Ominous Skies

....  as seen on route 26 just slightly north of Upper Lisle on my way home from work earlier today.

The trees that still have leaves on them are very vibrant in color these days, and the sky as I was driving in was bordering on being schizophrenic.  Most of the sky was quite ominous and threatening looking, yet off to the west where the sun was on its way down towards the evenings horizon, it was clearer and the sun was popping in and out of cover.  During the moments when the sun did pop out, it really popped and just lit up the sky with that late day glow which was being seriously enhanced by the contrast of the brightly lit trees against the dark and scary opposing sky.  It was kind of cool.  :)

Click the photo's to view them larger.

NV Pee Wee Football at Candor

The 11 & 12 yr old A's SCORE!!!

...  'er, scratch that - THEY WIN!!! 

Touchdown!!!!!  First score of the year for the A's | Click on the photo to view it larger

I could have gone out to Jasper for round 13 of the 2014 WNYOA Summer race series, or I could have "stayed home" and simply gone out to Candor to watch and shoot the mini Cardinals football games.  The races would have equated to 4+ hours of drive time round trip, a tank of gas, gate fee, chow, getting gear all dirty, etc ....    I opted to stay local and go to the football games.  :)

Honestly ...  I left the house a little on the late side and had figured that I might miss some of the C's game.  (back track)  I had read / heard via facebook that the field where the kids were going to be playing was sort of "hidden".  Ummmm -- yeah.  If you ain't a local you ain't gonna find this stealth field.  I did eventually discover it and got on scene shortly before the half.  Still being honest ...  Valley's little ones - they were asleep at helm.  Let's just say that they didn't play very well and the score reflected that.  :(  The 2nd game of the day was the B's (9 & 10 yr olds).  This was, actually in pure football speak, a "good game".  It was a snoozer from my point of view as a guy with a camera.  It was a defensive struggle as neither team scored in the 1st half.  Candor did put some points up on the board in the 2nd, and then they put some more up again and that game was pretty much done - the Tigers won it 13-0.  The game was actually better than the score reflects.

And then there was the A's game . . . !!!  These kids have had a tough season so far.  Coming into this game they hadn't won one yet.  They hadn't even scored yet.  Yeah ...  but plucky as they are, they keep coming back, and they keep trying!  Twice in the first half of play they got good offensive movement going and managed to get the ball down the the 10 yard line.  They were doing it - they could move the ball against this opponent.  Twice they got stopped short of the goal.  And twice the home team scored.  It was 12-0 going into the half.

Sometime late in the 3rd, or maybe it was even into the 4th ... it happened.  Valley #34, the Spoonhower kid got loose and burst into the end zone!!!!  TOUCHDOWN!!  SCORE!!!!!  The Valley side would have been happy to leave right then and there - that alone was a victory!  But hey - there was still plenty of time left in this game - and now that these kids had had a taste of scoring guess what....?  They wanted more ... !  The kids were pumped up now and boy did they stiffen up on D for the ensuing change of possession.  They shut Candor down - 1,2,3 - you're out - give us that ball back!  A couple of plays go by, some yards gained, need to get the 1st down and keep this possession alive - we're only down by 6 ....   Valley's QB steps back and he floats the ball up (pee wee's just can't rifle it -  they just can't - not physically able to ... lol! ) and one could almost hear the collective inhale and dead silence on the Valley side of the field.  A WIDE OPEN Kalpokas kid (#3) is there and CATCHES it and takes off!!!  The Valley side of the field is going berserk.  The other side is stunned.  Kalpokas runs it in and we got us a TIE game with 5 or so minutes left in regulation.

We got us a game now ... :)

The kids were jacked after the first score when they had to play D.  They were ultra jacked now - they knew that they HAD to get the ball back and they HAD to score one more time to secure this win.  Candor has a big weapon that wears #20.  Valley's D swarmed him, and the Tigers entire line in general like angry bees and again - 1,2,3 - you're out!  "Give us that ball back!!"  With less than a minute or so left on the clock Valley's A team marched the ball down the field and one of the kids was able to rumble it over the line to grab the lead.  They put an exclamation mark on it by converting on the extra point via the #42 of the Tompkins kid to take a now 19-12 lead.  There were 8 seconds left on the game clock.  The Cardinals shut down the last Tigers possession and erupted in triumphant joy at having not only scored for the first time this season, but coming from behind to take a wild win!

I'll have pics from all three games up at the galleries in a day or two ..  stand by!

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!!! *****

NV Pee Wee Football vs Apalachin

Tough day in Cardinal-ville ... 

Well ....  the visiting Raiders did just that.  They raided the birdcage and went back home with 3 W's on the day.  Tough one for the home team crowd.  The little ones (C's - 7 & 8 yr olds) played their opponents pretty tough in the 1st half but kind of ran out of steam in the 2nd.  The B's ...  :(  they kinda-sorta ...  well - no good way to put it - they got killed.  The 11&12 yr old A's - God bless 'em. They are seriously under manned with only 13 or 14 players in total on the entire team so you know what that means - these kids are playing, almost non-stop, both offense AND defense.  The visiting Raiders by contrast are HUGE both in physical size, and in numbers - they must have had easily 30+ players on their side of the field.  They are also the #1 ranked team in the state at present for the age division.

Anyway -- congrats are in order to the visiting Apalachin Raiders.  I have to score some dinner for myself but figured I'd get this out real quick with a couple of grabs from each of the three games.  All of the keepers will be going up to the galleries over the next day or so.  Click on any of the images to view them larger.

Iron Kettle Farm, Candor NY

( from my facebook post )

Out and about earlier today we happened upon the Iron Kettle Farm which is a local landmark in this part of the state, especially with families (kids) for the annual Fall / Halloween decorative theme thing that they do every year.

Walking around I found myself inside of a barn that has TONS of old (like really old) tools and farming equipment. They have stuff hanging off of rafters, on the walls, on the tops of built in storage sheds. etc ...

The shot I included here I posted because I'm kinda happy with how it worked out. ( Switch to camera speak for a second ) I have no idea how I've managed to use a camera to this point in time without a rear screen that can be pulled out and tilted away from the body. The little Fuji has one and man is that thing useful. ( Back to the old farm equipment picture ... ) I'm not a naturally tall guy and this stuff was up on top of a roof. Using the tilt screen I "made myself taller" and framed it up as best as I could, and held as steady as I could as the ambient light in there was iffy.

(photo types) Handheld (as high as I could reach above my head) 1/25th at iso 1600, f/5.6. I'd though about stopping it down to 8 or more for better DOF / focus cheat but shutter speed would have really fallen off ... yeah I could have jacked the iso but ...

Anyway ... ! lol! I think it worked out pretty good considering. 

( Actually - all of the photo's taken in the barn were handheld and 1/30th or so was about the fastest shutter speed I was able to use for the given iso ...  )  I wouldn't mind going back there with a tripod and shooting it proper ...  it's pretty neat.

Click on the photo's to view them larger.

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

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

Yep ....  that woulda been cool.

-=- jd -=-