Happiness is rounding third

"Happiness is rounding third" series, New Jersey, August 2006

The mascot race at a minor-league baseball game can be hit or miss. Sometimes you get the kid who develops a sudden onset of stage fright as soon as he or she is put at first base with 5,000 people watching and a big blue furball standing there. In those cases, one of the team employees usually leads the child around the bases by the hand or, in at least one instance I can recall, picks the child up and carries her around the bases.

But some kids are truly happy to score from first with Boomer -- in this case -- or some other mascot giving him a head start or scripting a diversion that allows the young sprinter to run away with the race. On this day, the boy outran Boomer's scooter; in a race earlier in the week, Boomer carried a bouquet of flowers and stopped to flirt with the third-base umpire ... who tossed the flowers aside and clocked Boomer with an inflatable boxing glove. With this kid so thoroughly enjoying himself, I couldn't bring myself to choose just one photo. Hence, a series. So what if it's the easy way out.

"Roy W. Cottrell, Private," Montana, May 2006

"Roy W. Cottrell, Private," Memorial Day 2006

Private Roy W. Cottrell was a member of the 364th Infantry, a unit of the 91st Division that saw action (search for "September 29") in France during World War I. Searching elsewhere, I found a listing of some men killed in action on Sept. 29, 1918, in Binarville and Le Catelet, France.

Photo taken at Custer National Cemetery in Little Bighorn National Park on Memorial Day, 2006.

Beneath the Big Sky

"On the road in Big Sky Country," Montana, May 2006

"Sky high, Colorado," May 2006

It's not just Montana that deserves the "Big Sky" moniker. Sure, the wide, open vistas allow for the huge blue sky to stretch across the horizon. But Colorado has some big sky of its own, even with the peaks of the Rocky Mountains around you. Only something as big as the sky could dwarf the peaks in your view.

The sky is great for photography. It changes colors, it brings in accessories, it strips itself bare and leaves you nothing but a monochromatic canvas. It casts shadows or opens everything up to the light. It's usually seen as the background, but it can sometimes be the subject on its own.

"At the San Diego Zoo," April 2006

She's not one for portraits, so hopefully she doesn't stop by this blog this week. She's away for the weekend, so maybe I can put up a newer entry before Monday. In any case, we went back to the slope of orange flowers -- pansies, I think -- because I thought a portrait of her in her orange wrap in front of the flowers would be a nice blend of her favorite color. Unfortunately, we couldn't find a spot where the flowers blanketed the hillside, or at least approached a 50-50 ratio with the green leaves, but we still got a nice shot out of it. I should send it to her parents.

"Broken bat," Trenton, July 2006

"Broken bat," Trenton, July 2006

Brett Gardner lost his lumber on this swing last week in Trenton. I'm still amazed I caught this one. It's why I love shooting sports. There can still be moments missed even with the new digital SLR. What I love is the whole image -- the ball still in the frame, the barrel of the bat parallel with the ground and the splinters flying off in blurred motion from the space between the windmilling barrel and the broken handle still in his hands. Easily the best shot I got all day, and in the past week at several games.

I also definitely like the larger format I've set up for posting through Flickr. I still think I need to play with the template to even out the text with the image and get the right column to appear nice and neat without being too narrow.

"Peak season," Rocky Mountain National Park

"Peak season," Rocky Mountain National Park, May 2006

When you finally make a trip out West, it's hard not to find the views remarkable. On a late-May afternoon, we left Boulder and meandered up through Rocky Mountain National Park, where the temperature dropped into the low 50s -- though we kept the top down the whole time -- and the snow remained frozen in drifts that reached heights above our windshield as we cruised by them. As I do with many expansive National Parks, I'd get to one turnout or viewpoint, get out of the car, take it all in and enjoy it for some time and think, "It can't get any better than this." And then, five minutes up the road, another vista would have me thinking those words all over again.

"Riding the pinwheel," Coney Island, August 2005

"Riding the pinwheel," Coney Island

Growing up in New Jersey, I'd only heard about Coney Island, but it always meant summer to me. We, of course, have the Shore, but if you go up to the northernmost tip of Sandy Hook on a clear day, or climb up the tower at Twin Lights, you can look across the harbor and see the distinctive parachute drop, which now stands just outside the right-field fence at Keyspan Park.

I always thought of Coney Island as New York City's little slice of the Jersey Shore -- Surf Avenue, with Nathan's hot dog stand and the shops and arcades, and the Cyclone roller coaster and the entrance to Astroland recreates any number of New Jersey beach towns at the southern end of Brooklyn. Taking in a Cyclones ballgame and then wandering among the amusments, as we did on this night, did bring back some memories of Point Pleasant and Seaside Heights.

These hot, sticky August nights made bearable by the cool sea breezes -- that's summer in New York. Or New Jersey.

"I drink to your health," Boulder, Colorado, May 2006

"I drink to your health," Boulder, Colorado, May 2006
I drink to your health when I'm with you,
I drink to your health when I'm alone,
I drik to your health so often,
I'm starting to worry about my own!
-- A traditional Irish toast

Or, at least one I got from a greeting card. Taken with a camera phone at the Catacombs bar in Boulder. No idea anymore what the heck I was drinking that night, but it was good.

"Lost in the Mist," Yellowstone National Park, May 2006

I couldn't decide between the two. I like the vertical one for the scale and the bits of detail in the foreground and the stripped trees up on the hill. But I like the horizontal one for the simple solitude of a man alone with an umbrella in the mist. The combination of a cold rain on this gray May afternoon and the warm steam coming up from the Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park made this a thoroughly wet experience. It was like being in a sauna with the shower on -- while dressed. And I didn't have a raincoat, only a fleece.

"Plumpy parrot," New Jersey, January 2006

"Plumpy parrot," New Jersey, January 2006
I've previously posted a shot of these guys and intended to go back for more, but I haven't made it up the street with my camera lately. I should, because when the light is right, they come out so beautifully. I have a handful of other shots from this day, and even though it's a good shot of the bird, they tend to be in shadow and not as brilliantly colored as a result. 

"I-90 rainbow, Montana," May 2006

"I-90 rainbow, Montana," May 2006
Speeding along I-90 in southern Montana a few weeks ago, we passed through a late-day storm and witnessed the beautiful spectacle of the dark clouds to the east and the setting sun in a clear sky to the west. It created the rainbow and illuminated the rangelands and windmills (those three white specks to the left of center, receding toward the hills in the distance), not to mention cast a shadow of our car on the side of the road. Taken from a moving -- 80 mph -- Seabring convertible, eastbound in Interstate 90, heading for Billings. I figured with the shadow of the car and because it was taken from the car, it fit nicely the automotive theme.

"New tackles old," San Diego, April 2006

"New tackles old," San Diego, April 2006
It's not just that they're building new ballparks to look like old ones, but they're doing it in old, run-down sections of town and often incorporating elements of the past into the new design. In Baltimore, it's the old B&O warehouse that forms the backdrop to Camden Yards. In Seattle, it's the railroad tracks that run just beyond the outfield wall, beneath Safeco Field's retractable roof, when it's open. In San Diego, it's the Western Supply Co. building that serves as a ticket office and restaurant, among other things, in the city's new Petco Park. When you walk into these parks, the exterior and various details are sharp, shiny and new, but the overall design and feel of the place is decidedly retro. It's all the rage.

"Route 71, Nebraska," May 2006

"Route 71, Nebraska," May 2006

The road challenge was sent out just five days before I stepped on a plane bound for Denver and a week-long road trip with my college roommate. So although my photo archives are stocked with road trip pictures and, like this one, literal images of the road, I wanted to wait until I was back from the trip to submit to this challenge, even if it was a few weeks late.

This may be a common, even pedestrian shot to represent the road, but it's the one I decided to go with because of that in some ways, and because this is an image that brings up questions: Where is this? Where does it lead? Why am I here? Such an open and empty stretch of road -- in such an open and sparsely populated section of America -- is no doubt well-known to those who live on or near it, relying on it to get from their homes to any number of places. A map of the region shows that there are only so many options when traveling by car in southwest Nebraska.

"American bison, Yellowstone," May 2006

"American bison, Yellowstone," May 2006

It may have been May, but in the high elevations of northwestern Wyoming -- in Yellowstone National Park -- you can get winter weather late into the year. The day began cool and overcast, and it wouldn't have been a bad one to tour the park, but when we found ourselves getting out of the car in the rain to see a thermal spring, or when I had to tuck my camera under my coat to keep the snow off it when looking at the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and the river's Lower Falls, it got to be a little much.

At this point, we were on our way out of the park, completing the loop we had started and about to hit the road south that would take us back to Jackson Hole. We noticed ahead a car coming in the opposite direction that had stopped; the vehicle in front of us braked and I noticed, through the falling snow, a bison crossing the road. As we approached the spot, we saw that the one that had crossed was following another; back on the right side of the pavement, where the first two had come from, three others remained.

Conveniently, the two bison had crossed at a turnout, so I turned into it and we waited. The second one to cross stopped barely 50 feet from the road -- where a half-dozen cars were now scattered, watching. As the huge animal turned and walked back to the edge of where the macadam met the grass, one woman got out of her car to get a photo, and Bryan and I laughed at the idiocy of this arrogant tourist. She returned to her car without incident, and we watched as the three lagging bison made their way, one by one, across to join the first two. This shot is of two of those final three, plus the one who crossed and waited, setting off into the valley.

"Early morning, Lincoln Tunnel," May 2006

"Early morning, Lincoln Tunnel," May 2006
Considering that I'm nearly a month behind on my weekly indulgence of posting photos for challenges, I'll use this one to kill two birds with one stone: it serves as both a passageway and transportation, two recent Thursday challenges I've missed.

Now that I pass through the Lincoln Tunnel 10 times a week for work, I feel like I know it. I used to be fascinated by it -- awed by the feat of engineering it represented, intrigued by the observation booths inside it, surprised by the exit signs and the doors in the walls. I've always imagined a picture inside it, a flash-less exposure with a shutter speed long enough to blur it a little but not so much as to accentuate the inevitable camera shake as the car bumps along the roadway. I took this one in the wee small hours, returning home from a Mets game.

"All-Star baseballs, Houston," July 2004

All-Star baseballs, Houston, July 2004

Two birds with one stone. Baseballs are round, and this basket of them is full.

Done and done.

Ambiorix Concepcion series

Based on an earlier post, I was asked if I had any more shots of New York Mets farmhand Ambiorix Concepcion to include on this site. I finally got around to checking my files and pulled these last images.

Before the game


On deck


Ready to hit


Going for a classic look


That one was at your eyes, kid!


Swiiiiing and a miss!

"Beside the Great Falls, Paterson," November 2005

"Beside the Great Falls, Paterson," November 2005

In the 18th Century, Alexander Hamilton chose Paterson, New Jersey, to further his vision of an industrialized America. Today, the falls still flow over the 77-foot cliff and the stately plant building still rests nestled in the gorge.

"Meat technology, Cocoa Village, Florida," February 2006

"Meat technology, Cocoa Village, Florida," February 2006

OK, so maybe it's not meat, but there's some sort of technology involved in taking a bacon-tasting slab of something and not only making it (marginally) edible, but unnaturally durable. Come to think of it, it's probably more technological than it is natural.

"Library at Alcatraz," September 2005

Library at Alcatraz, September 2005

The windows must have been a tantalizing tease. Out beyond them was the blue San Francisco Bay. When the fog rolled in, it might have been a blessing. Outside those windows was nothing but a depthless gray, no blue water, no hills of Frisco to remind those inside what they were missing. The fog could turn the sparkling world beyond the bars into black and white.

"Baby loves Bruce," New York, January 2006

Don't have too many pictures of babies, but I'm resourceful. I can come up with something. (If it wasn't one from this series, it was one from my collection of The Gates because I don't think I have any other babies in any photos in my digital archives.)

That's Jen Chapin, daughter of Harry, singing Woody Guthrie's "Oklahoma Hills" to close out The Nebraska Project, a free concert that opened this year's New York Guitar Festival. In her arms is her son, Maceo, named after a guitar legend. On the left is the guy who wrote and originally recorded the album Nebraska, roughly 25 years before all these artists came together to perform it.

Ruins of Alcatraz, September 2005

The Rock is old. From a military outpost to a prison to a tourist attraction, it now sits in a dichotomous state of preserved decay. While the cell block remains intact and safe for visitors, much of the rest of the island slowly crumbles, vegetation overtaking the concrete, wind rounding off the rough edges, the outpost in San Francisco Bay as dangerous today as it was to its prisoners in the past, only in a different way.

The Rock is trying to regain its past.

Central Park cyclist, February 2005

On my first shooting expeditions to Central Park last February during the Gates extravaganza, I walked up the west side of the park from Columbus Circle to 81st Street. On a crisp but clear winter day, the park was teeming with people, many of them, like me, walking around with cameras on a day off or a lunch break. When I reached the back of Tavern on the Green along the road, I stood there for 15 or 20 minutes waiting for the cyclists to come by for a blurred shot like this. Other than the University of Michigan riding uniform the guy's wearing, it's just about perfect.

One always stands out, November 2005

As if playing with a new camera weren't enough, now we've got all these easy-to-use photo editing programs that turn digital processing time into playtime. "Oh, what's this 'focal BW' tool do?" Not that the leaf couldn't stand on its own or anything; I just felt that this was a good image with which to play around and I think it holds up as a variation on the tree theme.

Kevn Kinney quartet, New York, January 2006

One day is not enough. I'm going to try to start posting Thursday challenge photos as well. (Monday might be too much, but we'll see how ambitious I get.) So to depict a group, I went with one of the musical kind. Specifically, (from left) Stephan Crump, Lenny Kaye, Kevn Kinney and Dan Zanes during "The Nebraska Project" on the opening night of the New York Guitar Festival last month. It was a splendid night of live music, when I both fell in love with my new camera and fell in love with Springsteen's Nebraska album all over again. There's nothing like the feeling of going back to a great record after not listening closely to it for a long time.

Escapee's cell, Alcatraz, September 2005

In 1962, three prisoners successfully made their way out of the cell block and off of Alcatraz Island. They're the only three to attempt an escape and not be apprehended, and though they never turned up onshore and their bodies have never been recovered, they are still considered fugitives. Although the prisoners did not disguise themselves in order to escape, they disguised their cells to make it appear as though they were sleeping, allowing them the time they needed to reach the waters of San Francisco Bay and make their way to freedom.

Vanity Plate No. 1 / NJ - REDWINE

There were a lot of portraits -- self and otherwise -- used to depict vanity, natch, not to mention people gussying themselves up, applying makeup or otherwise admiring their own reflections. Frankly, I didn't expect to see so many photos of birds -- particularly waterfowl like swans, ducks and geese -- used as an expression of narcissism. Peacocks I understood and the dozen cats weren't a surprise, either. I also don't quite get the idea of mannequins having "excessive pride in one's appearance." Talk about anthropomorphizing something. I did, however, enjoy those who used one of the definitions further down the list.

So while I spent the day going through the 263 entries before I could come home to post my own, I started to wonder if I had any photos on my computer that would fit the challenge. (A hard-drive crash a few months ago took a chunk out of my available images and I haven't been able to rebuild the library yet.) And then I realized that I did, even if it was a camera-phone image. While there were a few posts of cars -- usually exotic ones or high-horsepowered ones -- it took me 154 posts before I found someone of like mind.

This is one of a few vanity plate photos I have. As the collection grows, I'll come up with a better way to present the low-quality, grainy photos produced by a camera phone (since that's how I tend to capture these things when I'm out doing errands at Target, which is where REDWINE was spotted). For now, though, this.

Mike Jacobs after the slam, Trenton, June 2005

A couple of months before the Mets called him up to the majors, Mike Jacobs was tearing up the Eastern League. When I caught a Binghamton Mets game in Trenton, his third-inning grand slam tied the game at 6-6. I'd call that success. In the seventh inning, he was hit by a pitch -- after Trenton's Shelley Duncan, the team's top home run hitter, had been drilled and caused the benches to empty when he took a few steps toward the pitcher.

Light on leaves No. 4, January 2006

I find it hard to sit still this week. With a new camera, I don't want to watch TV. I don't want to go to work. So the camera comes with me, and when I'm finished with lunch and have half an hour before my allotted 60 minutes are up (not that my job is a strict nine-to-fiver; it's more of a 10-until-everything's-done, so a 90-minute lunch can be made up on the back end of the day) then I'm going to stop off at a park around the corner from the office before I return.

The beauty of a digital camera -- other than the instant gratification that it provides -- is that I can be less discerning in what I shoot. I don't have to conserve frames on a roll of film; I don't have to fret over a bad shot. I can look for little things like the way the light hits a leaf on the ground and see how it looks through the viewfinder -- and I can see how it looks after taking a picture, knowing that a simple press of a button (or two) will reopen those bytes of memory should the result not be up to par.

With this renewed passion for photography, I now wonder how best to utilize the various accounts I have set up on Flickr, Yahoo!, Snapfish and others, not to mention this blog. For now, I think the answer is this: Flickr is the main album, Snapfish is the site from which I'll order prints and this one is where I'll choose one or two images from each outing to display, and where I'll allow myself to write at some length about this hobby.

Sounds like a plan to me.

A parrot in Edgewater, January 2006

There are a flock of Quaker parrots that build what amount to nest condos in trees and, unfortunately, on power lines and connectors to utility poles in Edgewater, New Jersey. They're true Jersey dwellers now -- they don't flee in the winter. Even now, if you come down the cliff from Cliffside Park on Route 5, after the hairpin turn, if you find yourself far enough back at a red light, all you have to do is turn off the radio to hear the squawking from above. The cacophony of dozens of birds is loud enough to be heard through closed windows. It's beautiful.

Perched, January 2006

There are advantages to sitting next to the only window in the office, particularly when it's a wide panoramic series of panes that stretch from one wall to the other. I've seen this hawk before, but on this day -- the first day I had my new digital SLR up and running -- I was ready. And he was accomodating, swooping down from over the roof, right past the window near where I sit, and gliding to his perch on a branch not much more than 100 feet across the parking lot. That was nice of him.

A full-sized version can be found here.

View from Sandy Hook Lighthouse, December 2005

Time to get back into the Photo Friday challenges. I'm obsessed with panoramic collages, and this is my latest one. Unfortunately, the vantage point atop Sandy Hook Light is inside the lantern room, so there are reflections on the windows visible in the sky. But otherwise, I thought this was a decent collage, made up of four shots.

The view is to the north, with New York City off in the distant haze, probably about 40-50 miles as the seagulls fly.

Can you spell "Trojans"?

Can you spell "Trojans"? Santa Monica, February 2004
Originally uploaded by DC Products.

I can't think of a better imperfection than being a USC fan. OK, maybe being a USC fan who can't spell.

The brilliance of this idiocy -- taken February 2004 in a Santa Monica parking garage -- is the juxtaposition of the misspelled license plate and the correct spelling beneath it on the frame. I also won't stand for any excuses -- "Well, 'Trojans' [or 'Trjans'] was already taken ..." -- because, come on, get a better idea for a personalized license plate. A UCLA fan isn't going to settle for "BREWINS" if "BRUINS" is taken (though, even if someone did, it's at least a bit clever and not just stupid).

Weather-worn barn, North Jersey

Weather-worn barn, New Jersey, November 2005
Originally uploaded by DC Products.

It's not the best-composed photo, but I like it nonetheless. The diagonal power lines parallel the multi-tiered ground and the horizon line, which is both on a slight hill and also angled because I'm taking this from the window of the car, holding the camera at my side while I keep my eyes on the road at 45 mph. I didn't look at the camera at all to compose it; I saw the barn ahead, picked up the camera, and snapped the shot. I got enough of the barn and avoided the sun enough to feel happy with this as it is.

It's an old barn on some remote northern New Jersey roadside, probably Route 94 in Sussex County. Worn by the weather, it's got holes in the roof and is comprised now of almost nothing but sun-scorched and faded wood.

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This is the first time I'm playing with the "Blog This" feature on my Flickr gallery. It has some pros and cons, so we'll see if I keep it up.