Sung-bae Kim, submarine pitcher

Kim had a good year last year for the Giants (of Busan, South Korea) with an ERA of 3.05 and 31 saves. He also struck out nearly three batters for each one that he walked. Korea is a hitter’s league so these stats are better than they may appear compared to MLB or Japan.

Look closely at the crowd. Late in the game nearly everyone pulled out an orange plastic bag, blew it up, and put it on their heads. I have no idea why. I never saw this happen in Gwangju at the Tigers games except the one time they were playing the Giants in which case a few of the visiting fans did the same thing.

Posted on June 6th, 2014 under Korea. Tags: baseball, Nikon AF-S VR Zoom-NIKKOR 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G IF-ED Telephoto Lens, Nikon D600, sajik baseball stadium, sports photography. Comments Off on Sidearm pitcher Sung-bae Kim of the Lotte Giants

jpg version

I was going through and deleting some photos from last summer when I came upon the photo above. I almost hit delete, but I was curious what the photo was even of so I decided to take a peek at the RAW file before deleting.

This was the same photo in RAW format:

RAW version of same photo

At first I thought I had opened the wrong photo, but then I checked the file name and sure enough they were the same.

I took this while walking through the Okunoin Cemetery just after sunset. I didn’t have a tripod so I just set my camera on rocks or headstones to take long exposures. Obviously, this one @ 30 seconds wasn’t long enough for a jpg photo, but in RAW it almost looks properly exposed.

Posted on June 5th, 2014 under Japan. Tags: cemetery, koyasan 高野山, night photography, Nikon 24-120mm f/4 VR G lens, Nikon D600, okunoin japanese cemetery 奥の院, photography, photoshop, RAW vs Jpg jpeg, torii. Comments: 1

Matt Krook of the Oregon Ducks

I only made it to one Ducks’ baseball game this year (hopefully there will be more next year when my son is going there), and at that one game I had the good fortune of seeing Matt Krook pitch. He didn’t pitch much this year as he had elbow surgery that wiped out much of his season, but he was really good before that happened. He had a 2-1 record with a 1.79 ERA and 60 strikeouts in just 45.1 innings which was enough to earn him the honor.

Posted on June 4th, 2014 under Oregon. Tags: AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II, baseball, eugene, Nikon D600, Oregon, sports photography. Comments Off on Matt Krook named to the 2014 Freshmen All-America Team

金魚屋 @ 日本ライン夏まつり納涼花火大会

Posted on June 3rd, 2014 under Japan. Tags: festivals, inuyama, matsuri, Nikon 24-120mm f/4 VR G lens, Nikon D600. Comments Off on Panning for gold… fish

Oregon State University – Kavin Keyes

@Kavin_Keyes3 Both of the Ducks’ teams had their seasons end yesterday. The softball team will likely end up ranked #3. The University of Oregon baseball team was eliminated at Regionals in a tough, come-from-behind victory for the other team. They will likely end up ranked about #20.

The #1 ranked Beavers of OSU need a win tonight (6/2/14) at home to advance to the Super Regionals against Oklahoma State. Game time is 8 p.m. PST, and you can watch the game on ESPNU.

Posted on June 2nd, 2014 under Oregon. Tags: AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II, baseball, eugene, Nikon D600, Oregon, oregon state university. Comments Off on Ducks drop out; Beavers still alive