Ryan hit a double over the third baseman's head and got a RBI in his
last regular season game. Way to go Ryan!
We had beautiful weather for Ainsley's soccer game
compared to last weekend that was rained out. Ainsley loves
to play and goes after the ball. There is a noticeable improvement
from last year, but she and her teammates still have a hard time
spreading out and passing the ball to each other. I took pictures
of the entire team who were split between two adjoining fields.
See more photos.
About the Soccer Photos
Photographing this soccer games was a bit more difficult than expected. First
and foremost, the intense sun made the colors pop out, but it also created
harsh backlighting, over exposure on the white jerseys, shadows under
the players' eyes, and extreme contrast; not exactly ideal. It
was also a bit harder to frame each shot compared to Ryan's baseball
games. It's easier to predict a play at second or a play at home
and have the camera pointed in that direction. With soccer, the
ball is in front of the player in one step and kicked ten feet ahead
the next. I had to widen the shot to make sure to get the player
and the ball. Consequently, each of these photos has been cropped,
the exposure corrected, and fill light added in Adobe Lightroom. I
didn't loose any quality since the photos were taken in RAW instead of
JPEG.
I set the camera for aperture priority (A on Nikon or Tv on Canon)
which is a blessing and a curse. The backgrounds come out blurry
which makes the players stand out, but if the focus isn't dead on, then
the subject can be blurry too. I used single shot focus instead
of continuous focus. With single shot focus, I can control the
focus point. This allows me to have the player off center for a
more interesting photo. With continuous focus, the camera takes
an average focus of players in the center of the photo. As the
photos show, the focus is slightly off on some of them. I'll have
to try something different next time.
October 7, Tuesday
Ryan is at third during his post season baseball practice. This
was taken two minutes after sunset and cropped to a 3:10 aspect
ratio. Ainsley and Jeff watched the guys having fun as the
temperature dropped. It's definitely Fall.
Ainsley's silhouette and sunset are reflected in the chrome part of
the headlight. I was in a weird mood looking for strange colors
and tight crops.
October 8, Wednesday
It was Ainsley's turn on the EDS fields for soccer practice. The
coach worked on getting the girls to pass the ball to each other among
other drills. It was cool and breezy with an occasional rain drop,
so Betsi tried to look cold. She wins the award for most attractive.
October 10, Friday
Roll your mouse over the photo.
The one with vivid colors was created by changing the color controls
in the camera. Most, if not all SLRs have the ability to change
the color saturation, sharpness, contrast and color tone. You
can get some wild colors without disturbing the other colors. For
example, the reds and oranges are exaggerated without making the
sky look orange too. The other photo was automatically adjusted
by Adobe Lightroom to create a more natural looking image. I
could not adjust Lightroom to reproduce the original RAW file and
had to use the Canon software to show you this picture.
It's that time of year for the warm autumn colors to arrive. I'm
inspired by one of Ken
Rockwell's photos of a house (near the bottom of the page). The
first photo is dull and unexciting. The second photo is colorful
and vibrant after changing some of the camera settings. He recommends
changing the exposure compensation first to get a brighter or darker
photo. Then adjust the white balance to make the colors come out
the way you want them to, which may exaggerate reality. Lastly,
adjust the contrast and color saturation to fine tune it. I've
been so used to adjusting RAW files on the computer this past year that
I've not practiced getting the perfect picture with the camera first.
October 14, Tuesday
I'm kicking myself for not bringing my camera to pick up Ryan at baseball
practice. The full moon was rising above the trees and shrouded
in lines of clouds. The sunset was also particularly colorful. Next
time, I won't second guess myself.
Here is a full moon with a few surrounding clouds taken
at 1/100s, f/5.6, and ISO 1600. Another photo was taken ten
minutes later when there was a break in the clouds. The settings
followed the
moon rule and
was taken at 1/400s, f/11, and ISO 400. The moon is 32 times
brighter without the clouds. I was surprised at the difference.
October 18, Saturday
Our fun day began with a 8:45am soccer game. Ainsley
scored three out of the four goals including one goal that started
with a burst of frustration that lead to a sprint up the sideline. She
and her teammates played well despite not having enough players for
substitutions. Betsi's Mom tried to stay warm with Ryan by
sharing a blanket and drinking hot cocoa.
Ryan's team won their first playoff game.
A 14 acre (57,000 square meters) corn maze in Leesburg was more fun
that I thought it would be. It helps to bring along great friends. It
took about a hour and 15 minutes to complete it and the design changes
each year. There are other activities as well, but we were interested
in just the maze.
We joined a nighttime ghost tour of Leesburg after
dinner. The camera set to ISO 1600 and f/2 can make daylight
out of night. It's great. See more
photos.
October 20, Monday
Ainsley's gymnastics class held an open house for the parents to snap a few photos.
October 22, Wednesday
I liked this girl's orange shirt while Ainsley takes a break
during soccer practice.
October 23, Thursday
The sunset didn't light up these clouds like I thought they would which
means I didn't get any reflections on the pond. Oh, well.
Ryan's team won their second playoff game and advance
to the medal rounds on Saturday night, weather permitting. The
pitches to Ryan we all over the place and he walked twice. His
teammates were able to make some hits to bring him home twice. He
liked that part.
I'm not sure why half of the photos had orange dirt even though all
of the camera settings were identical. I suspect the filter,
but I've never seen this happen before. I don't know how to
Photoshop it out without making all of the other colors look funny.
October 24, Friday
Ainsley and Calliope dressed in costume and were
painted by the Girl Scouts at the school's fall festival. The
Girls Scouts included Katie (left), Ellie (right), Melissa I. and
Amanda C.
Ainsley stands underneath a tile she decorated in 2004
as the school was under various stages of expansion and remodeling. We
can't find Ryan's tile and suspect it either wasn't added or his
initials aren't on it. To find Ainsley's tile, start at the
cafeteria, walk past the bathrooms, and it's 20 feet of the
end of the hall.
Rumor has it the fire alarm was pulled by a two year
old. A Dad was holding the toddler in his arms while talking
to someone. The toddler saw the red fire alarm on the wall
and just had to touch it. Opps.
October 25, Saturday
Red Robin always has good burgers and a colorful restaurant. I
decided not to color correct these photos. The 35mm f/2 lens is
tiny and works well for low light photos without a flash. Although
I started wearing reading glasses on my 35th birthday, I've been wearing
glasses almost full time these past few months. I hate getting
old.
October 26, Sunday
The kids participated in the 1K Goblin Gallop at Fairfax
Circle at 8:45am while the adults ran the 5K at 9:00am. We
ran into Kathryn, Rocky, Hillary and Tucker. Ryan stayed with
Tucker during their run while Ainsley ran with Samantha from
her class at school.
Betsi is thinking about the NYC
Triathlon in July 2009 consisting of a 1500m swim, a 40k bike,
and a 10k run. She can do any of the three, but has not done
all in the same day.
October 31, Friday
Halloween started at Bob and Barbara's, continued for
hours through the neighborhood, and ended at our house. We
were only able to spend a short time with Chris and Amy who are former
neighbors now living in South Dakota. See more
photos.
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