The Hickory Crawdads played a noon game today against the Charleston RiverDogs at L.P. Frans Stadium in Hickory, North Carolina. The day was labeled as seniors day in the park. Mr. Bill Bass tossed the honorary first pitch prior to the start of the game. Bill is legendary in local sports… not as an athlete but as an announcer and commentator. Bill was the voice of the Lenoir-Rhyne bears for well over 40 years. He still announces Hickory High football and baseball as well as Hickory Post 48 American Legion baseball.
I was reading in Nathan Armes’ blog earlier today when I stumbled across this TED story on James Nachtwey. This 20-minute video is well worth the time to watch. Nachtwey makes several important points in this monologue that really make me think about the role of journalism in today’s society.
As I mentioned yesterday, I’m planning to add something to my camera bag during the month of May. After thinking about it at length, I have decided that it’s time to buy a really good point and shoot digital camera. I’m not very happy with the Olympus C-7000 Zoom that I have now, and not being happy with it makes me quite reluctant to ever use it for much of anything. It’s a decent camera, but it just isn’t intuitive in its operations, and I don’t use it enough to really become comfortable with it. My problem is that I want to use it a lot more than I do. A majority of the stuff I shoot can be easily done with one of these cameras, and it would eliminate a huge camera bag full of gear when I want to go out and shoot something other than sports.
The Canon G9 has several features that make it a much better option for me than what I have with the Olympus. One of the major benefits I see in the G9 is the hot-shoe flash adapter. With this feature, I can use one of my Canon external flash units on the camera if I choose. The on-cam winkers on these cameras are rarely any good, and they should only be used in a must-have photo situation. Even though it would look quite funny to put a Canon 550ex on top of this little camera, it would definitely provide adequate light when needed.
A second advantage of the G9 over my Olympus is the 12mp vs 7.1mp resolution advantage, if we can call it an advantage. 7.1 megapixels is usually enough resolution to print anything I want to print, but the additional 5 megapixels could be useful at some point. The G9 also offers RAW format, which I never use, but it would be there if I wanted it.
The G9 also offers internal image stabilization which can be a great benefit in lower light situations. Image stabilization can provide one or two stops of additional hand-holding capabilities when you would never get much more than blur without it.
One more feature that the G9 offers that my Olympus is lacking is the ability to add a lens adapter so I can put 58mm filters on the lens if I choose. The only filters I ever use on the camera are polarizers and neutral density filters, but I can’t use them effectively on the Olympus.
Last but not least, in my points of comparison that matter to me, the G9 has a monster 3″ LCD on the back. That’s huge compared to the 2″ LCD on the Olympus.
The Canon G9 has all the SLR functionality in terms of shooting modes and internal configuration. The Canon G9 and the Olympus C-7000 are basically the same size, so there is no real change there.
Someone should try to talk me out of buying this camera :)
My semester at school is finally over. The last few weeks have been difficult with the last set of tests and then the final exams. I don’t know what my grades are yet, but there is still a glimmer of hope that my 4.0 GPA will hold up. It’s gonna be close. Anyway, I’m off for two weeks now before I start back for the summer semester.
The photo above is one of the shots I made last spring when I went on the “Southwest Adventure” with a group of students who were participating in a “Native American History” and “Race and Ethnic Relations” class at school. I was thinking about these photos today because this year’s Southwest Adventure program is leaving early Saturday morning to embark on the same journey that we took last year. My group created a blog when we went on this trip and updated it from the road with photos and writings. There is a student in the current class who is supposedly going to keep this blog going by continuing it as they travel this year. I’ll be following it to see how they do.
HERE is a group of photographs that I shot on this trip. This trip really was a life-changing experience and I would do it again in a heartbeat. I hope the current group of students enjoys it as much as we did last year.
What am I going to do during my break?
I really need to make some opportunities for myself with my camera during the next two weeks. I’m going to have plenty of baseball work, but I need to find something to take me back to my other interests in photography while I have some time away from the books. My SoFoBoMo project is finished, but it’s not what I had hoped it to be. Maybe I’ll spend some time thinking about another book project that I can really sink my teeth into.
I’m considering buying a new point and shoot digital camera. I’m not very fond of the one I have and I have been drooling over the Canon G9 for a while now. I really need to make myself get back to shooting with a camera like this. I know I can’t use it for most of my sports and journalism requirements, but I could use it for just about everything else, especially people and street photography. My dad just bought one (and he’s a Nikon guy) so I have had the chance to get some real hands-on lust for this little jewel. I have a little extra money coming this month, so I will be adding something to my camera bag. I’m not sure if it will be the G9 just yet though. It could be an 85mm lens… maybe a LensBaby… maybe a new camera bag (which I really need cause mine is worn out)…
When I get out of school, I’ll have the money to fund my equipment wish list, but until then, I’ll have to settle for a few odds and ends here and there.
Oh well… All I know for sure about my 2-weeks off is that I’ll be sleeping late whenever possible…
After the 2007 Major League Baseball draft, Caldwell County’s Madison Bumgarner will be in Hickory this week. He won’t be carrying a bat though. Madison will be in the pitching rotation for the Augusta GreenJackets in this week’s series in Hickory against the Hickory Crawdads. Madison is scheduled to pitch in Thursday night’s game at L.P. Frans Stadium. It will be interesting to see what sort of crowd shows up at the game on Thursday night. I’m expecting a larger base of fans for Bumgarner than for the Hickory Crawdads :)
Welcome back Madison!
Milestones are always fun to note. Today provided an interesting opportunity for another entry into the My Town collection as a new milestone was set by the Hickory Crawdads at L.P. Frans Stadium. The Hickory Crawdads started play in the South Atlantic League in 1993 as a single-A farm club of the Chicago White Sox. They are now a single-A affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Today’s game against the Lexington Legends (single-A affiliate of the Houston Astros) was the 14th game of the 16th season, and during today’s game, Hickory first baseman Miles Durham scored the team’s 10,000th run.
During the bottom of the sixth inning, Miles Durham doubled on a line drive into right field. The next batter to the plate, Erik Huber, reaches on a fielding error and Miles Durham advanced to third base. Hickory’s Andrew Walker grounds out to Lexington’s shortstop, but Miles Durham scored on the play to bring Hickory to the 10,000 runs scored mark.
Hickory lost the game by a score of 5-4, but the milestone was still fun to witness!
I wonder how the infield dirt tastes? I didn’t stick around to ask. I wanted to get home in time to watch the NCAA finals.
I was out at L.P. Frans Stadium tonight for Hickory’s second attempt at kicking off the 2008 South Atlantic League minor league baseball season just to be rained out for the second day in a row. There were only a few fans in attendance, because the weather was bad before game time. As I was wandering around the stadium looking for a couple of decent ‘rain out’ feature type photos, I saw this lady sitting in the stadium having a bite to eat while waiting for the rain delay announcement. I have seen her at the park regularly during the last few years I have been covering the Hickory Crawdads. She probably attends more games than I do. I decided to step out from behind my camera and introduce myself and ask for a quick photo. This is a rather rewarding experience in most cases, and it’s also the foundation of my 1000 Faces photo project that I have been working on for the last few years (at a rather slow pace sometimes.)
Her name is Doris Mayes, and she has been attending a large majority of all Hickory Crawdads home baseball games since the inaugural season in 1993. She’s been a season ticket holder since 1996. I listened to her tell me stories about may Hickory Crawdads baseball players who have gone on to play major league baseball during the past 15 years. She was wearing a Crawdads baseball cap with a rather impressive collection of Crawdads hat pins that covered the history of this team through affiliation with the Chicago White Sox and the Pittsburgh Pirates. We talked about the weather, the new team, and what’s going on in Hickory with the new management at L.P. Frans Stadium as well.
This experience was quite rewarding for me. I highly recommend it :)
Tomorrow is the beginning of my SoFoBoMo project. I’m looking forward to getting started finally. It will be a good day to start, because I will have completed my tests this week at school. I’m stuck with three exams between today and tomorrow, so it will be a nice opportunity to blow off some steam. I’m not sure if I’ll start making photos tomorrow or not though. I have a lot of groundwork to do before I’ll be ready to deal with photos. I need to get some paperwork ready to hand out and then do the basic book design. I would like to write a short introduction to use in the book as well. I’ll have to think about that a little tonight maybe…
A front and rear cover image isn’t something I have thought about yet either… Hmmm… I guess there is a lot of work to be done :)
I went over to Lenoir-Rhyne College this afternoon for a softball game between the Lenoir-Rhyne Lady Bears and the Brevard Lady Trojans. It was rather cold this afternoon compared to recent days in the mid-70s. The high for the day was 44 degrees and it wasn’t quite that warm at game time this afternoon. Part of my assignment today was to shoot some feature photos for use on a photo page that will be running this Thursday. I was looking around for something to photograph that told the story of the cool weather at the game. I met Ellen Key and her dog “Sydney” braving the cool weather…