The Baseball Dictionary for Photographers

Baseball is a game of numbers. Wait … Umm, I already wrote a column like that .

OK.

Baseball is a game of slang, and to the average person, it can be quite confusing. I'm a huge fan of the National Past Time. I played it most of my life. I enjoy shooting it. I grow a beard from the All-Star Break to the playoffs. That's real.

So in honor of the opening MLB season, and because I have a furlough day, here's a lighthearted comparison between common baseball terminology and our business.

Grab some seeds and enjoy. God knows you need a laugh this week.


BASEBALL VS. PHOTOGRAPHY

GAPPER
Baseball - Any hit that finds a gap between the outfielders.
Photography - Days between work during mandatory furloughs.

FIVE-TOOL PLAYER
Baseball - A player who can hit for power and average, throw and field well and can run the bases.
Photography - Shooting still, video, editing, writing and design.

DOUBLE PLAY
Baseball - A play that results in obtaining two outs.
Photography - Unless it's the awesomest, something not to be included in a portfolio.

TRIPLE PLAY
Baseball - When a defense makes three outs on one play.
Photography - A shooter who walks away from an event with at least three quality images.

SCHILLING
Baseball - One of the most dominate postseason pitchers ever to take the mound. God bless you Curt Schilling.
Photography - What some end up working for when they work for free.

RIVALRY
Baseball - Any Red Sox vs. Yankees game, any time of year.
Photography - Any Nikon vs. Canon thread on the message boards.

BIG SHOW
Baseball - The Major Leagues.
Photography - Guys who think shooting professional sports means they made it.

SINGLE
Baseball - A base hit.
Photography - What happens when you put you're job first.



DUECE
Baseball - A curve ball, commonly referred to as the No. 2 pitch.
Photography - Having a second camera.

FRAME
Baseball - Term used as slang for an inning.
Photography - A photo.

FUNGO
Baseball - Thin bat designed for fielding practice.
Photography - What you don't want in your lens.

GOLDEN SOMBRERO
Baseball - A hitter who goes 0-for-4 with four strikeouts in a game.
Photography - Tan bucket hat worn during outside games.

HEATER
Baseball - Fastball.
Photography - Used to describe a "hot" frame.

PAYOFF PITCH
Baseball - Pitch thrown with a full count.
Photography - Conversation which lands a job.

SETTING THE TABLE
Baseball - Runners on base ahead of a power hitter.
Photography - Not easy to do when working for a newspaper.

SMALL BALL
Baseball - Teams who score runs off a combination of bunts, steals, infield hits, hit-and-runs and sacrifices.
Photography - Undercutting bids for work that result in little profit.

PICKLE
Baseball - A runner caught in a rundown.
Photography - How college students who are currently majoring in Photojournalism feel.

FREE AGENT
Baseball - Player whose contract has expired.
Photography - Many of us in the business.

CAUGHT LOOKING
Baseball - Hitter who watches a called third strike.
Photography - Missing a key moment because of chimping.

SWEET SPOT
Baseball - Best spot on the bat.
Photography - Center of the lens.

WHIFF
Baseball - A swing that does not connect with the ball.
Photography - Auto focus misses.

NICKNAME
Baseball - Big Papi.
Photography - Big Kahuna.

PAINTING THE CORNER
Baseball - Pitch that hits the corners of the plate.
Photography - Technique Dave Black has mastered.

BATTERY MATE
Baseball - Catcher.
Photography - Jackrabbit pack.

http://www.sportsshooter.com/news/2191

Ups and Downs

The last words you want to hear during a hot air balloon ride are "The flame went out."

I've never been in a hot air balloon before. To be honest, I never really wanted to. Coming from one of the balloon capitals of the world, Sedona, I've seen plenty of them flying through red-rock country. Riding in the oldest form of air transportation never interested me.

There was even a time back in 2001 when a balloon floated by my apartment window. I grabbed my camera and chased it down the street, into someone's backyard.

I remembered that story Wednesday, shortly after my hot air balloon took off.

My morning assignment was a balloon ride put on by the organizers of the Colorado River Crossing Balloon Festival to hype the upcoming extravaganza next weekend. I flew with Fred Bookwalter of Tranquil Sensations, a guy named Joe and the crew from KYMA-TV.



I didn't even know we left the ground at Kennedy Park, our meeting place. And I was late, so I had to sprint to the balloon.

We toured the southern part of Yuma at sunrise, and it was awesome. The way the golden light lit up MCAS while flying at 2,000 feet was incredible. You couldn't even tell you were in a balloon, floating across the landscape.

It was crazy.







We spent close to 45 minutes in the air, flying over sheep, pigeons at Circle K, fields and the airport. Got plenty of aerial shots of Yuma during that time.

The rest of the ballooners were ahead of our group and most of them were landing. Bookwalter decided it was time to do the same. We descended from our 3,000-foot range.





Then, those fateful words that nobody on a balloon ride wants to hear came. Not good words.

"The flame went out."




The flame produces the hot air that makes the balloon rise and fall, and keeps those in the wicker basket comfortable. When that goes out, the pilot has very little control. Luckily, very little is just enough.

With no flame, we in the wicker basket started to feel very uncomfortable, and our slow descent turned into a crash landing. Bookwalter's no rookie. He's flown for 13 years, so he knew how to handle the situation. This has happened before.

He tugged a few ropes and kept our crash impact very low. We smashed into a tree, the ground and a barbed-wire fence before coming to a stop. Then we went up again, then came down again.

It was kind of like a car accident, but continuous. Our basket was dragged across the landscape we once flew over. We were all beat into the ground, each other.

Bookwalter got the flame back and we went up one last time, to land. The landing on the third go-around was pretty nice. You could see why people do this kind of thing for fun.



I'm feeling pretty rough, but alive. I never felt my life was in danger, and that's kudos to Bookwalter.

The chase car showed up close to 15 minutes after the landing to pick us up, and the balloon.

It was crazy.

Sometimes, things go wrong. Sometimes they go right. Sometimes, you just hold on to the wicker basket and hope for the best.

It's been a while

OK, I haven't posted in a week or so. So here's a post - a few of my favorites over the past, say, six weeks. Just pictures.

Meaningful Moments

I wasn't happy today. In fact, I've been like that for a week.

Although I've had some good assignments I just haven't made any images, in my opinion, that are worthwhile and meaningful.

I spent the morning down on the Mexico side of the border port of entry. The residents of San Luis Rio Colorado and Sonora were protesting about the outrageous electric rates in the summer, something the new president vowed to take care of.

I got some good images, but not great.

Before that assignment I met up with Bruce Jackson, a retired businessman in the area. I wasn't happy with part of that shoot.

So around 3:30 p.m. I went home for lunch and decided, you know what, I'm going back down to the border. I called Bruce and got the photo I needed then hit the border to see if the human blockade was still in effect. It wasn't.

On my way into Friendship Park I saw some kids playing in the canal by the border fence. Kids? Well, more like teenagers.

When I left the park they were still down there, so I turned left and went on the dirt road. At first I had a changed my mind about going. I didn't want to get my car stuck in the sand and kids tend to not act natural when the camera is around.

I went anyway.

When I got to the canal I introduced myself and said I was from the paper, got names and was good to go. I realized at that moment this little feature-shot detour was going to be fun. It wasn't just any canal, but one with a waterfall-ramp-slip'n'slide area. The kids were going down it like they were at a water park.




The water was pretty shallow along this stretch of the canal and the current was only rough when the water transitioned from slope to straight. All in all it seemed pretty safe.





I got the pictures I wanted and coincidentally, found a spot nobody at the paper knew about, so it hasn't been in the paper like we do the river.

Everyone was having a good time, and for once these seven days, me too.

Then things changed.

Just about when I was ready to call it quits I caught something out the corner of my eye. One of the kids, a younger boy, went down the ramp but stopped. I immediately noticed a rope around his leg and realized this was the real deal. He could lose his foot, or worse, drown.

It took me a few seconds to figure out the best way to get this kid safe was to untie the rope from the top where it was tied, and not on his foot - the current was way to strong. So I dropped my camera - not far, just set it down, I wouldn't drop company equipment - and ran up the hill. The kids on the top had no idea that their friend, and one girls' brother, was stuck in the current.

I found the other end of the rope, tightly wound around a metal square on the side of the canal, slid down and unwound and untied the rope. It took close to a minute. The other guys up top helped pull the rope holding the child up to get enough slack to get it undone.

That wasn't the worst part.

Once released from the rope the boys friends carried him up to the top of the canal. The girls there were hysterical. The boy's ankle had severe rope burn - it cut deep into his leg all around. I won't go into detail by it was gruesome.

I grabbed a shirt and tossed it to the other side, telling the kids to wrap it around his ankle and to keep it from bleeding, and put it up.

I then grabbed my phone to dial 911. Apparently, when near the border with Sprint, it's International Roam. I got the emergency center for Mexico, who didn't speak English . I look around and spotted the Border Patrol agent who I talked with earlier that day. I waved him down while the two of the girls ran to the BP truck on the other side.

Both agents came to assist and had first-aid kids. One of them called an ambulance which arrived very quickly.

The boy made it, but I'm sure this ordeal is very traumatic. My heart goes out to him, his sister and parents. I hope to find out how's he's doing later this week.

It's amazing how fast you have to react. I've never been in a situation like this but I had just moments to make a decision, and in some ways I feel that if I wasn't there, who knows what could have happened.

Now for the hard part. I also realize that while I became part of the news today, it's also my responsibility to document it. No matter how uncomfortable it was I had to get the picture. Here's two frames with the boy and his sister.







I made sure the ambulance arrived and that the boy was OK first before I took off. From what I hear he's doing pretty good.




Our paper picked up the story when I got back to the office. I have photos on A1 all the time, but never "my" photo.

NPPA10.org and Sportsshooter.com also heard about it and posted the story on their web.


When I look back on this moment in time I can't help but ask two questions.



1. Was this fate? If I wasn't so dissatisfied with the work I put out lately I would have been at home at 5:19 p.m. Wednesday afternoon eating dinner, not at the canal.



2. Why did I catch the kids in the canal out the corner of my eye when there's things I don't see?


Funny how things work.

Funny how seconds can change a life.

Funny how as a photographer, being at the right place at the right time is key to our job.


I helped save a kid's life today - which is funny coming out of my mouth because I don't talk about myself much - and that's better than any photo I can take any day of the week, ever.

Goodbye, Hello

Today I spent the entire day with the Marine Corp in Yuma, starting and ending at the base.

My first assignment began at 6:30 a.m. and included an hour-and-a-half drive.

Taken from our 12 Passenger Van


We went out past Imperial Dam for a memorial service to honor three Marines and a Navy crewman who lost their lives in a helicopter crash. The chopper, part of Search and Rescue, was on a training mission. There was one survivor.




MCAS had a stone built a quarter mile from the crash site, which was unveiled today. The wives of the four men where there, with their kids. One of them had twin girls, who couldn't have been more than five months old. The crash happened Aug. 16 of 2007.







After the service, some of the crewman for SAR left their wings on the stone.



We then took the 1/4 mile hike (Sarg, are your sure that was a 1/4 mile?) to the canyon where the chopper crashed. Someone had built a cross with some of the area rocks and left a rose. An SAR helicopter circled the area while we were inside.





You could still smell the fuel and oil that once covered the rocks

When we left the canyon, just about everyone had left. A few Marines, two TV crews and us were left. The SAR helicopter landed and the crew went over to the memorial stone to honor their friends. No one else captured this moment.





James, our military beat reporter, got back to the paper, put the photos, story and video on the web.

After some Wienerschnitzel I headed back to the base for Marine Homecoming - a group coming back from a seven-month deployment.



Most of the men had women waiting for them ...



Some of those women were running late and had to wait ...



Others had children ...




Today, some said goodbye. Today, some said hello.

Grad night

Well, it was graduation time here in Yuma. Because of our deadline, we didn't get to stay for the hat tossing. Ryan and I were pretty bummed. Between the two of us, and Terry Ketron, our boss, we covered four grad nights on Friday. I was stationed down in San Luis, by the border.

Here's a smattering of images, without hat tosses.

Welcome to the blog

So here it is, the blog. Everyone has one. I wanted one, too.

Instead of writing a "welcome to my blog post", I thought I'd post an article I wrote for sportsshooter.com. It's kind of a "welcome" story.

Enjoy -




Semis passing semis


By Jared Dort, The Sun


Do you have any bodies in the trunk?

I’ve answered that question a few times during this month and still get a kick out of it. It’s far better than the standard “Are you a US citizen”?

Since April, I’ve driven through the Border Patrol checkpoint at mile-marker 78 on I-8 six times while leaving Yuma, AZ - the place where I now work. My wife and two daughters have been in Cottonwood while I get settled in and find a home. Cruise control is a great invention.

During that stretch I’ve seen my share of road kill, truck stops, road construction, hitchhikers and truck stops. I’ve seen more semis passing each other on hills than I care to remember. Maybe it bothers me so much because I’ve never liked to stop, and maybe, just maybe, that’s been my life this past year.

That’s how long it took me to find a job.

Unlike many of you, I didn’t go to college. I didn’t even start out as a photographer. My first job was a graphic designer for the Cottonwood paper, the Verde Independent, back in 2000. I’m pretty sure the paper was desperate for anyone who knew how to turn a computer on.

I’d always been into photography, but at the time, I didn’t know how to make it a career. The sports editor for the VI, Eric Lusk, helped get me there. He let me shoot some games for him in Sedona, the far-away school that didn’t get much coverage. Not long after I made, or forced, my way into the newsroom.

My Sedona-experienced paved a way for a SE gig, and in 2001 I started my first full-time editorial job with the Red Rock News. I had to learn how to write, but shooting sports everyday was hard to pass up.

When Eric learned he was dealing with a second bout of cancer, I left Sedona and took over his job on a temp-basis, which eventually became permanent. Eric beat the cancer and moved back to North Carolina.

I ran Eric’s job for a year, and in May of 2005, I wanted out. For starters, my heart wasn’t into it. I was a photographer trapped behind a desk. Two, I spent more time watching other people’s kids than my own. That caused me to seriously consider venturing into the freelance world. Again, I did mostly sports, mostly. This is significant because when I wanted to go back to the newspaper, my portfolio was pretty lopsided – all sports.

Freelancing was good, but I didn’t live in a good area for it. I was more than an hour outside of Phoenix, and two other decent-sized cities. I did weddings on the side, which I hated at first. Shot Little League and did portraits. I also built a house and did construction work.

Life wasn’t easy. It was hard not shooting everyday. I’ve developed a pure hatred for Top Ramen.

I missed the paper, the good and the bad, and with each passing month I wanted to get back. When 2007 rolled in, I was done. I started applying for jobs, armed with my sports-based portfolio.



Here’s where the fun starts.

My search began in June. I sent in for everything. I had a fancy resume with a logo I built, good cover letter and a nice binder. No offers.

Maybe it was my package? I made stickers, a nifty CD case, a PDF book on CD and an even nicer binder. Nothing.

Do I suck that bad?

I didn’t give up. I kept applying for everything, Alaska included. I had a website built and printed a book. I asked Brad Mangin and Darren Carroll to help tighten my portfolio (sorry about the countless hours of crap). Both had good advice. Brad told me to “get the hell out of Cottonwood” and Darren said, “stay away from Lubbock”.

I started getting calls.

“Mr. Dort, you’re sports are good, but where’s the news?” one paper replied. I have three news images, not enough?

“I see you were a sports editor, any interest in continuing that career?”

“I hope you’re not married.” Pretty sure that was in reference to the ridiculous hours.

A few more - you’re not what we’re looking for, we can’t hire you right now, you don’t have enough experience, I hope you are married (with a working spouse), we don’t pay that much and too bad you don’t live in the state of Texas.

I bombed in interviews and didn’t get the job. I killed interviews and didn’t get the job. When things finally started to turn for the better, the city I lived in had a freak rainstorm and my house was flooded. Needless to say, nobody wanted to by my house after that. I couldn’t move.

I wanted to give up, deliver pizzas, go back to sports editing (got a lot of offers for that). I had mixed-up confusion, I was too old to lose, too young to win. Stuck.

My wife, God bless her, encouraged me, said hang in there and that something will come around. She was right. In April of this year I got the one phone call that mattered – a newspaper that liked my sporty portfolio, figured I’d be just as good at news, and fit the things I needed for myself, and my family. We were so excited we went and accidentally added to our family – you know what I mean.

Having been through the interview process a lot, I knew what to say when The Sun in Yuma rang. I was honest, and was myself. I was asked what I thought of video. I said the savior of the newspaper should be parents teaching their kids how to read. That drew a pause, then laugh.

Turns out the guy who hired me is an avid sports photographer. Also turns out that 54 other shooters applied. I wonder how many of them were in a similar situation?

I’ve been in Yuma a little over a month now and I’ve been shooting more news than sports, go figure. I’m also having the time of my life in a position where I’m most comfortable, with a camera.

Ryan Brennecke - www.sportsshooter.com/brennecke - has been gracious enough to let me stay at his house since I got there and snuggle with his dogs. His girlfriend, Stacy, makes a mean spaghetti casserole. Yep, casserole. I plan to move my family down the beginning of June.

Yuma was the right place at the perfect time. Not only is it a four-hour drive to see my parents, it’s the same distance to my wife’s family in Barstow. Yep, Barstow.

It also provides me the opportunity to shoot news and hone in on my video skills. I have a newfound appreciation for it.

Yuma is also symbolic. I played my final baseball game there when I was 18 in an all-star tournament. My career ended because I didn’t work hard enough to get to the next level. I lived off talent.

I don’t do that anymore.

It’s only fitting that the job that takes me to the next level begins there.

Yes it is hot down here. I arrived just in time for the 118-degree summer. When I want to beat the heat I get in my car, crank some Beach Boys – not that Kokomo crap - and imagine sitting on the beach in Huntington. Believe it or not, it works for a few minutes.



If you were to ask me right now what’s the secret in landing a job, I’d tell you these three things –

1. Planning
2. Patience
3. Pursuit

The proof of desire is pursuit, and how you go after things determine what you receive. If you’re not willing to go the extra mile, work twice as hard, learn something new, try something new, start small, ask for help and do something you don’t like, you won’t make it.

Life is how you deal with the semi in front. Eventually, he’ll be in you’re rearview mirror.


WRITERS NOTE: I’d like to share with you a personal story that happened to me in 2003, something that not only changed my outlook on life, but kept me going.

I had just updated my SS page with high school baseball sometime in March. I wasn’t accustomed to receiving emails from viewers because quite frankly, I didn’t think I was very good. So you can imagine my surprise when I had a message.

It read –

Jared,

I was looking at your page and enjoyed your baseball images. Keep up the good work.

V.J.

PS – Next time you’re down for Spring Training, give me a call and we’ll do lunch.

It was an email from V.J. Lovero, and you can imagine what that meant to me. I didn’t make that year, but did email him later and said next year, for sure. Sadly, that didn’t happen either.

Take advantage of every moment.

(link to story on V.J. - ) (link to original article - www.sportsshooter.com/news/1990 )


(Jared Dort is a staff photographer at The Sun in Yuma, AZ. He’s won awards for writing and photography from the Arizona Newspaper Association. You can see his work on his Sportsshooter.com member page: www.sportsshooter.com/jared and visit his personal website and blog: www.jareddort.com .)


Photo by Jared Dort/Yuma Sun 2008