Don Kelly of the Detroit Tigers strikes out against Brandon McCarthy of the Oakland A's

The Oakland A’s were alone in first place for a grand total of one day this season–the only day that counts, the final day. 162 games this season and where you sit in the standings means absolutely nothing for those first 161 days.

Hopefully, A’s pitching will mow down Tiger hitting beginning this weekend just as they did when I saw them play back in May.

Yesterday’s game was very exciting. I watched the first 6 innings from RedZone Sports Bar N’ Grill in Ashland between classes.

Posted on October 4th, 2012 under outside of ashland, people. Tags: AF-S Teleconverter TC-17E 1.7X II for Nikon, baseball, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II, nikon d7000. Comments Off on Oakland A’s meet Detroit Tigers in first round of MLB playoffs

Grant Balfour picks up the win in the Oakland Athletics thrilling victory today. I think if my last name was Balfour I would have chosen a position other than pitcher.

Posted on September 29th, 2012 under outside of ashland, people. Tags: AF-S Teleconverter TC-17E 1.7X II for Nikon, baseball, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II, nikon d7000, sports. Comments Off on Let’s Go A’s!

On my way home from checking out Iron Maiden I couldn’t resist seeing my A’s while still in the Bay Area. The A’s have been on an incredible run of late. They won the night before the game I was to see them. Unfortunately, it was a 15-inning affair which meant no batting practice the next day and a day off for most of the regular players. Oh well, I’d get to see one of their phenomenal rookie pitchers, A.J. Griffin, right? Well, sort of. Griffin hurt his arm in just the second inning and was pulled immediately. Today he was placed on the disabled list. To add insult to injury (literally!), the Blue Jays staged a come-from-behind victory on Saturday and then went on to win again today. I hope the A’s luck has not run out, but it does seem to be turning in the wrong direction.

Posted on August 5th, 2012 under outside of ashland, people. Tags: AF-S Teleconverter TC-17E 1.7X II for Nikon, baseball, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II, nikon d7000. Comments: 2

Robert Ellis

In New York City in the summer they have a series of (mostly free) concerts called SummerStage. My wife wanted to see Alabama Shakes. I wasn’t planning on taking photos, but I was heading over to Citi Field in Queens to catch the Mets and Yankees game later in the day so I had my camera with long lenses in the bag.

Ryan Chavez on drums

The first band on the bill was Robert Ellis. We weren’t very close to the stage, but with a crop sensor DSLR (Nikon D7000), 70-200mm lens, and 1.7X teleconverter, I didn’t need to be to take these shots.

Geoffrey Muller, bass

Wil Van Horn, pedal steel guitar

Kelly Doyle, guitar

Posted on July 3rd, 2012 under outside of ashland, people. Tags: AF-S Teleconverter TC-17E 1.7X II for Nikon, concert photography, music, new york, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II, nikon d7000. Comments Off on Robert Ellis (& The Boys)

Posted on July 2nd, 2012 under outside of ashland, people. Tags: AF-S Teleconverter TC-17E 1.7X II for Nikon, baseball, new york, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II, nikon d7000. Comments Off on Cody Eppley

Osprey at Hyatt Lake in Southern Oregon

As mentioned previously, I headed into the Cascades earlier this month to try and find a nest of bald eagles on the edge of Hyatt Lake. I found the nest, but ma and pa were nowhere to be found. There was one juvenile in the nest staring at me stare at him/her. After about an hour of this I was about ready to call it a day as it seemed I would have to wait forever for the white-headed parents to return. Suddenly, the juvenile stirred for the first time and made a little fly around. I captured today’s photo at the beginning of that moment.

Posted on May 24th, 2012 under nature, outside of ashland. Tags: AF-S Teleconverter TC-17E 1.7X II for Nikon, hyatt lake, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II, wildlife. Comments: 1

May 20, 2012 solar eclipse as viewed from ScienceWorks in Ashland, Oregon

I had planned to head down to Weed, California to photograph yesterday’s eclipse (as that is where the eclipse was supposed to be closest to 100% in the area), but a number of factors caused me to stay in Ashland instead. Even though the sun was behind clouds, that didn’t seem to change the view of the eclipse. It looked great through proper instruments including my Nikon D7000. I didn’t look through the viewfinder. Instead I used sunglasses and live view.

For best results in photographing an eclipse, reduce your ISO to 100, increase your shutter speed to maximum (1/8000 for the above photo), and use your smallest aperture possible (f/40 for the above photo).

The above photo is as total as the eclipse got in Southern Oregon, better than expected with sun coming around all parts of the moon (annulus) even if the moon wasn’t perfectly centered.

Eclipse viewers at Ashland's ScienceWorks

A surprise appeared on the wall behind me as the tree’s shadow showed signs of the eclipse as the eclipse progressed. The crescent moon shadow pieces in the tree’s shadow were only there as the eclipse approached its annulus stage.

Posted on May 21st, 2012 under nature, only in ashland. Tags: AF-S Teleconverter TC-17E 1.7X II for Nikon, eclipse, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II, nikon d7000, scienceworks. Comments Off on May 20 Annular Solar Eclipse 2012

Today’s annular eclipse as it approached its peak…

Posted on May 20th, 2012 under nature, only in ashland. Tags: AF-S Teleconverter TC-17E 1.7X II for Nikon, eclipse, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II, nikon d7000, scienceworks. Comments: 2

Brandon McCarthy held Miguel Cabrera hitless last Saturday evening in Oakland. It isn’t often that Cabrera goes without a hit and strikes out twice. This is a guy who got on base 45% of the time last season and has finished in the top five of the AL MVP voting each of the past three years. But McCarthy had Cabrera checking his swing on several occasions. Cabrera didn’t like the strike call on one of his check swings and let the umpire know it. We could hear Cabrera still cussing all the way from the stands while Cabrera was getting ready to play defense the next inning.

How are your lip reading skills?

Posted on May 16th, 2012 under outside of ashland, people. Tags: AF-S Teleconverter TC-17E 1.7X II for Nikon, baseball, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II, people, sports. Comments Off on Miguel Cabrera