(Mouse over top of screen for speed control, bottom for thumbnails)
Created with Paul’s flickrSLiDR.
To see individual photos, larger, click here.
Same caveat as yesterday — It is difficult to shoot at night, especially with a digital SLR, but Maddy wanted to capture some of the nights festivities as best she could. Saturday games begin at 3pm and should offer bettter shooting for fastpitch action. The second shot of Rhys Casley is the moment of impact on his second home run of the evening.
(Mouse over top of screen for speed control, bottom for thumbnails)
Created with Paul’s flickrSLiDR.
Above are a few pics taken by Maddy on Opening Night at the Texaco Pirates First Ever Bahamas Invitational Tournament. It is difficult to shoot at night, especially with a digital SLR, but Maddy wanted to capture some of the nights festivities as best she could. Saturday games begin at 3pm and should offer bettter shooting for fastpitch action.
The first shot in the slide show is the moment when the Pirates Grant Albury hit the game winning home run. Yes, that’s Rhys Casley and Barry Kahler in Pirate uniforms and Rob Schweyer pitching for Miami. The Texaco Pirate holding the microphone is manager Hazie McDonald, at opening ceremonies; the kids are singing the Bahamian National Anthem. The silhouette shot is a favorite of mine – – it is a number of men who live on Man-O-War who used to play on the field when it was first built back in the 1960’s. They came out to see the “next generation” of fastpitch players on the island – a number who had sons on the Bahamas team.
Click here to view the photos larger.
(If you get a “no photos” message, just click refresh to reload them)
Created with Paul’s flickrSLiDR.
Click here to see the photo gallery.
Drop us a line to maddy (at) maddysphotos.com and let us know if you like this slideshow better than the earlier one. (I do, as the photos are larger and you can control the speed of the slides). Note that you can control the speed of the slideshow using the little slider at the top. (mouseover the top of the screen to see the controls). You can also mouse-over the bottom of the screen to see minature thumbnails, then click to see any photo.
Want to see this slide show even larger? Click here.
(Mouse over top of screen for speed control, bottom for thumbnails)
Created with Paul’s flickrSLiDR.
We are pleased to share a new slide show, of photos taken by our ace photographer, Maddy Flanagan on Saturday, May 19, 2007 of the SCIFL (So Cal Independent Fastpitch League) weekend tournament in Santa Fe Springs, CA. This one is posted here via the online photo service, Flickr, with the addition of some fancy coding by Paul Stamatiou that allows us to post directly to the Morning Brief blog. Drop us a line and let us know what you think: maddy (at) maddysphotos.com Note that you can control the speed of the slideshow using the little slider at the top. (mouseover the top of the screen to see the controls). You can also mouse-over the bottom of the screen to see minature thumbnails, then click to see any photo.
(If you get a “no photos” message, just click refresh to reload them)
Click here to see larger photos.
Maddy has been experimenting with some new software and has come up with something we hope you enjoy – a “flash” slideshow of her Red Rock Tournament photos, all 203 that were selected for web display.
You’ll note that there are several ways you can view them. Click the word View” in the upper left of the screen to choose whether you want to view the slideshow or as a regular photo gallery. Personally, I like to sit back and watch the slideshow. You can see what each button is for by “mousing over” them. The one in the middle is to play the slide show, the little ones to either side are to go forwards or backwards. Another nice feature is that you can see the number of the photo right next to it, in case you want to tell a friend to look at a particular photo.
You can make the photo larger by clicking the little “TV screen” icon on the lower left to get rid of the thumbnails.
There is also a “slider” at the bottom to fast forward or rewind (and you can resume the slideshow after the jump)
The only thing I don’t like is that the photos seem a bit small, at least by comparison to the galleries we usually do. Not to worry, we’ll post those soon, so you’ll be able to see the full size photos. I should mention that this new slideshow takes up as tremendous amount of hard drive space on the server, so I won’t be able to leave it up too long. So if you want to watch it, watch it this week.
I’ll be interested in feedback from all of you about the slideshow and new software, so if you have time, drop us a line. Send comments to jim (at) fastpitchwest (dot) com. (Let me know how long it takes to load on your computer, and what type of connection you have, e.g. dial-up, cable, T1, etc.)
And if you have a comment about the photos in general, drop Maddy a line, maddy (at) maddysphotos (dot) com, so she knows her hard work is worth the effort and expense.
Click here to view the slideshow
(If the slideshow freezes, just click the little “forward” button to nudge it along, as the software is tempermental at times.)
Some great old footage in a YouTube video. Click that little arrow on the “screen” above to view the video. Recognize any of those faces? 😉 Didn’t get a chance to see Darren Zack pitch a few years back? Say “Hello Mr. Riseball”. “Good morning, good afternoon and Good Night!” Anyone know what year those games were played? Email us at jim (at) fastpitchwest.com
Cap tip to Cary Weiler for the link!
Sonny Perkins tells us the video was from the “Fastpitch” DVD, filmed in 1995, except that news footage from New York.
More: We heard from the producer of this footage, Jeremy Spear, producer of the feature length film, “Fastpitch”. He tells us this YouTube video is a promotional video he did for the ISC in 2002, along with Steve Schucker and Michael Groves, to help promote the Men’s game. (The original is in color) Most of the footage came from his film, “Fastpitch”.
Well, if you were going through withdrawals after those 10 galleries of AAU pics like me, Maddy’s has added three “triptychs” for your viewing enjoyment. What’s a triptych, you say?
A triptych (pronounced “trip-tick,” from the Greek tri- “three” + ptychÄ“ “fold”) is a work of art (usually a panel painting) which is divided into three sections, or three carved panels which are hinged together. The central panel is the most important one, and this is flanked on either side by two lesser but related paintings. The whole is intended to be greater than the sum of the parts.
In modern parlance, “triptych” is used for three or more pictures or photos, including a fast-action-sequence like the ones shown at the link below. Unlike the triptychs from ancient Greece, the “middle” one is not always the most important, but like the originals, the sum of the whole provides a greater viewing experience than any one shot. In Maddy’s own words:
My husband Jim always says that it is a shame that most people cannot see the photo sequences that I capture of a particular play. I usually choose one photo instead of publishing all three, four or however many there are in a sequence. So I have set up this section of “triptychs” (sequence shots) for your viewing pleasure to let you see a bit more.. Click on the “Triptychs” to see the full sequence of photos of the play at second above. Enjoy!
Click here for Triptych 1
Click here for Triptych 2
Click here for Triptych 3
Triptych 3 is my personal favorite. It’s Mac’s Marauders pitcher Rob Schweyer putting the tag on the NY Gremlin’s Rhys Casley at the plate in the AAU championship game. Right on top of the action is plate umpire Jay Hart of Dunnville, Ontario.
Editor’s note: For best viewing, scroll until the pics are centered, with the thumbnails right at the top of your screen. Then click each thumbnail once, and let them load to large pic. This loads them into your computer’s “cache” and will provide much better/faster viewing thereafter. Click the little thumbnails real fast from left to right, and you’ll see the play unfold right before your eyes. I can almost hear Maddy’s shutter firing away…..
And if you really want to see the sequence in “fast” mode, save the photos to your hard drive, then load and play as a slide show in whatever program you use for that purpose. Set the delay to just a second or two, and you’ll see the play unfold the way Maddy did. Add a 24″ monitor, some music, and cold beverage of your choice, and you’ll wish those winter snows would soon melt so you can Play Ball !
That’s a wrap !
Gallery 10 of 10 is up for your viewing enjoyment. It’s a bit smaller than the others, but rumor has it that there might be some “bonus” additions to it soon, along with a couple triptychs (action-sequence shots).
Click the camera to view all ten galleries of photos from the 2007 AAU International Tournament, held January 18-21, 2007 at Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Florida.
After clicking the camera icon above, click the menu button on left for Gallery 10, or to jump directly to Gallery 10, click here.
Gallery 10 has a nice shot of the beautiful championship trophy. If you look through the pics from past AAU tournaments, you’ll notice that tournament director Alex Linares out-does himself every year. This one is my personal favorite. It will find a place of honor at the home at Mac’s sponsor, and organizer, Tom McAvoy.
Speaking of champions, there’s a shot of Mac’s Marauders, though you’ve seen that one before, as it graces the main photo gallery page that you’ve been looking at for the past ten (10) days.
Also one of the runner-up New York Gremlins, who had an outstanding tournament, piling up the most runs, if I’m not mistaken, and coming within three outs of taking home the gold.
You’ll find the MVP’s, Colin McKenzie as Most Valuable Pitcher, who picked up the win in the championship game, and Frank Perez, the Most Valuable Player for his efforts, including that dramatic, extra inning walk-off home run in the championship game.. (If there were an honorable mention, that would have to be their teammate Eduardo Leonardo, who hit the game tying home run to lead off the bottom of the 7th inning of the title game, then singled in the 9th inning to set the stage for Perez’s heroics.).
You’ll also find pics of ISC II broadcaster Joe Todd, who went down from Ontario, Canada to watch the tournament and wound up helping with the broadcasts, as well as yours truly and Kyle Smith. Kyle is the newest member of the Ballparkradio crew, having been signed as a “free agent” by ISC II Commish Blair Setford, to help with the ISC II Tournament of Champions broadcast program last summer. Kyl, a graduate of the broadcasting school at Mohawk College in Ontario, Canada, made his first visit to the AAU tournament, providing plenty of levity on and off-the-air. We’re working on arrangements to have Kyle on hand to broadcast at the Red Rock Tournament in May. He is a natural behind the mike, and judging from the bag of email received, a favorite with the listeners. Not shown in the photos, is Bill Hillhouse who did a outstanding job as color man on the semi-final game on Sunday. Bill brings a wealth of knowledge of the game and the players (plus some juicy rumors) to the broadcasts and we hope to have him with the crew again before the season is over. The addition of Joe, Kyle and Bill to Ballparkradio’s AAU broadcast team enabled us to broadcast twice as many games as in prior years (a total of 8 games this year). We greatly appreciate their work.
And last, but anything but least, also not shown in these photo galleries, but appreciated by players and fans alike is the photographer that brought you over 300 photographs of the 2007 AAU Tournament, Maddy Flanagan. I am biased, of course, but I think this year’s batch of photos are her best work to date. Though “only” 300 appear here in the online galleries, she took just under 5000 photos during the three day tournament. I’m not sure where she finds the energy sometimes, but she is on the field from the first pitch to the last out, to capture all of the action, the players, the coaches, the staff, and the fans.
In her own words:
“I hope with my photos that you can see the game the way I see it. The way I have learned to love it.”
I only wish that all of you could have seen the 5000-photo slide show that I got to see on the world’s largest monitor (Maddy’s) . The triptych’s that you’ll see shortly convey some of the action-sequences, but watching them flash quickly on the monitor, is almost like seeing a movie of the action. Players sliding in, the dust flying up, the tag being applied, the umpire’s emphatic call, followed by the players’ reactions. Spectacular.
It looks like Softball Magazine will once again be carrying our feature story on the AAU tournament, along with some of Maddy’s photos, so watch for that when the magazine hits the newstands sometime early next month. This will mark the fourth year they are including full color coverage of the AAU International tournament.
We wanted to say thanks to all who sent emails to Maddy about the photos, including those providing picture ID’s. We’ll be adding those now, so at some point, you’ll be able to “mouse over” and see the name(s) of the people in the photos. Please keep those emails coming, by the way. This is the first time that we posted the photos one gallery at a time, rather than all at once. I’ll be curious to hear if our readers liked that approach.
Well, since you’re all used to finding new photos here every night……no point in stopping now. Keep an eye out for those “bonus” shots, but also a couple of new galleries that Maddy has waiting in the wings, of the USA Jr. Men’s training camp, held in Chula Vista, California the weekend after the AAU concluded. Some great shots of the future of the game. “Stay tuned”.
p.s. In case you were wondering which photo is getting the most email, it’s got to be this one. And with all due respect to the St. Thomas Storm team, I don’t think it’s you, guys. 😉
Well, this makes nine (9) galleries, with one more to go. Home stretch !
Click the camera to view first nine galleries of photos from the 2007 AAU International Tournament, held January 18-21, 2007. Maddy has prepped about 300 photos, so we’ve been posting a gallery every day over the last or so. If you don’t see the team you’re looking for, check back soon, as we have one more gallery to go.
After clicking the camera icon above, click the menu button on left for Gallery 9, or to jump directly to Gallery 9, click here.
This gallery includes some dramatic shots taken at the end of the championship game, including the “Dominican Duo”, Eduardo Perez launching a game tying home run in the 7th inning, and teammate Frank Perez celebrating the game/tournament winning home run that earned him tournament MVP honors.
Following those pics are some odds and ends, and the start of the award winners:
Third Place Team Photos, for the two teams tying for Bronze:
Hallman Twins, Kitchener, ON Canada and the Texaco Pirates, of the Bahamas
Here’s Haziel McDonald accepting the third place hardware from tournament director Alex Linares on behalf of his Texaco Pirates, while Doug Eidt does the honors for the Hallman Twins.
Mac’s Billy Smith, with the kid that grew up down the street, Frank DeGroat, Jr.. (You were taller then, Billy 😉 )
And finally, three of the men behind the success of the AAU International tournament, (L to R), Alex Linares of the AAU, Ken Hackmeister, and Dick Mason of the ISC.
Tomorrow’s final gallery will feature the rest of the award winners, and a few odds and ends, bringing our Maddy’s Photos of the 2007 AAU to more than 300.
Click the camera to view first eight galleries of photos from the 2007 AAU International Tournament, held January 18-21, 2007. Maddy has prepped about 300 photos, so we’ll be posting a gallery every day over the next week or so. If you don’t see the team you’re looking for, check back often, to see the additional galleries.
After clicking the camera icon above, click the menu button on left for Gallery 8, or to jump directly to Gallery 8, click here.
