Phillies vs. Braves, August '08

Back in August, our friend Jaime called us up with an offer to take us to the Phillies game - she gets luxury box seats through her job. Of course, we weren't turning an offer like that down, but little did I know we were viewing the future World Series Champs of 2008.

I brought along my Canon EOS 40D and my 100-400L Canon lens, figuring I'd get a chance for a few decent shots. What follows is the best of the bunch. It was a learning experience - I didn't get a chance to take nearly as many as I wanted - I was busy socializing, and I didn't bring my monopod with me (again!), which would have helped with even faster shutter speeds. But, ahh, the wonder of digital - I merely kicked up the ISO, and the result was these passable shots. The 100-400 is a relatively "slow" lens - I'm not fortunate enough to own a 400mm 2.8L lens, which costs more than a good used car.

My exposures are unrecorded, but I was shooting wide open, which varied between 4.5 & 5.6, depending on focal length. My shutter speeds varied between 1/125 and 1/250 sec., which worked for some shots, but I could have used about 2-3 stops more to get true freeze frame action in some of these. Now I know why professional sports photographers shell out all that money for their "fast" lenses.

I didn't quite have the best angle to get the best shots of the hitters, but I was still pleased with several of the ones I did manage to get. (Scroll down for a pretty cool series of Ryan Howard going yard late in the game.)

I did, however, manage to get pretty good shots of the pitchers in action. These pictures made me appreciate all that goes into delivering a pitch over the plate at about 90 m.p.h. or better. I've heard many sports commentators and former baseball players alike state that the toughest thing to do in professional sports is to hit a fastball in baseball. As big of a hockey and football fan I am (in that order), I have to agree with it - hitting 60 home runs in a season is a pretty amazing feat.


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The following images are a sequence of Ryan Howard going deep late in the game. It is pretty amazing how the 100-400 will bring the action in close, even when you are far away. (The EOS 40D also adds 1.6x magnification to the lens, making it a 160-640 - great for shooting sports shots, and image stabilization certainly helps, too.)

Rodin Museum in Philadelphia

In July, our friend visited from California, and during her stay we visited the Rodin Museum, just down the road from our place, off of Benjamin Franklin Parkway. I'm embarrassed to say that despite its close proximity to our condo, it was the first time I'd been inside, and my oh my, is it a treat. And if you're into photography, :o) there's plenty to keep you busy.

Above is the reflecting pond just inside the front gate and outside the main building. I shot this image on the way in - it didn't exactly turn out the way I wanted, but the people weren't cooperating, and this is the best one of the few I took at the pond. I wish I'd shot this one vertical. Oh well, I'll return when I get a chance to take another run at it.

This is one of my favorites that I took from the museum. I love going to museums and shooting heads, figures and decorative sculptures. The Rodin Museum is one of my new favorite places to capture images like the one above - I love this head belching out water, & I also love the detail of him.

The contours and lines on this statue makes it one of my favorite statues inside the museum. The sculpture is of Father Pierre-Julien Eymard, and trust me, this picture doesn't do it justice.

This statue, The Age of Bronze, is in the West Wing, and like all of the sculptures at Rodin, it has excellent detail. It seems as though these statues get better as they age, without question. As a bonus, they are displayed inside, away from Philadelphia's nasty yearly weather swings.

This head is part of the biggest sculpture in the main gallery, The Burghers of Calais. I find his eyes almost haunting, but that's the wonder of Rodin's works - the emotions they evoke in their viewers.

This is my favorite picture of the bunch - Rodin's world-famous Thinker, and this is my favorite picture that I've taken so far at Rodin. This is easily the best photo I've taken with my Canon 100-400L IS lens. And this picture is also a reason to not always pay attention to all of the equipment reviews you can find on the Internet. I've read lots of so-so reviews that nitpick this lens to death, and I haven't found one of them to be true. The bokeh (background blur) of this lens isn't the best, but as you can see above, it's more than acceptable.