'A Little League of Their Own' - Presumed Panning

Grandson Braxtyn just turned four. We had great fun attending his birthday party and watching him play Tee Ball, in my opinion,  a pre-baseball game.

Back in old time, my grade school had the best baseball team. Sports was then barely popular and we thought only those who could not accomplish much academically would become ball players.

I saw those school kids practice in playground when we were inside the classroom learning math and science. Somehow school put all these kids in one class. Their focus is sports and they do not have to meet the standard of regular academic classes. Up to this day, I still think it is a bad idea.

This group of Taiwanese boys in the special class later made an outstanding junior league and made themselves known internationally. That’s when people started to praise them and give them credit for what they have accomplished. Physical achievements have never been so well accepted in my culture till these days. We have countless genius and book worms who demonstrated their intelligence in advance science and sophisticated inventions, but physical potential has not been emphasized till those who have made their names in US sports and Olympics, such as Yao-Ming. 

American kids particularly boys are more inclined to expose to sports early, I say, as early as they can get their hands on. Many families have basketball hoop around  the house and kids learn how to aim the basket sooner when they can hold the ball in their hands. 

Young mother usually soon becomes a soccer mom when their kids go to school. And, then baseball, basketball and now gymnastics... anything is available.  Young parents are very eager participating and involved in kids' sports activities.

When Dad is around, little boy surely gains his confidence and courage to perform. There is crowd of parents and grandparents around who provide moral support. It is fun for kids and adults, a great family event. 

I intended to do panning shots, but little kids run slow and I did not have my tripod with me. So I cleaned up the clutters in the background and used motion blur...

It seems to me that it was just couple years ago when Braxtyn was born. There was a period of time when I drove to Portland back and forth every  week  to  watch  him.  I  knew then that he  

was very active and fun. He takes interest in all activities and engages them with a big smile. He smiled when he was batting, and even when he was running. The oversized helmet looks super cute on him and other kids.

In the image below, Braxtyn played the pitcher. Check out how determined he looked when he

caught the ball and threw the kid out at the first base.

Even his little sister was having a good time running on the side field, giggling and making funny faces. Don't you think she also makes a good cheerleader?

I grew up wanting to be the good kids at home and good students in school.  Good students meaning to  have good grades and academic is pretty much what we cared then. Watching how these kids run and have fun on the field, I think sports to kids is as important as good grades. I however would not agree if kids are aiming to be in sports and in for making big bucks. There is a reason that some NBA or NFL renown players are occasional lawbreakers. We need our kids to have a solid foundation in life, and only a sound education can accomplish that.

On the Road

Down in bay area California to visit my siblings and run some errands.  Bright sun was shining on me the moment when I stepped out of the airport.  Instead of fog, it was sun ray, bright and cheerful. I had lived here for almost 8 years before I moved to Oregon. It is a familiar environment and all that warm and fuzzy feeling immediately came back to me. I sucked in toasty air and exhaled hoping the chill from home was being neutralized and get out of my system. I love fog, but I have had enough cold weather.

It was a nice change that I did not need a heavy jacket for a morning walk.  There were certainly more houses than trees down the streets, but backlit sunlight has cast beautiful tree shadows on rooftops. Trees are not timberline high, but they provide nice backdrops for rows of contemporary houses. Day was just about to break, these trees showcased a dramatic sky. The blue strip is the blue sky and it also resembles a coast line now I am looking at it. Nature is magical.

It has been above 65 most of the time since I got here.  Should not be a surprise, but it still was when I saw colorful pansy and poppy in full bloom. I expected to see some greens, certainly not full bloom flowers.  My urge was to take some close-up shots, but I did not bring my Macro lens, no polarizer either. Weight concerns, I often did not bring extra lens... When will I learn the lesson?

Just a few days before I left Oregon, I had a little photo tour myself shooting frosted plants. Except that most of the plants were distressed by the snow storm in December. The environment was as bare as it could be.  I was not too successful coming up something resembles what I did last year.  But I need to bring home something.  So I pick up a frosted leave and placed it on the pointed leaves of a dead tropical plant .  We tend to praise and portrait the beauty and the best, but I think reality ought to be addressed as well.

  

It is dead, dry and lifeless. I need to inject a bit of life to it and I thought about Orton effect. It is the Orton sandwiching technic that I used to make the image looking creaming and softer. Now desolation and bleakness are replaced with a hint of dream and a flare of art. And, The image starts to grow on me.

A yellow leaf is the first article that I had to write in a summer camp writing class back in middle school. I did not have any experience writing prior and had no clue what I can write about one yellow leaf.  We were given 45 minutes to write, but I simply could not write anything till the instructor announced, "20 minutes left". I then jumped off and wrote three pages. In the end, I was in tears because I had mourned for the dead leaf for 20 minutes. How many silly things I have done in my life? I just began to count.

Taking enough winter images, I had intention to bring home something green, sunny or colorful.  Though there are some flowers, most of the vegetation is just gradually on its way out of winter. Evergreens are always there but they tend to be a mono green tone.

Light was beautiful. Though in multi colors, this massive grass plant has created distraction from all directions. I could not find myself a good angle of view.  So I decided to practice vertical panning and the result looked so orderly and not flexible that bored me to death.

I approached the same plant three times and took at least 50-60 shots from different angles and pan it from various orientation. I was determined to come out something. And this one finally caught my eyes. The white lines are the transformation of sunlight shooting through. All colors of the plant mingled and intertwined. I cannot paint bare-handed and my camera has given me a color paint brush to paint. Fun.

 

If I take this image at home in Oregon this time of the year, it won’t have the same effect, not enough colors.  But Oregon has the beauty of its own.  I could not get a decent thistle pictures for a long time and I managed to shoot this one that I like OK. I should have done some post processing to clean up the background, but I did not. I know I need to work on my DOF and focal point. While trying to get exposure right first, I often overlooked depth of field and lost track of my focal point. Practice, practice and practice.

I am ready for some warm weather.  I pray that we will be getting an early spring like we had last year.