Over 5,000 miles, 3 traffic tickets, 135 mph across the high chaparral of the eastern Sierra-Nevada, two broken cameras, three weeks of photographing the Womans College World Series, opening day of National Professioal Fastpitch league (I shagged the first homerun in league history and threw it back to the batter - a comrade in arms Lindsey Gardner who played for the USA Elite and Texas Longhorns) and the United States Olympic Softball team, two tornados, two fires and a shootout, I am now back at the office and the dsl line. So the first place I go on the internet - SuicideGirls of course.
My main unit a Nikon D1H went down during the regionals at Stanford - pretty much the shutter had worn down after 50K to 1,000,000 shots; my backup digital, my original Fuji S1 Pro broke down when I tripped running up stairs during one of Cals games at the WCWS in Oklahoma. This is the second time I have dropped a camera with the California girls on the field - the first time at Fullerton I busted my best telephoto lens (200mm to 400mm) for softball. So I had to go to my 35mm unit, a Nikon FM1. I actually started photogrpahy using digitial cameras 2 years ago, and decided I needed to learn to use a 35mm camera for just such a contingency.
I am opening the photos I have had developed right now. I bought some film called Kodak Digital at a Pharmacy in Oklahoma City - it comes with a free digital disk of the pictures along with your negatives and prints. However, I pushed a bunch of rolls and the Kodak Perfect Touch Processing cant handle that - I will have to take it to the proshop and pay extra for the digitized images. Still to go, I shot a dozen or so rolls of black and white film which I am going to have to develop.
It is weird going through regular color prints - my own black and white negatives I am used to but processed film is strange to me.
On Monday I bought a new digital slr body, a Nikon D2H. On my return to California I found out Mom has been diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gerhig Disease) so what the hell use the gold card. I have to have a pair of cameras for Athens, because as stated above you never know when a digital camera is going to break down on you. Besides my nephew can use my backup unit unless I need it - another one of those lessons I have learned two shooters are better than one.
At the Aiming for Athens exhibition in Sacramento I missed a totally great shot but I have it visualized in my mind and will shoot for it another time. The US team in their warm ups jogs around the field as a unit, almost like a marine core drill or a heard of beautiful horses. I was just walking around before the game, trying to hold back the tears about Mom. I wore a black arm band that day to signal the girls that I might not be able to keep it together, ironically the flags were at half mast for President Regan. I was approaching the right field base line and the team curved around center field toward right, I didnt even have my camerra out of its holster, man that would have been an awesome shot, but I couldnt fight back the tears with all that rain headed toward me, I turned and walked away, dropped to my knees and held a bandana hard to my face.
And now, 2 months to wait until Athens.
My main unit a Nikon D1H went down during the regionals at Stanford - pretty much the shutter had worn down after 50K to 1,000,000 shots; my backup digital, my original Fuji S1 Pro broke down when I tripped running up stairs during one of Cals games at the WCWS in Oklahoma. This is the second time I have dropped a camera with the California girls on the field - the first time at Fullerton I busted my best telephoto lens (200mm to 400mm) for softball. So I had to go to my 35mm unit, a Nikon FM1. I actually started photogrpahy using digitial cameras 2 years ago, and decided I needed to learn to use a 35mm camera for just such a contingency.
I am opening the photos I have had developed right now. I bought some film called Kodak Digital at a Pharmacy in Oklahoma City - it comes with a free digital disk of the pictures along with your negatives and prints. However, I pushed a bunch of rolls and the Kodak Perfect Touch Processing cant handle that - I will have to take it to the proshop and pay extra for the digitized images. Still to go, I shot a dozen or so rolls of black and white film which I am going to have to develop.
It is weird going through regular color prints - my own black and white negatives I am used to but processed film is strange to me.
On Monday I bought a new digital slr body, a Nikon D2H. On my return to California I found out Mom has been diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gerhig Disease) so what the hell use the gold card. I have to have a pair of cameras for Athens, because as stated above you never know when a digital camera is going to break down on you. Besides my nephew can use my backup unit unless I need it - another one of those lessons I have learned two shooters are better than one.
At the Aiming for Athens exhibition in Sacramento I missed a totally great shot but I have it visualized in my mind and will shoot for it another time. The US team in their warm ups jogs around the field as a unit, almost like a marine core drill or a heard of beautiful horses. I was just walking around before the game, trying to hold back the tears about Mom. I wore a black arm band that day to signal the girls that I might not be able to keep it together, ironically the flags were at half mast for President Regan. I was approaching the right field base line and the team curved around center field toward right, I didnt even have my camerra out of its holster, man that would have been an awesome shot, but I couldnt fight back the tears with all that rain headed toward me, I turned and walked away, dropped to my knees and held a bandana hard to my face.
And now, 2 months to wait until Athens.
VIEW 5 of 5 COMMENTS
The rear tires when I started out to Oklahoma were not the Z-rated high speed tires you should have on the Cobra. I was running on bald tires one time and picked them up on the fly because the tire place I was at didnt have the Z-rated ones. I figured I would need new tires when I got home - I should have seen my boys at Valley Tires beforing leaving rather than after returning home. Not good!
The good Lord must have something important for me to do because I sure dont desrve to still be here. No more 130 mph or 80 plus for that matter, except if Im on the track, then it would be full throttle of course. I remeber reading at the Bondurante web site they require good tires or they wont let you on the track - there is a reason for sure.
Thanks for sending the CD.