One More Day...

My husband and I recently celebrated our Baskin Robbins Anniversary (#31, as in 31 Flavors). A couple of months after we were wed, I called my parents to tell them that they were going to be grandparents, and my mother's response was "But I haven't even sent you the wedding pictures yet!"

I was thinking about that late last night, realizing that Opening Day is nearly here, and I haven't yet finished posting the 2009 Spring Training pages in my website Photo Album. It will take me well into the season to update all the player pages with new pictures, but I did hope to post a nice collection of pictures from each game before the season started. That's becoming unlikely, since the first game is tomorrow, but I took another step by formatting and publishing another page of Spring Training pictures - photos from the Astros' March 22 win over the Nats.

A couple of notable things about this game: First, it was Pudge Rodriguez's first game in an Astros uniform. Maybe because he's new he spent quite a bit of time running out to the mound to chat with his new battery mates, which of course makes for great photo ops. Pudge hit a single in his first at bat, which endeared him to many fans. I probably took enough photos of him just from this game to make up what will be his player page in my online photo album.

Another notable item, on a personal level. I've always wanted to take one of those Flying Shortstop pictures, but I've never managed to catch one. I finally did, at this game. It was the Nationals' shortstop (Hernandez) who was aloft, with Bourn sliding neatly under him for a stolen base.


I almost fainted when I saw this picture - the flying shortstop, no arms or legs cut off, not even out of focus. The best baseball picture I've ever snapped. Afterwards, of course, I started to nitpick - it would be better if the shortstop was our guy, and if his face was visible in the picture. This is how I motivate myself for next time, always trying to improve. But for now, this picture graces the desktop off both my home and office computers, and I'm thinking that a framed print would be nice too.

There are a lot of nice photos from this game. One reason was that we had fantastic seats for shooting pictures. Our actual tickets were just behind home plate - ideal for game watching, but a bit annoying for photography because of the safety netting. (The pictures from the March 18 game against the Yankees reflect this challenge.) Rather than fighting the Old People who safeguard the sanctity of the aisles at the ballpark, I decided to ask one of them for help. When the Old Lady patrolling my section came to tell me to sit down now, I asked sweetly whether it would be possible to move to another section, not behind the netting, so that I could take pictures without blocking the aisle. She allowed that (since I had tickets for the best seats in the house), it would be okay to move down a couple of section. So my sister and I moved to first row seats, right over the visitors' dugout. These seats were just about ideal for picture taking - I'd have had to be actually on the field to get a better view. Second base was directly in front of me, with first base angled off a bit to the right - so I could get great shots of plays at second without the first base folks blocking the scene. And of course, it was a fantastic location for shooting pitchers and right-handed batters.

When I have time (after the season starts), I'm going to write up a guide for taking pictures in Osceola County Stadium. After five years of attending games there, I've got a lot of suggestions for other amateur camera buffs who'd rather go home with a couple of thousand photographs than a handful of autographs. It's hard for me to tell, just from looking at my website stats, whether other people enjoy my Astros photos. But I never tire of looking at them - as a Fan in Exile, who doesn't often get to see the team in person, my pictures bring back wonderful memories of being there in the spring.