Back at Cal's yard

"A player rounds the bases during a skills challenge at the opening ceremonies of the Cal Ripken World Series at Cal Ripken's Yard in Aberdeen Friday evening. This is an international tournament for 12-year-old teams."

The date was 08-08-08, and I was shooting the opening ceremonies. I always dreamed of it. Rhythmic patterns, bright colors and in a foreign county. Ah, the joy.

OK, OK. I am speaking in jest. I wish I was in Beijing for the Summer Games, but I am not. However, on the other hand, I was at the summer games, right?

Although I wasn't at the highly anticipated real summer games, nothing beats an assignment in the remaining hours of your shift that is close to home.

On Friday night, I ended my night in Aberdeen for the Ripken Little League World Series opening ceremonies. Just about 30 minutes from home.

Last year I was literally camped out at the Ripken Stadium Complex covering the local Harford County team.

Aside from the pub I was shooting for, I managed to score a couple freelance gigs with some newspapers out west whom had a team playing and meeting up with the legend himself, Cal Ripken, Jr.

Since I knew my way around, I wanted to at the very least throw a remote onto the roof of the press box to get a little different action of what could be pretty straight forward.

Basically it was a prolonged ceremony introducing each team. Enter team Japan. Raise your hat when your name is called. Stand and watch the next team. Repeat steps one through three.

I arrived about 45 minutes early, only because I wanted to beat I-95 North traffic, and threw up my remote and walked to the field for a couple tests. Looked good (that's me in dark blue). Light was a bit harsh, and setting fast, so I was going to bank of almost no sun.

The events began and I shot before the players hit the field and as they made their way from the outfield to the infield.

As I shot from the field, my remote fired simultaneously. Perfection. Two angles. One button pushed.

As the night, light fell, and my deadline closer, I took down the remote and shot with a 70-200 from the roof of the press box during the brief skills challenge. I even nabbed a shot of Aegis photo editor and shooter, Matt Button.

I even got a nice breeze and a wireless connection from the roof. With my photos being sent via rooftop, I decided to keep shooting as my deadline passed.

Most of my images from the assignment weren't "pedestrian" per say, and I didn't think they'd run in print, as they didn't really convey the story perfectly.

Yet, I enjoyed spending more time than usual shooting the assignment as I saw them in an artistic way rather than my typical manner.

The photo that ran clearly told the story, but as mentioned, I liked this one and this one better to share a few. And one image that had no meaning toward the players.

In addition, I love making images, no matter what they are of, and I am always interested in trying to mount a remote camera at any event when given allotted time. This last assignment of the night, close to home was perfect for that.