spoiled chinese girl

Yay! Two posts in one day! Got back from the softball game a little while ago and had an awesome time taking photos.  The team I’m shooting (Dirty Ballers) didn’t have a problem with it, and were even excited at the idea of a team photographer, and the opposing team… didn’t yell at me for taking their photos.  So I say that’s a win all around.  I had my shutter speed set up correctly, on shutter priority so the aperture ended up being calculated for me by the camera.  Unfortunately I forgot to check my ISO settings, and I should have lowered it.  So these photos seem grainy-er than I would have liked.

Afterward we ended up at Caffé Demetre for dessert. Nom.

Here’s a few select photos that I picked out. After the practice post I’ve decided no more than 9 photos go up at a time in gallery mode. It otherwise looks awkward.

All of the photos that I actually like can be found at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lilfunky1/sets/72157624143599659/

I will keep updating that as I will probably end up shooting a few more games. It’s fun

I don’t consider myself a shopper. I buy things, but I don’t really… shop for things.

I <3 online shopping, avoiding malls, crowds, cashiers asking me for my e-mail address…

But sometimes it’s a necessary evil. And sometimes, it does actually make me feel good.

After being at the gym on Tuesday, I decided that I need more work-out gear so I don’t have to do laundry so frequently. Because it’s irritating to do it all the time, but there’s no way I want to wear the same thing two classes in a row. Eww.  Off to Zellers after my massage, picked up two pairs of 3/4 yoga pants, and a new exercise top to hopefully minimize bounce in the top half.  Thrillingly excited. I’m going to test all this stuff out next Tuesday.   The top and one of the pants match. So if the top works out I  might venture back to get a matching top for the second pair of pants… even though these tops go UNDER my t-shirts. Whatever

And after Friday’s half-scare of “my memory card is going to kick the bucket oh noes!” I wandered around online and found Henry’s has a sale on their Sandisk Ultra II 4gb memory cards for $29.99 each (regular $49.99) so I picked up two of those, a 52mm UV filter for my newest 55-200mm lens, and a cleaning cloth thing to attach to my camera bag because it’ll be easier for quick dusting then pulling out the lens pen all the time. Two awesomes with this. One, I got to do it all online, I expect this stuff will all be here by the end of next week. Two, the Henrys website accepts paypal, so I was able to use up the balance in my Paypal account to pay for the majority of this order, so all I really paid out of pocket were the taxes…. still… so many taxes.

Should get ready to head out though. And check the weather report. And… bring some plastic bags to cover my camera with.

Yay sporty photography!

He who got hit by a car invited me out to take photos at his softball practice. The team members that I’ve met, all seem to think it’s a great idea and apparently I’ve been drafted into the team, and more than welcome to come take photos during games that happen every Sunday afternoon too. Fun. Automatic acceptance! And I didn’t even have to pull out the unicycle.

It was fun. I’m trying to get outside and do more photography stuff, specifically sporty stuff… in the day time. I feel that my flickr account is naught but nightclub photos of my friends on stage. So I want some daylight pictures… of my friends on a field.  Been playing with the settings on my camera some more.  I’m more into experimenting with the settings to try & get to know my camera better, since it’s been set up the same for years now.  It’s not going to improve until something changes.  Well… changes made, nothing’s quite improved. But I’m… learning?

First I took photos of everyone warming up playing catch. Then everyone chasing after batted balls. Then… everyone took a break. Then some more catch and some more batted balls. Then I put the camera away and played catch with them. And yanked out the unicycle for everyone (who was still around) to attempt hurting themselves on that as well. I brought Chicklet (trials unicycle). Next time I need to bring probably Danielle (mountain unicycle) & Ted (freestyle unicycle) with me as well. Chicklet’s not the friendliest for n00b’s.

And these are the only photos I really feel are worthy of being made public… which isn’t a lot.  Granted, I think I lost about 50% of the photos on one card, getting errors like crazy, had to sort through 100+ photos individually to see which would be copied and which were corrupted.

Without further ado, the Dirty Ballers of the Bloor West Village Softball League!

Nommy nommy nom!

Missed the first year of the event (I was at a unicycle convention in Ottawa at the time. While both events were fun, I definitely didn’t want to miss this event a second time ’round!)

Last year it was hilariously awesome. Lots of good food and good friends and good new people to hang around and talk to! Mix in a pretty nice day last year and it was epic. My first time seeing a full pig being thrown. (Apparently the first year included the pig ACTUALLY being thrown, as it was dropped on the ground… stories be told.)

Here’s this year’s event was this past Saturday.  Drove in alone, left alone. All well and fine for me. Brought a case of green iced tea as my contribution to the pot luck (I’m just not good with food. Last year I bought a fruit platter) and just started to stand/sit around with the people I knew and some people I got to know better.

This year I also had the chance to do the exploring expedition with some friends, missed out on it last year. It was fun & exciting. I had some awesome photos of the graffiti under the train tracks, the tracks themselves, and the river, as well as some guys we met up with (that everyone else met up with last year). I also acquired a rusty railroad spike (which I already seem to have misplaced somewhere in my car.)

Then there was the swine. Nommy nommy swine. I ended up with two bun’s full. The first with just a dijon mustard (which was surprisingly awesome. I normally dislike mustard in all forms) The second I included a cheesey mac salad in with it, which was messy, but good fun. Badur added some coleslaw to his second helping which also looked amazing.

The summer time gatherings are always fun. I miss the old days when it was a regular occurrence in the Toronto area, before my main source of such gatherings moved away. *sigh*

Here are a select grouping of photos from the event. I’m just linking to my flickr account, so you’ll be getting transferred over there when you click any one of those thumbnails!

Don’t get me wrong… I’m all for winter wonderland and cold and stuff. My mom blames it for being born in December.  But really, it was Mothers Day when that photo was taken. It does seem a bit absurd!  (Thankfully later that day it warmed up, I had a great time walking/hiking(?) around High Park in the afternoon.)