Oct 12 2007
You’re Soaking in It (Pic of the Week)
“Just going for the ball, I swear!”
“Well, you got’em both. Now get off me!”
(Click any image to enlarge and sharpen.)
Yesterday’s post was nearly 2,000 words, so now I bring you pictures, which I’ve heard are worth 1,000 each (but take a lot less of your time).
These are just a few samples of the rainy adventure I wrote about in the previous post. Although the rain obscured a lot of the fine detail, these provide a pretty good representation of the events I described. Unlike most pics I post here, almost all were cropped at least a little (newspapers do it all the time)*.
So, with a dash of irreverence, here’s Arkansas-Auburn 1999.
“Dude, I’m never giving you a frikkin’ zerbert! Cut it out!”
It was so dark from the storm that my “slow” lenses didn’t allow a very high shutter speed. So, any time I slapped on the long lens (most of the time at a football game), the pics were subject to major camera shake blur. Or just plain subject motion blur.
“Whoa, Dad, the only black people here besides us are on the field, and that one creepy dude a few rows back with the white hood.”
“Son, just wave like this, root for the home team, and pray Arkansas has come a long way since Central High.”
For even the most competitive chess match, my equipment would have been fine. Barring something going horribly wrong, there’s not a lot of quick motion there, unless we’re talking speed chess. They punch that clock faster than Courtney shot Kurt.
“Yes I’ve heard, ‘Hey, your heads are getting wet,’ before. Now, can you shut up and see if I got that piece of spinach?”
Not to turn this into a “how-to” or anything, but those huge lenses the sports photographers use are so big because they gather lots of light, and allow high shutter speeds under more challenging conditions.
Did you catch how I hid that excuse behind the thin veil of a tutorial?
Seriously, though, a lens like that costs about $4,500 American brand new, if you just get the 300mm version (think 10x zoom in the point-and-shoot world). If you grab a 600mm, it’s more than $8,000. These are the lenses that make those Sports Illustrated pictures look so good, with the background so completely blurred (remember my Depth of Field How-To?).
I’m up for donations if anybody wants to hit my PayPal account. ;-)
He thinks: These people aren’t saying, “Whooo, pig sooieee!” Darn it!
She thinks: Why does he have to be gay? Dammit!
Where was I going with this? Oh, yes! Go Hogs! Beat Auburn! Just like last year when the Tigers were ranked #2 in the country and started our 10-game win streak.
And, we’re hosting an adults-only Halloween party Saturday evening. Report will follow here after I’ve had time to put those skinny black rectangles over innocent bystanders’ eyes and privates.
Update: ESPN.COM has a great story about an Arkansas player and his very proud family (they live about 30 miles from where I was born and reared).
* All photos taken with a 35mm Nikon N8008S and a variety of mid-tier Nikon lenses. Scanned in using an HP PhotoSmart S20 film scanner at 2100 DPI.
Ooooooo kkkkkkkkkkk…. that was interesting… especially the picture of the two black people (or the caption so to speak).
Have a great weekend Mark…
You’re a couple weeks early for a Halloween party, aren’t ya? But if it’s going to be adults only, maybe you will get some good pics out of it. Get snappin’!
I like your drum pic the best. The drops shooting up from the surface are in direct competition with the drops falling down. It’s like rain fall Red Rover!
Dave - Perhaps that joke was a little too local. Anybody who’s spent any time in northwest Arkansas and especially at UA football and basketball games knows exactly the disparity in race representation that I allude to here. In reality, everybody gets along fine, as far as I know. Don’t worry — Arkansas has come a very long way since that infamous incident at Central High. Not as far as one might hope, but progress is being made.
Simon - I was partial to the band pictures in general. Kind of geeky, I guess, but there it is.
UPDATE: I added an update section near the end of the post.
They’re all great shots, Mark, but I like the drum picture the best as well. Moving water always gets me.
Hurray for Halloween Parties!! I look forward to the pictures. We opted not to have a party this year. Turnout last year was a bit underwhelming and with work being a bit crazy right now…we just didn’t have it in us to put in the time and money to make it happen this year. Some friends of ours will be filling in the gap with a small get-together. But they’re waiting a couple more weeks so that the October spook factor is a bit better.
Why is no one concerned about the guy one row back from the black father and a couple seats to his right? He doesn’t look very impressed.
I really enjoyed these photos. I’ve never had much success with sports, though I have tried over the years. The band shot reminds me of the Centerfold
video by J. Geils Band where the drummer hits a drum that doesn’t have a skin, but is instead full of milk.
Moksha - I remember your disappointment last year. With 12 planning to attend, we better not have to endure the same — lest there be a reckoning! (see, since the party’s so early in October, we’ll have plenty of time to plot our revenge for actual Hallow’s Eve, when suspicious behavior isn’t so suspicious)
Josh - I wondered if anybody would notice that guy. The one next to the closest guy wearing camo? Yeah, he’s not calling the Hogs. He looks too mean.
Lenny - I haven’t had much success either, until I got that photo pass. I got one for the Tennessee game that year, too, and I probably will post them at some point since I found them along with the Auburn negatives.
Good call on the J. Geils Band video comparison.
Moksha - The reason we are having the party so early in Oct. is b/c we thought we were going to be gone next weekend, and the weekend after that, we both have concerts to go to. (Mark to Van Halen in KC and me to Maroon 5 here in DFW.) Hopefully we can create some spookiness when it’s still in the mid-80’s outside! You’re just jealous b/c you can’t come! ;-)
Oh, I won’t deny my jealousy. I’m always up for a good Halloween party…even if it is way too hot.
But why VanHalen in KC? They’re playing St. Louis, too. I mean…if you’re up for the 8 and a half to KC…what’s another hour and a half?
Moksha - Umm… oops?
But, seriously, my brother (with whom this concert has become a tradition, at four and counting) will be on a business trip that already knocks out about the first 3.5 hours for him (and takes him farther from St. Louis), so KC made much more sense from his perspective. Don’t think I didn’t consider SL, though. I didn’t want to let this cat out of the bag yet because our tickets aren’t yet secured, but sometimes our wives get the jump on us (more often than they actually jump on us). Alvis is on tap to make the trip with me.
No worries, mate. I wouldn’t expect Charles to drive extra mileage just to meet one of his brother’s Internet pen pals. But that won’t stop me from flinging guilt in your general direction just for the fun of it.
Besides, had I a choice between the ampitheater in St. Louis vs. KC…I’d take the ampitheater formerly known as Sandstone anyday over the one formerly known as Riverport. (These days they’re both called Verizon Ampitheater. I actually know a guy who went online to buy a ticket for a show in StL and accidently bought one for the show in KC since the places are named the same. Friggin’ stupid system if you ask me.)