.
SEATTLE, Washington (AP) -- A 27-year-old man described as one of the world's most prolific spammers was arrested Wednesday, and federal authorities said computer users across the Web could notice a decrease in the amount of junk e-mail.Robert Alan Soloway is accused of using networks of compromised "zombie" computers to send out millions upon millions of spam e-mails.
"He's one of the top 10 spammers in the world," said Tim Cranton, a Microsoft Corp. lawyer who is senior director of the company's Worldwide Internet Safety Programs. "He's a huge problem for our customers. This is a very good day."
A federal grand jury last week returned a 35-count indictment against Soloway charging him with mail fraud, wire fraud, e-mail fraud, aggravated identity theft and money laundering.
Soloway pleaded not guilty Wednesday afternoon to all charges after a judge determined that -- even with four bank accounts seized by the government -- he was sufficiently well off to pay for his own lawyer.
He has been living in a ritzy apartment and drives an expensive Mercedes convertible, said prosecutor Kathryn Warma. Prosecutors are seeking to have him forfeit $773,000 they say he made from his business, Newport Internet Marketing Corp.
A public defender who represented him for Wednesday's hearing declined to comment.
Prosecutors say Soloway used computers infected with malicious code to send out millions of junk e-mails since 2003. The computers are called "zombies" because owners typically have no idea their machines have been infected.
He continued his activities even after Microsoft won a $7 million civil judgment against him in 2005 and the operator of a small Internet service provider in Oklahoma won a $10 million judgment, prosecutors said.
U.S. Attorney Jeff Sullivan said Wednesday that the case is the first in the country in which federal prosecutors have used identity theft statutes to prosecute a spammer for taking over someone else's Internet domain name. Soloway could face decades in prison, though prosecutors said they have not calculated what guideline sentencing range he might face.
The investigation began when the authorities began receiving hundreds of complaints about Soloway, who had been featured on a list of known spammers kept by The Spamhaus Project, an international anti-spam organization.
The Santa Barbara County, California, Department of Social Services said it was spending $1,000 a week to fight the spam it was receiving, and other businesses and individuals complained of having their reputations damaged when it appeared spam was originating from their computers.
"This is not just a nuisance. This is way beyond a nuisance," Warma said.
Soloway used the networks of compromised computers to send out unsolicited bulk e-mails urging people to use his Internet marketing company to advertise their products, authorities said.
People who clicked on a link in the e-mail were directed to his Web site. There, Soloway advertised his ability to send out as many as 20 million e-mail advertisements over 15 days for $495, the indictment said.
The Spamhaus Project rejoiced at his arrest.
"Soloway has been a long-term nuisance on the Internet -- both in terms of the spam he sent, and the people he duped to use his spam service," organizers wrote on Spamhaus.org.
Soloway remained in federal detention pending a hearing Monday.
Posted by Jason Palmer at 04:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
