Baseball season is in full swing, with two games a week. Since I got this fancy new camera, I decided to make a project of it, and take pictures of all of the kids, at all of the games. That didn’t start out too well, as I had the smaller lens on for a while and at the start of the season, it was getting dark too soon to get good action shots as the light faded.

But it’s getting dark later now, and I’ve got the ‘reach out and touch you’ lens almost permanently on the camera, and I’m watching each game through the viewfinder. I hang over the fence, and swap to the other team’s side when I have to, which earns me some strange looks from those parents.

I’m getting a feel for the action of it, and I keep my other eye open like a rifle scope, so I can follow the ball and the movement fairly well. I’ve nabbed some shots that I’m extremely happy with, but I don’t feel comfortable posting pictures of other peoples’ kids on here.

Our team is slowly coming along. We’ve got a coach this year who believes in teaching the fundamentals, whether or not that wins us games. And at first, that lost us a lot of games, and badly, and the kids were getting a little down about it. They’re picking up though, and although they still lost the last game, it was only by three points. They got one homerun, and our crowd went wild, and I got one of the best shots of my life of that kid and the joy on his face. I can’t wait to share that with his parents.

Because that’s the other end of my project. Sure, it’s developing my own photography to take 300 pictures a night, but the end result will be to give all of the parents something cool, and the coaches too. What’s the fun of having all of this expensive equipment if I can’t share it? When the season’s over, each parent will have a whole bunch of photos of their own kid; action shots, like you see on baseball cards, that they can print up and frame if they want, or toss in the trash if they want. I get a good 50 a night that are frameable to my eyes.

It’s a good way to get me out and talking to the other parents too. Typically, I’m all alone at these games, and they’re not, and it doesn’t make me a lot of friends. But they’re starting to catch on to what I’m doing, and they’re interested in it, and ask me if I caught that good play. And usually, I did. So I’m easily having as much fun as Seamus is (who, by the way, is doing very well and has got some nice hits this year, and this his first year at AAA ball!)