NV Varsity Football - Cardinals Reign Supreme over Whitney Point

Big doin's in The Valley today!!  It's Homecoming weekend and around here, this is a big deal.  A really, really big deal - parades and everything - it's fun!  Valley's Varsity football team played host to Whitney Point's Eagles in a bird on bird smackdown in the birdcage.  This was no smackdown though - this was domination defined as the home team blew the visiting raptors away and kept them totally grounded.   Valley crushed WP 61-6.

( Click on the photo's to view them larger )

This Newark Valley team has really turned into a well rounded squad with multiple players stepping up and contributing to the effort on both offense and defense.  Admittedly I was a little concerned after the 1st game loss to Tioga that Valley looked a little overly dependant on team captain and QB, Vinnie Darpino.  Vinnie is an exceptional player and has demonstrative leadership ability, but one man does not make a team.  This team, right now, appears to be gelling and is in fact a solid looking, cohesive *team*.  Todays win moves the team on to a 3-1 record on the season now - and all three wins have been huge.  The team goes on the road next week to a local perennial powerhouse in Section IV football - Chenango Forks.

I got quite a number of photo's from the day that will be going up to the galleries over the next couple of days - but in the meantime I thought I would just get these out chop chop.

*****  Go Valley!!! *****

Red Robin Diner Johnson City, N.Y.

My wife, mother-in-law and I found ourselves in Johnson City earlier today ...  wife was getting treated for an issue at the hospital.  Mother-in-law and I decided that we needed to find some chow ...  she doesn't know the area.  Now I've lived in and around the greater Binghamton area on and off for over 40 years.  In all that time the Red Robin diner has always existed (as far as I know) on Main St. in J.C. but I'd never been there so that is where we decided to go.

Cashing out after lunch at the Red Robin in J.C.  Photo types - this is actually a composited / HDR.  While waiting on the cashier to get change, I just set the fuji on the counter top, flipped the display screen up so I could see & compose and then started twiddling the shutter speed while watching the various elements in the scene come and go in and out of exposure.  I took about 4 or 5 shots and then blended them using a combination of photomatix and photoshop.  Final cleanup and export out of lightroom. --- Click the photo to view it larger

It is a neat, interesting, throwback kind of a place.  I had my little fuji with me ...  grabbed a few random candid shots, most with the camera just sitting on the table and/or counter top and using the excellent live view mode (display on the back of it) to compose and meter with.  I'd like to speak with the owner of the joint about getting some time to shoot the place - that might be kind of neat.

Every booth and/or table had its own little (functional) jukebox - this was the one at our booth.  ---  Click the photo to view it larger

"...  so whats on this menu?"  ---  Click the photo to view it larger

 The kitten in the window - well - thats exactly what it was.  ;)  We had parked the car a half block or so away and were walking to the diner.  We were crossing the street when I happened to notice this little kitten pop into a window so I ran back across the street and <click> shot him/her.  Yeah -- thats me in the reflection too at the top of the frame.;)

Meow .....  ---  Click the photo to view it larger

NV Varsity Football - vs Tioga

Whoo hoo!  It's Football Season!!  | Click the photo to view it larger

...  and the HS Football season is underway!!  Valley's Varsity Squad hosted cross county rival Tioga today at the Birdcage and ... lost.  Had the game ended at halftime ... the Cardinals would have won - but as everyone knows games don't end at the half.

Valley lost the coin toss but got first crack at offense as Tioga opted to defer its winning possession till after the half.  This would prove to be a premonition in hindsight - but back to present tense. Valley senior, team captain and QB, Vinnie Darpino wasted zero time with the opportunity and immediately electrified a well attended home opener and got everyone in the house cheering when he zigged and zagged his way through Tioga's D on the very first play of the game and grabbed a real quick 6 points.  The PAT was no go -- with less than a minute into this one the Cardinals were up 6-0.

Valley's Darpino got loose on the opening play and put Valley up on the board early | Click the photo to view it larger

The home side of the crowd was stoked with the early score  | Click the photo to view it larger

( I'm rusty having not followed any football to this point in the year -- I'll have to get back into practice of keeping track of the game so from here on out ..  pretty much just synopsis and opinion. )

Tioga Tigers Jesse Manuel runs the ball during the Tigers victory over hosting Newark Valley | Click the photo to view it larger

Tioga really hurt themselves pretty badly on their opening possession with nervous twitches on the line that kept drawing false start flags ...  they literally went backwards by about 25 - maybe even 30 yards.  Ouch.  Mistakes and inconsistent play would hamper the Tigers throughout the half and the hosting Cardinals would capitalize on this.  Early in the 2nd quarter Tioga ( I'm thinking the #7 of Jesse Manuel ) found the end zone and tied it up 6 all.  The PAT was no go.  Headed into the half and with time running down on the clock, Valley was driving and senior Blake Novi wound up with the ball.  I don't think he got in - I think he came up just a yard or so short (?) - but anyway - Valley did score one more time taking it to a 12-6 lead going into the half.  PAT was no go - this was not a day for field goal kickers ...

Valley senior Blake Novi dives for the end zone in a scoring drive for Valley | Click the photo to view it larger

...  until the start of the 2nd half.  As mentioned earlier - Tioga won the coin toss but deferred on the opening possession until the 2nd half.  Less than 2 minutes into the 3rd they scored paydirt AND did convert on the PAT.  Tioga went up 13-12 and would never look back.  Tioga's game really opened up in the 2nd half of this one and they simply out played the hosting Cardinals.  They demonstrated a depth at running backs with a burly senior #3 Brad Jump, and the aforementioned #7 of Manuel.  Thier O line created lanes that these two exploited on a number of times.  The tigers QB, senior #2 Sam Burn - well - he burned the Cardinals on a few plays as well.

Tioga senior and QB, Sam Burn and the rest of the Tiger's team really came to life and played well in the 2nd half  | Click the photo to view it larger

This was a game of tides ...  the Newark Valley Cardinals rode the tide in the first half, the visiting Tioga Tigers rode it for the 2nd half.  They rolled too winning this one going away 25-12 in the end.  Congrats to the Tigers on their season opening win in, what can be a tough place to win in, Valley's Birdcage.  Hopefully NV will grow and learn from this tough loss and use the experience and knowledge gained as they stay home and host Elmira Notre Dame next week.

There is a full gallery of game day photo's available at the galleries right here.

*****  GO VALLEY!!!  *****

So thats what you use black & white for

<grin>  When all else fails and a bad pic just can't really be made into anything half decent what does one do?  Convert it to b&w and give it a "reportage look", or make it look like something from a newspaper story.

Click the photo to view it larger

Readers digest - we had our little quarterly meeting today at the Binghamton Corporate office.  A number of us went out to lunch at a little bar / diner that is within walking distance from the office and I, naturally, had a camera with me.

Click the photo to view it larger

If I didn't shoot sports as much as I do, I'm almost thinking that I'd ditch my big ole' Nikons in favor of this wonderful little Fuji that I recently picked up.  The thing is so small and light in weight by comparison to the Nikons that it isn't funny.  The lenses are crazy nice and the sensor in the thing, while only being a crop sensor, is pretty damned amazing.  The camera definitely has it's quirks, and definitely has some short comings when compared to the far more mature Nikons - but for the most part I really dig it.

Click the photo to view it larger

Click the photo to view it larger

All of the images here are hand held, the color one in particular being a 1/2 second exposure, iso 250 @f/2.8 with the fuji 14mm lens.  All were with that lens.  All of the b&w's were 1/5th of a second at iso 4000 (!) @f/8

Click the photo to view it larger

It's a fun little camera.  :)

NASCAR at Watkins Glen Weekend

This was my "the shot" for the weekend.  Marcos Ambrose won the Zippo 200 Nationwide Series race on Saturday. |  Click on the photo to view it larger.

... so we (wife & I) "did a NASCAR thing" this past weekend.

Sort of.

We went out on Saturday mid-day'ish ...  not really knowing what to expect and sort of just on a recon type thing.  Back track just a bit.  I'm not necessarily a "NASCAR fan".  I enjoy watching it for the entertainment value that it can sometimes provide - but a fan?  'Eh ...  that'd be a stretch.  Formula 1 on the other hand.  A Fan.  Definitely a fan.

Coming into town Saturday Kyle Busch's team had a car parked in front of a local grocery store.  ( wife had to get something...  )  Obviously good publicity for the team and the event.  Assumption is that this was likely a testing / backup car in the event that the actual race car got smashed up. | Click on the photo to view it larger.

So anyway ...  not being a hard core type fan of the sport per se we didn't really know what exactly to expect.  Again - just sort of feeling it out and seeing what the tickets and passes that we had were going to offer us.  The access that we had was actually very nice - and come Sunday we could do a "Fan Walk".  Now I didn't know what a "Fan Walk" was but we could do it on Sunday.  Turns out that the fan walk is where you can walk right out onto the race course and wander around down in pit lane prior to the race.  This allowed for up close viewing of the racers pit crews and, eventually, the cars as they were brought out and parked prior to "Racers Start Your Engines!".  The fan walk was kind of cool - definitely a nice plus.

As captured from Sunday mornings "Fan Walk".  Spare tires are at the ready in Jeff Gordon's pit box.  I had to specifically get his tires for my wife.  She "loves Jeffy".  <grin>  I asked her if she wanted to touch his tires.  "These are the actual tires that he might use during the race.... " I told her.  She gave me the 'you're such a dork' look.  :) | Click on the photo to view it larger.

I once again very quickly, and frustratingly, was reminded how much I dislike being a "regular person" getting banished off to the far edges of periphery.  Translation:  I used to be a U.S. Navy Photographers Mate back in the middle 1980's.  My ID card, and the fact that I worked in the photo lab was synonymous with being "Press".  We, those of us from the photo lab, could go damn near *anywhere* at any event on any U.S. military base.  That - as a photographer - is the cats ass.  I miss those days.  I really, seriously need to get credentials so that I can get to the good spots for shooting events.  {sigh}  It is what it is though - I was fortunate enough to be offered a nice pair of tickets to the event (twist my arm you know ...) and had an opportunity to go to one of the bigger sporting events in the state.  So we did.

The fire rescue folks actually had some of the better seats in the house for viewing.  I felt kind of bad for some of them though - must have been hotter then hell sitting in that truck wearing what appears to be full gear.  I wanted to get on top of the truck and snipe off of it.  <grin>  No - I didn't inquire.  |  Click on the photo to view it larger.

Back to Saturday:  We arrived right as qualifying was coming to a close for "the main event" on Sunday.  I just missed getting a shot of Jeff Gordon on his qualifying lap that landed him in the #1 position.  I did grab a shot of Jimmy Johnson though and then ... that was it.  Wife & I kind of looked at one another and were like - "... guess we were a little late for qualifying.  Yeah - but Jeffy is on pole!" ( she said - she's a Jeffy fan ...  )  We scored some chow and hung out until the Saturday race started - the "Nationwide Series'.  It's like the under card fight prior to the main event on Sunday - but sometimes the main event guys race in it too.  Not really sure how else to describe it.  So the race starts.

Jimmy Johnson right at the closing seconds of Saturday's qualifying for Sunday's main event.  Jeff Gordon had just gone by seconds earlier securing the pole position.  We had literally just gotten there and, naturally, I missed that shot.  {sigh} | Click on the photo to view it larger.

*** LOUD ***  Mind you this was not unexpected but these things are *ridiculously* loud.  This is where I was quickly frustrated with the 'quality' of photo's I was going to be able to grab.  (NOT)  See comments above re: not being able to get into good positions.  I started shooting the race trying to find clean views, any clean views, that I could find and quickly figured that there basically weren't any (that I had access to) and that the one singular spot where I was able to kinda-sorta get shots became tiresome very quickly.  I lasted about 10 laps and was bored out of my skull.

Sunday - the place was a zoo.  It was crazy crowded and just tiresome even trying to simply move.  We could not (quite literally) get out of there fast enough.  | Click on the photo to view it larger 

We left and came home.  I mowed the lawn and played with the dogs.  We were on the fence re: going back up on Sunday, but ultimately decided that we would.  I / we knew that Sunday's main event "Sprint Cup" series race was going to be a zoo.  That's an understatement.  There must have been at least twice as many people than there were on Saturday.  The event, like greedy ass airlines, oversold access to the hospitality tents, the race was closing off previously accessible walking routes to and from the viewing area's and forcing hordes of people to walk long distances to get back to their seats.  It was just ...  irksome.  And slow. (masses of bodies all trying to move from point a to point b)  And hot.  By the time that we finally got back to the tented area where we planned on grabbing some lunch and watching the race we were done.  Again - the hospitality area that we had access to appeared to be overwhelmed with the sheer number of bodies that had invaded it.  There was literally no place to sit and eat.  There was no way in hell that I was going to be able to get anywhere near the one little spot that I had discovered yesterday to kinda-sorta get actual race pics.  This was still about an hour or so before the race was to get started.  We bagged it and decided to call it a day.

This was kind of a fun one from the Sunday "Fan Walk" thing.  I told this pit crew guy that he had basically just committed his driver to winning.  I think he crashed out.  | Click on the photo to view it larger

I guess I'm kinda ok with having gone - it wasn't all "bad".  I have a small gallery of photo's that I grabbed from both days up - check them out here.   Feel free to grab any if you're a fan of any of the racers that I may have grabbed.

Gallery is here if the linked text doesn't work for some reason -- http://galleries.jdanvers.com/nascarwg14

---

I should have gone to Unadilla though for the MX Nationals.

Yep ....  that woulda been cool.

-=- jd -=-

The Red Brick Church in Berkshire, NY

Click to view larger

I live next to a church that sits right on the corner of Route 38 and Glen Rd here in Berkshire, N.Y.  It's a pretty neat looking old building.  I have no idea how long it has been around for - I'm guessing a while anyway.  Admittedly, I don't spend much time in churches - most of my Sunday's are at races or football games. I did happen to pop into this particular church a year or two ago - they were having a bake sale, or maybe a blood drive?  I don't know - I forget now - but I had to physically go inside of the place.  Once in I happened to get a peak of the main room where the pews and stuff are.  I decided right then and there that I had to speak with the "Padre", as I call him, and see if I could get permission to shoot the interior of his church 'cause it looked pretty cool in there.  :)  ( I'm guessing maybe he's a "Minister"?  It's not a Catholic church -- I dunno what kind it is -- but I like Clint Eastwood's use of Padre from some of his old westerns ... <grin>  )

The Padre' here at this church - he's a pretty cool and interesting guy whom I have met on more than a few occasions locally and he was more than willing to hear me out.  We agreed that I should just keep in touch and let him know if /when we wanted to see if we could do this.  That was late last summer.  This past Thursday morning I happened to notice that the (now low and early rising sun) was basking the church once again as seen in the top photo.  It was time to speak with the Padre' ...

My thinking is that the church, being situated and facing more or less to the east, early morning sunlight would be best.  I'd hoped to catch the stained glass windows getting illuminated via mr. sun and the interior in general taking on a nice "glow".

Click to view the photo larger | Click here to view it really large (3600px)

I'll be adding more photo's to this post over the next few days ..  I wound up bracketing and doing some HDR as it was pretty dark in there.  We turned up a couple of the lights but that just killed the atmosphere that I wanted / was looking for so - tripod, cable release and slow'ish shutter speeds were the order of the day.

This was a learning experience ...  wouldn't mind trying a do-over.  | Click the photo to view it larger | Click here to view it really large (3600px)

Last ones ...

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Click the photo to view it larger | Click here to view it really large (3600px)

The Big Yellow Tree

Click to view image larger | Click here to view full size export at 1800px

I've been noticing this tree for the last couple of weeks as I head north on route 46 out of Munnsville.  It has been yellow like this for sometime now and I've been tempted to shoot it but I just hadn't - until today.

Click to view image larger |
Click here to view full size export at 1800px

With all of the greens of the grass, fields, and even tree's finally starting to come into full bloom, and the brilliant blue sky and the light'ish wispy clouds as a backdrop this tree looked all the more commanding, and it's yellow color was particularly brilliant.  I was hoping to try and capture that, plus the vibrancy of the overall scene itself.  Initially I just pulled the car off to the side of the road and grabbed a frame or two but I *had* to actually get into and onto the field where this thing lives.  I look around and there is a house right across the road from it.  A singular house - no others around.  This has got to be the property owner... so I walk up the driveway and note that it appears that the back porch / door is the most oft used entrance to the place.  There is a person inside - it's a beautiful day out and people have the doors open letting in fresh air.  I knock as a nice woman answers and calls to her husband at the same time.  I inquirer re: are you the property owners of the field across the road.  They, almost in unison, note the camera in hand and laugh saying "Yes - go ahead - you can go over there and take some pictures.... "  They seemed to be a nice enough couple (older couple) - the gentleman even stepped outside with me and was telling me about some other cool stuff that might make for some good photo's and was pointing me in the general direction where some of these things are.  He looked off sort of longingly at one point and muttered ".... well used to be down that-away anyways ...  been a few years since I've been down there myself ...  "

I thanked them for their time and for letting me go onto the property to make some photo's.  I'll show them these on my tablet and get a print or two made up for them if they'd like.

Click to view image larger | Click here to view full size export at 3600px

Rise & Shine

Sunrise at Upper Lisle / north end of the Whitney Point Reservoir.

Fuji X-T1, 14mm lens, 3 bracket HDR via photomatix pro / lightroom and photoshop

Click to view larger | Click here to view it *much* larger at 1800px

( A few more a few hours later after watching F1 race, eating, etc .... :) )

Click to view larger | Click here to view it *much* larger at 1800px

Click to view larger | Click here to view it *much* larger at 1800px