Characters At Fenway

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If you want to play, you have to pay. I got bombed back at the office today. Home late so no long essay. These are some faces and personalities around Boston's Fenway Park - vendors, players and fans.

I'll probably have a bit more from Maine until I can get some new local material.

About The Green Monster

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This post is primarily for international readers. The shapes of baseball playing fields are not precisely defined, unlike almost all other sports. That's one of its charms. The infield, where the bases are, is always exactly the same. However, the broad outfield can be just about any shape or dimensions.

Most places are close to regular, like Busch Stadium in St. Louis. Some have odd features. Houston has a little hill straight in the back. But century-old Fenway Park is the most bizarre. It was squeezed into the narrow, irregular streets of Boston. Most places have seats around the edge of the outfield. Fenway's left field has a wall 37 feet / 11.3 meters tall, known as the Green Monster. To hit a home run, a batter must not only hit the ball far but loft it high to clear the Monster. Balls hit off the wall carrom at wild angles.

One more Fenway post tomorrow about the characters it contains. I'm writing this Sunday afternoon in the Boston airport. Reality tomorrow morning.

Fenway Park

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What a blast. As previously noted, my brother and sister-in-law took me to a Boston Red Sox game last night at 100-year-old Fenway Park. Some parts of baseball stadiums do not have to be uniformly spaced and Fenway's dimensions are bizarre. So are some of the fans.

Uff. It's after midnight again. I'll add some more explanation to this in the morning, including the Green Monster for my international readers..

The End of Camera Camp: Exhaustion

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David Wells worked us harder than any other teacher I've had at my four previous visits to the Maine Media Workshops. I literally had no spare time, no opportunity to shoot the little fishing harbor in the morning fog, no space to edit my work for my own use, and absolutely, positively not enough time to sleep. Late one evening I was sitting at the desk in my room editing my work for the following morning's class when I glanced up at the mirror and saw my laptop's screen reflected in my glasses. My eyelids were heavy. As I mentioned, the following night I simply fell asleep in the chair over my work.

I am so glad I came.

But wait, there's more! I'm spending tonight at my brother and sister-in-law's house in the suburbs of Boston. He got his company's box seats to the Red Sox game tonight. Fenway Park, the oldest stadium in the major leagues! It's a temple for baseball fans and I would never have dreamed I'd get to go there. Pix on Sunday if I have time to edit something.

Many more photos from Maine to edit and upload. They will appear here and on Flickr in days to come.

Camera Camp Day 4

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Late post today. I'm so tired I fell asleep at my desk last night doing my editing. These are some shots from yesterday afternoon at the Maine Lobster Festival. The last one is of four of my classmates at the moment they discovered I was sneaking up on them. Gotta wake up for the big Friday night party and show of students' work.

Camera Camp Day 3: The Maine Lobster Festival

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OMG it's late. The optional morning shoot is at 7 AM and it's half past midnight as I write this. Not gonna make it. These are scenes from the Maine Lobster Festival in adjacent Rockland, ME, our assignment for Wednesday afternoon.

Camera Camp Day 2

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This place is like a forced labor camp we cheerfully sign up for. I'm exhausted. Our teacher, David Wells, is brilliant. Check out his excellent (and free!) podcast tutorials here.

He's got photographic intuition that's like driving a car - he just knows where to go and what to push. I don't agree with him on everything (and I shouldn't). The top photo didn't even make the first cut of his review of my assignments and it's my absolute favorite. De gustibus non est disputandum. By the way, that's him just below, trying to give us some material for a light-shadow exercise.

I need to sleep.