Okay... I know, I know...it has been over a week since my last blog entry.  I have had more than a few people reminding me that it has been a while since my last post which I take as a huge compliment as that automatically tells me that there are a few people that are reading my ramblings on a regular basis 

Well... what's new and exciting in the world of Those Two Photographers??  Rob was contracted to shoot the Bantam National Women's Fastball tournament just over a week ago and asked me if I wanted to be his assistant.  I figured why the heck not... how hard can it be right??  Well, I know that I don't give Rob credit very often...okay never actually but the role that I chose to play as a sports photographer was one Hell of a lot more difficult than I envisioned it to be.  I'm not exactly sure what I had in mind that I was getting into.  I guess that I thought that I would head out to the ball diamonds... take a few pictures... have a hot-dog... grab a ice cold drink... shoot a few more pictures and then head home and call it a day....not so difficult.   I didn't count on the fact that the temperatures would be in the mid thirties... that you actually stay for the entire game...then the next one...then the next one...then the next one.  On top of that baseball diamonds in the extreme heat are eerily similar to the Sahara Desert where there is no shade anywhere along with the fact that the concession stands are usually lined up a mile long and due to the fact that one is required to be shooting the game one cannot possibly stand in line to get water for half an hour.  Then of course I forgot about the editing factor where once you do in fact get home you are not actually done at all as you still have to edit around 1000 pictures and get them ready so that they can go on the web first thing in the morning.  I have made this equation for you all that should translate fairly well I think:  Devona+shooting fastball for 5 days+extreme heat+no water=coming home on Sunday with heat stroke and extreme fatigue (and you all thought that only Einstein could do equations... E=MC squared has nothing on me).  In all seriousness though I do give credit where credit is due and it is extremely exhausting work I did have a lot of fun and it was a great learning experience for me (with the exception of the heat stroke which I would rather not have learned about).

Other than that Rob did have his big 40th birthday bash on the 21st of August and we had a little celebration at work that day.  There will be some photos posted below.

 Lastly Rob and I are going to be working fast and furious throughout the weekend to get our revamped photo workshop curriculum and powerpoint presentation ready to go as the workshops begin once again on Sept. 3rd.  We have lots of dates set right through into October so far and they are filling up quickly so if you are interested in attending just contact either Rob or myself. 

Alright enough talk and onto some photos.  I will start by posting some of the shots that I took at the ball tournament:

 

 

 

 

Ball in the head... ouch.

 

 

 

 Shooting before the rain.

 

 

 

Rather scary picture that Rob took of me during the tournament.  See... this is what I look like without any sleep, food or water.  To be honest I think that my most used line of the week was "I feel like I am on Survivor".  Anyway...once again I am proving that I am a team player by posting a rather unflattering photo of myself.  No offence Rob as you are a great photographer but you can only do so much with the subject 

 

 

 

 

I have no idea why I didn't figure this out earlier... by Rob going up and pretending to talk to the announcer about something important he was actually able to be in the shade for a while while I was in the blistering sun shooting... brilliant!!

 

 

ISO-100, F 2.8, Shutter Speed - 1/800th sec, Focal Length 200mm.

 

 

 

 

 

Now we will move onto some birthday photos...hee hee:

 

 

 

 

 

I took the liberty of buying Rob a pink shiny Happy Birthday tiara and Silver bowtie.  He was actually a pretty good sport and put it on for all of about 10 seconds as he claimed that the tiara cut into his head.... hmmmm....

 

 

 

I also made up a some birthday posters to put throughout the store.

 

 

 

Hee Hee.

 

 

 

Bryan giving Rob a great big birthday hug at work.  I am going to leave this one alone.

 

 

Part of the reason that I didn't get to the blog sooner besides the fact that I was recovering from heatstroke was that my parents had their 40th anniversary this past weekend.  It was a nice calm event with about 100 people coming and going...yep.  Someone took some pics of my daughter Brooke and I while we were out there:

 

 

 

The funny thing is that to get the above picture I think that they literally took about a dozen kind of similar to the one below.

 

 

 

How does that saying go...like mother like daughter???  Both her and I apparently have an extremely hard time being serious as soon as a camera is pointed anywhere in our general direction 

 

Well... that's it for this edition.  Thanks for checking in and I will do my best to get back to posting every week.  Make sure to get all of your cameras ready to go as fall is right around the corner and the opportunities for shooting are endless.

 

Till next time,

Devona

 

 

This last photo is one that Rob shot at the end of the awards ceremonies... fantastic light!