Joel Dinda's photos with the keyword: whitecaps

Dick tells me that Sharon , a longtime family friend, passed away on Friday. Photo taken at Battle Creek's C.O. Brown Stadium. Original photograph here . Somewhere I've got a photograph of Bielby at a bluegrass festival; we'll have to see if I can find it.

West Michigan Whiecaps center fielder Gorkys Hernandez. Handsome gent, no? Original photo (not much different) here . More game photos here . ============= Edit 9/3/07: Gorkys is the Midwest League's Most Valuable Player for 2007. At least according to the managers.

Fort Wayne Tincaps (Padres farm) hitter Lee Orr at bat, with West Michigan Whitecaps (Tigers) catcher Patrick Leyland (yup, Jim's son) behind the plate and about to glove the ball. I had a great seat at Fort Wayne's Parkview Field; my pix didn't do the seat, the ballpark, or the game justice. Original photo (not much different) here . 636 (generally lousy) game photos here .

Hey! It's Opening Day! Will Rhymes starts today for the Tigers. This photo from when he played at West Michigan, five years ago. Go Will!

West Michigan shortstop Audy Ciriaco. Likely my best baseball picture of the summer. Original here . More game photos here . The Whitecaps begin the Midwest League Championship Round against Beloit tomorrow night.

The West Michigan Whitecaps gave away this bobblehead of Tigers pitcher Kenny Rogers to the first 1,000 folks who showed up at last Thursday's playoff game against Lansing. (Can't really recommend my photo set for that game, by the way; both the camera and the long lens are acting old old old. The long lens at least has the excuse that it is old.) Kenny pitched a rehab game at West Michigan in June see Em Smith 's pictures) (especially this one ), so the Whitecaps uniform has some authenticity. This photo's in both of my flickr streams....

Peoria Chiefs third basemen Ryne Malone (hmm: a guy named after his manager , I expect) unleashes a throw which will get hitter Jordan Newton at first base. That's Peoria's Nate Samson covering second, and West Michigan's Ryan Strieby hustling back to the base. Another version of this photo here . More game photos here .

Lansing Lugnuts third baseman Josh Bell--not to be mistaken for Great Lakes Loons 3B JB--follows through at West Michigan's Fifth Third Ballpark. The catcher's Louis Ott (normally an infielder); the ump is Takeshi Hirabayashi. Original photo here . More game photos here .

Pitcher Zach Piccola of the West Michigan Whitecaps. Zach was signing autographs, bantering with the crowd, and watching Duane Below, the starting pitcher, warm up pretty much simultaneously. Looked to be enjoying himself. He'd eventually relieve Below in mid-game. That's Whitecaps pitching coach Ray Burris behind him. Original photo here . More game pictures here .

Tom Brookens, infielder for the 1984 World Champion Detroit Tigers , is now managing the West Michigan Whitecaps. The 'Caps played their home opener last night, losing to Lansing. It was cold . More photos from the game here . A few more photographs of Brookens here . My website's Brookens page here .

West Michigan infielders Nick McIntyre and Brent Dlugach, plus an unknown Quad Cities baserunner, waiting for action to begin at Fifth Third Ballpark in Comstock Park, Michigan. I've been working hard on mwlguide.com/ for the past month, trying to catch up a couple years' neglect. Yesterday I rebuilt the site's front page, and used a version of this photograph. About 9 weeks to minor league Opening Day....

2006 Midwest League Most Valuable Player Jeff Baisley swings and misses at a Sendy Vasquez offering in the fifth inning of Game 3 of the Midwest League Championship Series. The series pits the West Michigan Whitecaps (Detroit farm) against Baisley's Kane County Cougars (Oakland). The Whitecaps won this game to take a 2-1 lead in the best of five series; they will play again tomorrow at Fifth Third Ballpark in Comstock Park. Dusty Ryan's the WM catcher; John Byrne is the ump. I've been ill for the past week, so I missed the first two playoff rounds. Good to be back at the yard, even if only for a couple-three days.... Original picture here . The whole game is here .

Swing @ Whitecaps 6/5/2006. I watch most games through the screen, but usually it doesn't show in my pictures. The original of this photo--really not much different--is here . More photos from the game here .

...Ramirez. For Jules, & Em. West Michigan @ Lansing, 090505. Din't say no more baseball. Just no more endless strings of pitcher pictures ....

A year ago today I went to two baseball games. I doubt you're surprised. West Michigan Whitecaps second baseman Brandon Loy's about to field a bouncer--probably hit by Lansing Lugnuts first baseman Kevin Hobson--and whip the ball to first base. It's the sixth inning of a morning game at Cooley Law School Stadium in downtown Lansing, and there are thousands of schoolchildren in the grandstand. Cheated a bit on my stated rules for this set. Since I knew I'd get something at the ballpark, even though I was shooting in color, I made no effort to take a deliberate black & white pic before leaving for the game. The original photo is here . ========== I've shot a lot of baseball pictures over the past few years. Here's my (current) normal camera setup for day baseball: * White balance is set to match the weather. * ISO set to 400. * Exposure mode is Shutter Priority. * Shutter speed is quite high (3200 for this pic; y' gotta clear 5000 to stop a 95 MPH pitch). * Shutter release mode is Continuous. * EV is usually slightly boosted (in this case, though, I had it way down). I tinker with these constantly, both during games and between games. But these are my expected baseball settings for day games for any camera which lets me set these things. (My night setup is quite different. In daytime I'm usually trying to stop motion, while under the lights I often try to capture it.) Focus with this camera/lens setup is either spot or manual. YMMV, since autofocus with this lens is pretty slow. The camera and lens I've already discussed . I've used this lens for fifteen years, and the camera body for six, and I'm really quite comfortable with them. While I shoot lots of more-or-less set photos of the hitters and pitchers in their respective workspaces, the action shots make the most interesting photographs. Once you get the mechanical stuff right, the best sports photography involves anticipation. And LUCK. In this case, I knew there was a good chance Hobson would hit to second, so I focused on the second baseman and held the camera on him until Loy began moving. At that point I pushed the shutter release, followed the fielder as he moved, and hoped I'd get something interesting. It worked out. Often it does. More often it doesn't--anticipation, alone, isn't enough. Oh, yeah: I shoot candids, mostly of the gameday staff, too. ========== The second game was in Kalamazoo, where Western was hosting the Spartans. I'd have left the Lansing game early if necessary to catch the first pitch at Bobb/Hyames Stadium/Field, but as it turned out that wasn't necessary. ========== This photograph is an outtake from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . Number of project photos taken: 269 [but see my comments above] Title of " roll :" 5/8/2012 - Whitecaps @ Lugnuts Other photos taken on 5/8/2012: I shot 11 more pix at Luggie game with the Cybershot--which I gave to my brother later that day. At Western I shot well over 500 photographs with the Nikon 1 V1 .