You Can't Make This Stuff Up | Atlanta Braves Baseball

When my dad offered tickets to Keri and I for the Braves game last night, I was elated.  Not only have I not been to a game this year, but it was Chipper Jones bobble head giveaway night.  Keri and I rushed to the stadium as quickly as we could after work to find the Blue parking lot full of cars and my worries of missing out on the bobble heads increasing.  We rushed to the gate to find plenty to spare (at 6:15, at least).  We got our two and hopped down to our seats.  I thought the bobble heads were a great way to commemorate Chipper's final season with the Braves, though I was a little surprised that it wasn't a typical bobble head pose.  Not that I'm an expert on sports sculptures, but I was surpised that it wasn't of him hitting or fielding.  Instead it is him standing in his helmet with the sign for "I love you."  No big deal, just odd I thought.  Then as the (incredible) game progressed, I of course capured many moments of the night with my camera.  Two of which (shown further below) were Chipper's TWO home runs.  One of which was his 2,700th career hit.  However, my favorite photo was just after Justin Heyward struck his 5th inning home run.  As Heyward crossed the plate, I snapped the photo of Chipper... and the bobble head statue made MUCH more sense.

Here is his 2nd homer of the night and his 2,700th career hit.

And Heyward's 4th inning BOMB.

Another amazing part of the night was Medlen's complete game shut out!

We ended up also randomly running into one of my favorite bride and groom!  Carly and Russell. (see more photos of them HERE and HERE!)

I'll leave you with this lovely singing gem. :)

Bobby Cox's last regular season game

Though this is definitely way late, I still figure I'd post about it.   Each year, Dad goes in on season tickets with a big group of friends.  I'll usually have a chance to make it to one or two of the games and of course I'm always asked to bring my camera and "the big lens."   These types of pictures are always a challenging balance between taking pictures and actually enjoying the game with whomever is there.  I never really get up and walk around because I don't want to be rude, but at the same time pictures are often blah sitting in the same spot. Overall I had a great time at the game and, as my brother predicted it, Dad definitely got a little teary eyed at Bobby's last goodbye.  I guess in retrospect, I should have too seeing as every Braves game I've ever attended had Bobby as coach.

Here's dad signing the thank-you card from the season ticket holders.

Apparently they haze rookies by making them wear kids backpacks for their first season.

And of course, Bobby Cox:

New Alex The Photo Guy site is LIVE!

I've owned the domain since college.  Three years ago I re-upped it's registration and I contracted my good friend Greg Vilines at Webnormous to begin work on the site.   Then a combination of producing an album, playing in a band, get married, and having his house burn down slowed Greg's progress on the site a bit.  A combination of helping with the album, buying a house, running a photo business, general laziness, and getting engaged slowed me down too.  I know my excuses aren't as valid as a house fire, but regardless of the timing, it is finally LIVE! Greg built the whole thing from scratch and he did a damn good job on it.  I know I was a difficult client at times but in the end we got it all worked out.  There will be a few tweaks made in the coming months, but since it's 99% done, we figured why not launch it?  This will be a soft opening for my six blog readers and facebook friends until I get it 100% finished.

Keep in mind the new site isn't going to be a replacement for the blog- just think of it as a "best of Alex the Photo Guy."  I'll still keep you up to date with my crazy photo antics here on the blog, so don't stop reading!

Let me know what you think!  Many thanks again to Greg who did all the hard work.  All I did was take a few photos.  If you need a website, let me know and I'll get you in contact with Webnormous.

War Eagles Football!

Saturday, my friend used his connections  to hook me up with a press pass to get on the field for the War Eagles game.   I squeezed through plenty of AP and Reuters photographers lining the sidelines as the game was simulcast on ESPN and CSS Sports.  The stadium pressbox at the half was one of my better experiences while sending some initial JPEGs to the AJC from my new Macbook Pro.  The finger sandwiches were okay, but the wings were awesome- sweet and spicy of some delicious variety.   The second half was a real nail biter between these bitter rivals as I think I even heard a few new curse words to my experienced photojournalist ears.   I am happy to report that I safely dove out of the way of two particularly nasty looking tackles that would have broken no less than 4 of my bones.  Unfortunately the War Eagles weren't able to successfully combat the Raiders' offensive prowess, but I was happy to hear from Sports Illustrated after the game that they need a couple of spreads for next week's issue.  Apparently that Sean Mitchell is an up-and-coming phenom free safety, which you don't hear very often.  I'm definitely looking to get a couple of prints signed next time I'm on the field.

Pictures rarely do live sports justice, but I will say these guys look bigger in person.  :)

Masters 2009

Yes, sadly it says "2009" above.  I made the dumb mistake of passing up 2010 Masters practice round tickets because I couldn't find anyone to drive out there with.  In retrospect, I should have made the drive by myself and met up with my parents who were livin' it up in the IBM cottage with free food and drinks...  I know.  Dumb. However, I do have some photos to show you.  Because I didn't have the blog up and running this time last year, I figure I can share some of the photos I took from the 2009 Masters' practice round.  As you may know, the practice rounds are the only days where they let anyone in with a camera (but still no cell phones).  There's no real competition that happens other than a few side bets I'm sure, but all the players have a good time hanging out with each other and generally interact more with the crowd.

I guess the Masters crew is also a little more relaxed during the practice rounds as well... and as always- click on the pictures to expand them.

As part of the "crowd interaction" players often attempy to skip the ball across the water on #16.

"Do we really need to keep score during practice rounds?" 

I couldn't tell if the make on this lawnmower said Gillette or Norelco:

Corvette Museum

Nothing ground breaking here, just wanted to post some of my favorite photos from 4th of July weekend in Bowling Green KY.  It's late, I know, but I want the world (or my 3 friends) to see them.  :) These are from the world famous Corvette Museum.  AKA: The only thing in Bowling Green, KY.

Scott Kelby Sports Contest

Scott Kelby has a pretty fun photo contest up on his blog.  Basically, enter your best sports photo and if you're chosen, he'll fly you to an FSU football game, rent you nice lens, get you a media pass, and have you shoot side by side with professional sports photographer, Mike Olivella. Sounds like fun to me.  Here's my entry.  I shot it back in college when I worked for The Vanderbilt Hustler (student paper).  Didn't have the money for digital, so I shot it on Fuji Neopan 1600 ISO film.  Worked well, even with the grain.  Click the photo to see it on flickr, then you can click here to see the rest of the entries.