Looking For Pictures In The Air

VH1 Classic ran four hours of Iron Maiden concerts. I tried to include the TV screen and the window of the plane to include just a hint of the setting sun - if you look hard enough you can see it. That's Steve Harris of The Maiden on guitar. 1/25 secs at 800 ISO f/3.3 program mode.

The control tower at JFK in the late afternoon. I'm sitting in my seat on the plane waiting to take off. 1/200 secs f/ 6.3 100 ISO program mode

Condensation on the inside of my coffee cup. I was able to include the shadow to add to the composition of the frame. 1/5 secs ISO 100 f/3.3 program mode

Looking On With Mixed Reactions

On the streets of Manhattan I guess you can't expect your audience - a couple and their pink baby carriage for instance - to go wild over your skateboard tricks. Good thing this guy didn't seem to care about onlooker reaction as he worked on his skills while his pal recorded the video evidence. But in the Bronx earlier in the day ...

... there was a much different reaction at Yankee Stadium to the team's top catching prospect -Jesus Montero who joined the team this week - as he hit the first two homers of his career and then took TWO curtain calls to acknowledge the fans' approval. The rookie was acting a veteran as he enjoyed the spotlight in only his third big league game after a successful season in the developmental league at the AAA level.

A Winning Weekend Of Shots At Yankee Stadium

Lots of people want that ball! Especially the Yankees' Andrew Jones who ran over from right-field in a failed attempt to catch the foul pop-up. If the guy in the middle backs off - Jones makes the play with ease. Oh ... Andrew was running pretty fast and ...

... And he goes over the low padded concrete wall after he failed to win the battle for the ball (he survived his tumble and stayed in the game.) BTW since the foul ball was over the seating area, fans have as much right to the ball as much as the player. Of course, if you prevent your home team from GOING TO THE WORLD SERIES you might not ever live down your lust for a free baseball!

One of my favorite umpires is Tom Hallion. His home plate work especially stands out when he rings up a batter for excessive window shopping (caught looking at a called third strike - the "window shopping" line was a pet phrase of the late Tigers' announcer Ernie Harwell.) Tom twists his upper body violently and yells "strike three!" Last season he forgot the count and went through his strike three gyrations on strike TWO to the Yanks' Jorge Posada who was not pleased the plate umpire lost track of the count.

And after working up a lather calling balls and strikes, Hallion needed to get some sweet relief from a cold towel administered by Yankees' assistant trainer Steve Donohue. It was pretty muggy at Yankee Stadium in addition to being hot.

This is a favorite shot when I can get the ball just before it's caught while the runner is about to touch the second-base bag. The Yanks' Brett Gardner - who leads the majors with 42 stolen bases - is in well ahead of Kelly Johnson's potential tag. The Yankees swept a three game series from the Blue Jays to keep their AL East first place lead

PHOTO INFORMATION: All pictures were shot at 800 ISO (the sun was ducking in and out of the clouds and I wanted to make sure I froze the action with no chance of blur since I sit pretty far from the field.) The aperture/shutter speed combination is F8 at 1/2000

Shooting The Moon

I was heading to the grocery store when I saw this crescent moon rising about 7 p.m. so I took a couple of quick shots. But the moon can be a "so what" subject without adding something else to the frame to add interest. And when I saw this building with its perfect frame of an opening, I just positioned myself so the moon was in the right spot and I took the shot. Always look to add a twist to subjects that are constantly being photographed