Keeping a Routine

With the pandemic sort of in control of everything the last year I have struggled to keep a good routine. Maybe it’s just me but life is so much better when I keep on a schedule and have a regular routine. Not to say I don’t do things spare of the moment. I spend a lot of time looking at sports and concert schedules to set up my shooting schedule each month. Often far in advance of a month. I am always looking to see what I can do to get tot he most events I can. Especially events I really want to shoot and support. COVID ruined any sense of a routine for me as event after event was cancelled. Now some things are opening up to me and with going back to work, not from home, I know my daily routine will be thrown off. Especially the first week or two. No more early morning runs and saving the gym for later in the day. Now I will have to do both after work. Add to that getting other things in order for the weekend of shooting ahead. Once May comes around and I am shooting during the week as well I will need to really keep up with my routines. It’s a sign of things turning around but I will take it with cautious optimism.

Baseball is Back

I finally got back onto the field to shoot Navy Baseball this last weekend. It was typical weather for February and despite all the ice and snow the days before the game they managed to play. I was in heaven. I missed shooting this level of athletics. I will be able to get to most of the home games this season as the Atlantic League and Milb don’t start until May. That is the other good news. The Atlantic League has gained 2 new teams and will start their season May 28th. The Baysox will be starting their season May 11. I have few restrictions shooting Navy but with Milb there will be more restrictions that will limit where I can shoot from. All limitations are based on COVID protocol. I will just work around them and get the best photos I can. I expect it will require some creativity. This week has been the best in over a year. Now, if I can only get clearance to shoot outdoor track and field.

Finally, After a Year.

Well, the sun came out after a week of snow and ice. After a year of the COVID pandemic I was finally on a real athletic field shooting sports. It was cold and I had hand warmers, foot warmers, and several layers of winter wear. But it was the best day in so many months. I would say I am a bit rusty. I will say I had some decent shots but being my own worst critic I am not overwhelmed. It’s a start though and it was so great to be shooting something other than landscapes. Looking forward to getting out tomorrow to shoot baseball. It will be nice when the weather warms up and I’m not shaking in the cold.

So Very Close, I Can Wait

What a difference a day makes, but that’s February for yah. I got such great news yesterday. I am cleared to shoot Navy baseball this season. No real restrictions that I can’t work around. It’s such an amazing feeling to know I will be shooting what I love most this weekend. Oh, but wait, Mother Nature has another idea. It wasn’t a surprise but I woke up to another ice storm. Well ice, maybe not so much of a storm. It is worse north of us so I am very much expecting that the season opener will be cancelled. I am ok with that for now. It’s enough to know I will be shooting some great baseball very soon. Now, if I can just get cleared to shoot outdoor track. Hoping they will start issuing Navy Yard passes soon. Yes, I am being greedy.

Snow Day

With working virtually, I thought the snow days were done. Oh well, it gave me time and no excuse not to go out and shoot. Again not what I would want to be shooting but it’s getting out to shoot none the less. I drove around to a few different spots I had shot in the summer and spring. I guess I need to do a photo book project with the landscape shooting I have been doing. Next weekend Navy baseball opens it season at home. I got some promising news that I will probably be able to go and shoot. I am holding back on the overwhelming excitement but if I can I will be out of my mind. There will be 3 games next weekend and it’s a good thing it’s not this weekend with all the ice we are told we are getting. You can never count on February baseball in the Mid-Atlantic and even more so in the age of the pandemic. I can promise if given the opportunity I will have hours of photos to edit and I won’t complain one bit.

Target February 20

Finally, I have a target date to look forward to. The Naval Academy is scheduled to play a double header in Annapolis on February 20th. This could be the first real baseball game that I will have had a chance to shoot in just short of a year. The ball park is not part of the Naval Academy main grounds so I am expecting to have access to shoot the games. Naturally the weather can squash all of that at this time of the year but it is a tangible date that I can mark on a calendar and look forward to. Also today, the Atlantic League has set May 28th as it’s opening night. This is a month later than we normally would start but the expectation is to play a full 140 game season. I will never guarantee anything again but after all these months it’s good to have a real sense of hope again. I will be more than happy to bundle up for a baseball game in late February.

Time Flies

The first month of 2021 is coming to an end. Very little has changed nor was I expecting it to. I was somewhat hoping for a big snow to do some landscape work. So far nothing much but rain. Got my first shot of the vaccine and will start February with the second. February will bring my 62 birthday. Naturally I needed a new glasses prescription. I think I am realizing more than ever that the time we have here is precious. I am losing more friends each year. I guess a big reason for getting all the ink. So far Milb is announcing a late start. I am waiting on the Atlantic League. Some hope to be able to shoot Navy baseball in another month or so. It appears they are going to attempt to open schools again in March. I’m looking forward to a quick end to winter and the hope of a spring opened to all the possibilities of getting out to shoot.

Stay Busy and Smile

Winter is normally a down season form me. I might get to a few games at the Naval Academy and a concert or 2 but as we have been dealing with since March every season is a down season with COVID. So, what should you be doing? You need to find projects. I have just completed two photo books and am in the process of selling them. One day our two dogs wanted so much to be involved that they sat down right in front of the backdrop. These books weren’t what I normally would have been shoot so it is also good to be doing things that challenge your skill set. I love using this time of year to experiment, to try new things to shoot. It’s important to stay creative and just enjoy what you are doing. I think everyone should be doing a lot of planning and making alternate plans. For me I was able to be part of the first roll outs for the vaccine. I was on the fence on weather to take it or not but thinking ahead to some of the major events I would like to have the opportunity to shoot, I decided it possibly could be a requirement for some events to have had the vaccine. So I know my normal plans for the spring would include a few track meets, college baseball, and spring training for minor league baseball. At this point no clue if those will be happening at all or delayed or even happening as scheduled. Already there is some delay in the track and college baseball. Minor league ball that I cover may be delayed a couple of months than normal. So I need other plans. I am getting ready to start a project to pitch to bands. There will be a lot of planning to be done to prepare the sample project to be pitched. I also was contacted to be on the ground floor of a new pro wrestling promotion. There is a lot of exciting potential. The actual events will be on hold for a bit but there is a lot of creative potential for doing a lot of photography work to promote the company. You have to create opportunities for yourself. All of my networking and promoting of my work pays off with great projects like these. So if things go bad and my baseball season is cancelled again I have plenty of work to be creative with. Passion doesn’t take a rest. Passion is a pleasure not a chore. Keep busy and smile doing what you love.

A Look Back at a Season Lost

As I was finishing up my guitar photo book I decided to get started on my photo book about the last baseball season that was cancelled due to the pandemic. I was kind of good to reflect back on to what I did this last summer to keep myself busy and be creative. The books have been fun to put together. I wrote more of my own thoughts in the baseball book. I have some other book projects that I may get to work on this winter. I’ve wanted to do a skateboard book and I will probably be doing a look back to all the nature photos I shot all summer.

A Season That Never Was

With my Guitars of SOMD photo book just about ready to get sent for printing it’s time to look for the next project. I have a couple in mind but the next book will be about the baseball season I never got to shoot. I made several trips to the park as the pandemic started and I think I will put them into a book. Probably have more personal thoughts added to the book. The guitar book was kind of uplifted my spirits in this down time. This next book will kind of be more of a darker feeling as I reflect on what I really missed out on this last season. i will need to make sure I take a photo wearing the All-Star game t-shirt for the back cover of the book. I like the idea of photo books but they can be extremely expensive to print. I sent out a sample draft to get printed from a new source. It was a big savings in price but I am anxious to see if the quality is up to expectations. I am hoping things will pick up soon and I won’t get to print books on the shut down locally and the nature photography I did. At least I have plenty to keep busy.

Liberty

My guitar photo book project is going well. I got to shoot part of American history today. John Luskey brought a series of guitars to shoot. This guitar was made from wood from the Liberty Tree. Love being able to create with my passion. With the events of today in DC it was fitting to have the opportunity to shoot part of our great history.

Don’t Be Hancuffed

Welcome to the new year. I don’t think anyone can expect that 2021 will start off with everything back to the way we want it to be. What we can do is to not be handcuffed by the past. That is something we can start with every new day of our lives. Each day we are free to make of it as we want. You can carry the baggage from the past forward or we can chose to let it go and forge ahead. Negativity will never be out of the spot light of social media. Too many people love to swim in it. You can shut those people out of your life though. Don’t expect 2021 to be any different if you bring the baggage of the past and the negativity with you moving forward. Look to what can be. Look to what you want to achieve. What are your goals. What plans do you have to move down a different path than what you may have expected. These are times to be creative to step out of our comfort zones and challenge ourselves in new ways. Then when our favorite things return we can welcome them with open arms. Then you will have the old favorites and new skills to add to their enjoyment. Get out and do what you love doing. You can’t fake passion.

New Year, New Projects

Well, one more post for 2020. I am starting a photo book project on guitars of local musicians. It could be projects like this one that gets me through the winter. I hope to have everything shot by the end of winter break. I need to find ways to challenge myself while I don’t have the things I love to shoot available.

Be Flexible Be Creative

Last blog for the year. That feels good to say. I don’t have any delusions that 2021 will be starting out any better than this year is ending. I do have some renewed hope, a dim light at the end of the tunnel. Navy baseball has a schedule for the spring. I will hope there is opportunity to shoot by March. The minor league teams I shoot are planning to have ball in the spring. Until then I am always looking for things to shoot. Having to step out of my comfort zone and be creative. I am starting a photo book project which is exciting. With everything changing by the day at times I know I will need to be flexible and think of opportunities that I may not normally look for. All I can ask for is those opportunities to continue to feed my passion.

Photography Brothers

This week I lost another friend and brother in photography. Joe Bubba Cross and I share years and hours and hours at the ball park. Just like Joe Nowak we loved the game and loved to capture the game in our work. Joe served his country and his community. My two friends are gone but they have not left me. I was scheduled for the crate tattoo the day after his passing. I called the artist that morning to ask her to include both friends initials in the piece. If we get to play this 2021 season I will take the field for the first time without one of them joining me. I will honor their memory and their friendship every game. We owe them both a championship.

Some Positive News

Well, it’s been 10 months of nothing much but bad news. Being primarily a baseball photographer it hasn’t been good times. First colleges cancelled their seasons, then Milb was shut down for the season. Added to that Milb was facing massive cuts to their affiliated teams by MLB. Many months of speculation about exactly which teams would be gone ended yesterday. I have many friends working in baseball and they have been hurt tremendously by the pandemic and the elimination of teams by MLB. For me the Bowie Baysox AA affiliate of the Orioles was extended an invitation to continue to be the Orioles AA team. This is the first bit of good news I have had all year. This news doesn’t mean that their will be games played in 2021. As I am writing the pandemic numbers are increasing and our Governor is speaking today with speculation being he is about to start shutting things down again. Teams can’t play without fans. So I can only hope things will be better by spring. Sadly I can’t take much hope in that. My main team the Blue Crabs of the Atlantic League are in Limbo. Two teams in the Atlantic League were chosen to become affiliated teams in Milb, primarily because of their proximity to the parent teams. So our league is in talks with towns who have lost teams in order to try and bring new teams to our league. Currently there are 6 teams remaining in the league. The future of adding teams is in the air. Again, without fans the Atlantic League can’t play either. I am taking the Baysox news as a positive sign because it’s the best thing all year. I don’t have any misconceptions about how 2021 will be. We will start the year just as we are ending this one. Very much in a shroud of darkness. This isn’t going to snuff out my passion for photography. If things go in the worst possible direction I will eagerly step out of my comfort zone and push forward into genres I haven’t had much experience with. For now I am holding out hope but have my eyes open to all possibilities for the months ahead.

Follow the Light

This last year has presented a lot of obstacles for us all. I never thought I would use this term but as a creator I can’t just sit idle and live in the darkness. Maybe that is reason for the tons of ink work I have been getting. It’s a way to express myself. As the weather gets colder I need to find ways to create indoors. Unless we get a wicked snow, which we haven’t seen for many years, that isn’t likely. Landscapes and concerts won’t be options for now so I will need to come up with some projects to fuel my need to create. A lot of people are choosing to find comfort in the darkness. I will always seek the lighted path in life. This photo is from the Anne Marie Gard in Lights. It’s a local Holiday display but I am not sure what these had to do with the theme but it drew my attention.

There From the Start

I guess maybe my mid-life crisis came 20-30 years late but I have been getting a lot of ink work done over the last few months. Everything is related to my passion for running, photography and my family. This is one I have been wanting to do for a very long time. This one is a remembrance for my Chilli. She was my first rescue after I was going through a divorce. She was always by my side and was there for races with me and for the start of my photography. She was so beautiful and between her and my baseball photography and running I learned to be very happy being myself. I am very pleased with all the ink work I have been getting and it is so special to me to have those memories. I am fascinated by the work of other artists. I am blessed to have great artists working with me. I have more to come even though I am getting really covered. I seem to find something new I want to add. I think it all tells the story of me and what I am passionate about. I never would have imagined going to this level but I am glad I am doing it. I am getting inspired to create more memories and I am looking forward to mauy photography projects in 2021

Big Joe

Do you have someone who encouraged you to fuel your passion? I sure did. His name was Joe. He was one of the original team photographers for the SOMD Blue Crabs of the Atlantic League. Opening night of 2008, the very first game for the Blue Crabs, he was the only photographer in the stadium who got a shot of the first pitch. In fact, you can count probably 5 or more news photographers, in the stands etc, just standing there talking to someone. Joe was a baseball guy like me and he knew the importance of that shot. In 2009 I was just a season ticket holder and by 2010 I had purchased a little point and shoot camera to just take photos from my seats, just for myself as memories. It wasn’t long before I purchased my first DSLR. It was a low level model but it was the start of my passion for photography. I had good friends in the staff and 2010 I was given a credential. I wasn’t going to do much more than move around the stands some to empty seats to get photos. Still pretty much just taking for myself. Joe saw me one game and told me to come down to the field and shoot. I knew at that time I had no place down there but he must have seen something in me to ask me to come down. We both loved the game. We loved to listen to the managers in the dugout and before the game talking ball. He taught me a lot about using a camera and settings etc. It wasn’t long before I upgraded my gear. I was hooked and Joe knew it. Before long Joe and I were teaching each other. We loved learning as much as we could about photography. We would hang out before the game and chat with players and so on and then we usually went to opposite sides of the field to start shooting the game. We would switch sides at various points. The point was to make sure that one of us got the shot. We knew if there was a great play and we were on opposite sides, one of us would get it. Who got it didn’t matter to either of us. It was only important that someone did. At some point later in the game we would end up side by side and talking. Once I got working in many more places it didn’t take long to figure out that isn’t how many photographers feel about other photographers. What Joe and I had was special. We had much more in common than baseball and photography. We both were from Pa, where our dads were in the funeral business. We loved the same types of sports and music. We found we had a lot of the same experiences growing up. We loved getting together for dinner during the season and during the off season. Together we expanded our shooting to affiliated baseball in Bowie. Joe’s health got to him and by 2015 he wasn’t able to shoot as many games as he wanted to. That didn’t stop him from pushing me forward. As I got more opportunities to shoot things he was so proud. I wanted to do the best I could and to learn as much as I could to make him proud of us both. It was like I was always taking him with me where ever I went. As he did for me I wanted to be sure I was going to pass on to someone else what I was learning. His job and health kept him away from the ball park in his last years. We talked about retirement and all we would do. He got to games that he could and I cherish those moments we had, especially as they were not as frequent. Joe finally got to retire but we never got to do all the things we had planned. He passed away shortly after he retired. It was so very sudden and I never got to say good-bye like I would have wanted to. I still have him with me on every shoot. I know there are times when I screw up that he is laughing at me. I still shoot every game wanting him to be proud. I am so thankful that he took the time that one day to get me down on the field. He pushed me to my passion and encouraged me to do everything I could. We all have that person in our lives. We can only hope that one day someone says the same thing about us.

Being Thankful

I suppose as we approach Thanksgiving Day 2020, it may seem hard to think of what to be thankful for. Yes, people are struggling this year do to the pandemic. Our nation seems divided like maybe never before. I want everyone to take a deep look and be thankful for living in such a wonderful country. I think people doubt that we have an amazing country that provides endless opportunities but I am very thankful for being an American. Have things been they way I would have liked this year? Certainly not, but I have had the opportunity to do things I may not normally have done. I have a wonderful supportive family and I wake up alive and ready to meet the challenges each day brings. I won’t be going home to Pa for the race this year so I will be spending Thanksgiving home with my wife and our furbabies. We can all look negatively at our world and our circumstances or we can have hope and look for the end of this difficult time. There are some who will never be happy and will always look to blame others for everything that goes wrong in their lives. I will look for better days ahead for the end of 2020 and the start of 2021. I wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving to you and your families.