there are no cows in Worcester

-I am aware that all my paragraphs got smushed together, I tried to fix it and it keeps doing the same thing. But I did seperate paragraphs before.. ?

-This week I decided to have sports pictures that aren't necessarily all about the action as they are the expressions and emotions of the players. I don't know if I would print them for class but I thought they were entertaining.

-The first picture is from Holy Cross vs Lafeyette on Saturday - it was a very intense game. Number 11 from Lafeyette definitely had an interesting personality on the field. He began by yelling at him own teammates and then he got into a fight with a Holy Cross player earning him a yellow card. The game in general was high in tension after that. Then they went into two 10 minute sudden death overtimes - number 11 scored in the last 30 seconds of the second. He then proceeded to come over to the stands and show how excited he was with incredibly unsportsman like conduct. There was a lot of inappropriate language. This picture is of that precise moment. The Holy Cross players are on the ground defeated and Lafeyette is very excited. The ball actually is also in the photo - all the way on the left but sadly it's cut off a bit. I just think this really shows the emotion and passion that goes into a game - it's not all skill.

-The second picture is from Becker vs. Umass Boston on Tuesday - it was in the middle of nowhere. I wasn't aware that Becker has two campuses and all of their athletic fields are on the campus not in Worcester. So I got there only to have to take their shuttle to their other campus in the middle of nowhere. We went down long hilly roads and past cows, it was definitely not Worcester. It was also a bit hard because I couldn't get the settings right for the lighting. I was so excited it wasn't as sunny as earlier in the day but it was too dark and gray. However, I really like the expressions in this picture as well. Just how intense the Becker girl looks and how the other girl is cringing in anticipation. I know how that feels. At the Umass Lowell vs AIC game on Saturday I almost got hit right in the face/camera. But I ducked just in time.

-Anyways, I just really wanted to show something different about soccer instead of just intense action shots. There are other aspects to the game as well :) In general, I'm still having problems shooting the action shots though. Well, it's not a problem shooting them so much as framing them. As I found out, to print them as an 8.5x11 or someday even bigger than that I need to fill the whole frame when I shoot. I really can't crop anything or the quality is not as high and the picture won't enlarge as big. It's not easy though. I keep cutting off a little bit of a foot or arm and that's not an acceptable picture. But I am determined to get this. I feel like soccer has taken over my life, I don't even know how many games I've been too since I've started this. I do plan to try other sports though too. At Umass Lowell Saturday there was a field hockey game that I took pictures of at the halftime of the soccer game but I don't understand field hockey as much so it was harder to anticipate the action. I also want to try volleyball but I figure I should shoot outside while I still can because once winter sports start it's all going to be inside. So I think this is definitely long enough :)

my new lens

So I officially love my new lens, I'm still getting used to it but I really love it. These are my attempts at soccer pictures. Saturday I went to a girls game at Assumption vs. Umass Lowell, a friend plays for Umass Lowell. Sadly, I didn't get a great picture of her but I tried. Then that night I went Southern New Hampshire and they played AIC. My brother is a freshman at SNHU and on the soccer team but sadly he didn't get to play while I was there. But I had some problems there, the game didn't start until 7 and it got dark very quickly. It's not easy to shoot in that light at all. Then yesterday I took the shuttle to Assumption for another game there but this time it was the boys playing ... Queen? I'm not positive if that's the official college name but that's what their jerseys said. So I had lots of images to choose from - I filled up all my memory cards :) These are just a few pictures I chose for now. I'll see how the class reacts to see which ones they like and then maybe I'll post more

I got my new lens! YAY! I really am excited, you have no idea. So my plan is that Saturday I am going to a girls' soccer game at 4 and then a guys' soccer game at 7. It's probably going to be really dark by 7 but I'm going to try anyways. So last night I went to the Field Hockey game for a bit just to test everything out and make sure I didn't have any problems like the other night. It seemed to work well for the most part. It's still very hard to focus with all the movement. I tried AI-Servo and it didn't seem to work that well. The regular focus was giving better results. Most of them are still very blurry though. The second one seems to be the best though. I know you can't actually see the girl who is in possession of the ball but I tried. I'll get better. I just really love taking sports pictures, I can't really explain my fascination with it but I do. Maybe it's because I grew up around sports? I've always taken soccer pictures of my brother and I loved it. Nevertheless, I'm going to keep trying :)

This looks better, yay! Frank helped me do some more editting to it. I know it's not completely done but it's good enough for now. I'm not sure if I'll end up actually printing it - I probably will, who knows. In more recent news, my lens jammed this past weekend so I didn't get to take pictures of friends from home or at the Yankees' game sadly. I did borrow a lens/camera from the lab to take sports pictures Tuesday (girls soccer) but that didn't really work well. I couldn't get the camera to focus quickly and since it was at night the settings were difficult to find. And since it wasn't my camera I wasn't used to using it and it was behaving oddly, when I went to take pictures most of the time the shutter wouldn't release. I assume it's because of the settings? But that doesn't really make sense. Eventually I gave up. Because I ordered a new lens, a telephoto lens, and it should be here on Thursday/Friday because well, you all know how slow the mail room is. So Saturday I'm going to two soccer games, a girls game in the afternoon and a guys game at night. Hopefully that will be a more successful outing. But either way, I'm not giving up. I really want to shoot good sports pictures :)

This is the beautiful picture I chose this week for my blog. However, for some reason it looks extremely ugly when I upload it. I don't really understand why - this is definitely not how it looked in photoshop. I must have done something wrong I guess, but I wrote everything down that I needed to do before uploading to the web and I followed my list exactly.

Nevertheless, this picture is of my friend Claire and a random parrot that was hanging out at Elm Park. Just kidding, the parrot actually belonged to a man who was letting everyone hold him. I also got to hold him but since I had all of my camera stuff with me (on my shoulders and whatnot), he put the parrot on my head. That was certainly an interesting feeling.

But I do really like this picture. She hates having candid pictures taken of her, "solo shots" is what she calls them, but she did hold the parrot for me because I wanted a picture. I'm pretty surprised that I got her and the parrot in focus and it looks pretty good. I had a focusing problem last year with film cameras so I'm glad digital seems to be working out. I'm just really excited to take more pictures, this was from my first day of shooting. Tomorrow, I'm going to Yankees game in NYC so hopefully I can take some fun ones there, but it's unfortunately supposed to rain. I guess we'll see.

I'm sorry my first picture post doesn't look better but I'm going to figure it out for next week I hope :) Enjoy your weekend! :)

This week has been a little rocky for me unfortunately. I feel like I haven't had time for anything. And now I am searching for a new class because my Art History got canceled. That's just incredibly fun of course. However, it wouldn't be such a big deal if I wasn't trying to major in Studio Art. I'm not even sure I really want to. It's a lot of extra classes and work if I'm really only interested in photography. And I can take pictures without a degree. If I'm any good at it. I've decided that I prefer to photograph people instead of various landscapes or objects. I like taking pictures of my friends and family. I also like taking sports pictures. I really want to work on that this semester. I want to be able to take amazing sports pictures. I think my main interest is in soccer though, probably because I grew up around it. It's just something I can never get bored photographing. There's always something new to do or something to improve on. Other than that, I'm going to try to take more artistic shots this semester - I don't take many of those. I guess we'll see though. I have to start using my camera first. I'm just so scared to break it. But it is very exciting because it can do lots of amazing things :) So hopefully this semester will be fun filled and beneficial :)

Intro

Hi everyone :)
This is going to be a blog for my photography class at Clark University and that's about all I have to say at the moment. I love taking pictures and hopefully I can take some good ones this semester.