The 3 Absolutes of Coaching Youth Baseball

I know this is a little off topic...but please bear with me. If you have a child that is involved in youth sports, then you know there is more than ample opportunity for taking photos of those special times!

 

The 3 Absolutes of Coaching Youth Baseball

 

Baseball is one of the most demanding sports to coach. The purpose and function of youth baseball is to provide a quality sports team experience that builds baseball skills, teaches team-first attitudes, builds a respect for authority and regulations, and develops an appreciation for the value and consequences of hard work.

 

 

To be a successful baseball coach, you must have an understanding how the game is taught, played and practiced. There are three absolutes that every youth baseball coach should remember when they plan, organize, and prepare their "game plan" for the coming season! This article outlines those three absolutes.

 

The three absolutes of baseball are:

• Youth baseball is a game for youngsters, not adults.
• Baseball must be taught and practiced for success to be achieved.
• Discipline must be a part of every team's preparation and execution.

Now I will briefly explain what I mean by each of these absolutes.

 

Youth baseball is a game for youngsters, not adults.

 

When I say "Youth Baseball is for Youths" what I mean is that we have youth baseball for the youngsters that are playing it, not for the coaches that are coaching.You will find that kids can accept responsibility, become accountable, work hard, and learn from their team successes and failures, but at the same time they have to see purpose, see progress, and enjoy their participation. They must have fun.

 

For kids to love and appreciate the game they must be motivated, challenged, and enjoy the majority of their team time whether it be a practice, a workout, or a game. There is no law that says coaches should not laugh, smile, joke and have "Light" moments with the team. I consider myself a pretty good baseball coach.

 

My team discipline is strict. But, my players know exactly when they can goof off, joke around, crack on each other, or generally be "loose" as a team. They also know exactly when they have to be focused, attentive, and acting "by the book". The point I am trying to make here is that coaches have to understand that players need to learn to relax and as much as they need to learn to work and focus. It is a coach's job to teach them to enjoy themselves without guilt so long as their enjoyment comes from wholesome and proper behavior that is acceptable.

 

Baseball must be taught and practiced for success to be achieved.

 

Baseball is a sport that required a high level of commitment and dedication. It is important that players develop good work habits as early in their careers as possible.It is impossible to fake work or fake good practice when it comes to baseball. Those coaches, teams and programs that work extremely smart, work exceptionally hard, and that always work with a higher level of purpose and commitment are the baseball programs at the top of the "food chain". So, if you plan to coach, get prepared to practice. In fact, if you need to make sure that you have

 

Discipline must be a part of every team's preparation and execution.

 

I am a firm believer that teaching team and self-discipline are two of the most important roles of every coach in all sports. To be successful a player must learn to discipline himself to stay out of trouble. To be build a championship atmosphere and environment, a coach must establish control of his players and staff. With discipline also comes respect. Without discipline, there can never be respect. Without respect your team will never achieve to its highest attention.

 

Players not only expect and appreciate a coach's discipline, but they also have a strong desire for it. Kids want to be controlled, instructed, and taught. It makes them feel like they are respected, appreciated, and a part of something worth spending their effort and time in. When a coach displays no backbone, no will to control, and no will to handle adversity with a firm and strong demeanor, the players will not put their full and complete trust in him. Coaches should set team rules. The coach should display a willingness to plan, prepare, organize and execute both practice and game plans. This shows a high level of self-discipline on the coach's part. Teams emulate a coach's attitude, actions, and habits.

 

 

Instilling and maintaining a firm discipline builds a strong foundation upon which to build a championship season. Good Luck to you and your team in the coming season!

 

 

DON'T FORGET TO TAKE PLENTY OF PHOTOS!!!!!

 

 

Big D Photo

 

How To Take Great Springtime Photos

With the cold weather slowly fading away and winter melts into spring, nature begins to bloom once again and photographers rush out to capture it. Find out how to take advantage of the natural light and colors that appear in spring, and how to take unique and interesting photos during this season.

Flowers are one of the most popular photography subjects in the spring. They provide photographers with beautiful colors and shapes to capture and the photos can make wonderful artwork in your home. Make sure you keep your flower photography interesting with these simple tips and tricks:

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Utilize natural light and don't use a flash. Typically, flowers are photographed in full sunlight. Try taking pictures at dawn or at dusk to get a new perspective on your flowers.

Master your depth of field. To create a shallow depth of field, use a large aperture on your camera.

Shoot your subjects close-up. Combined with a large aperture, this will blur out your background, leaving only your flowers in focus.

Look for flowers that haven't bloomed yet. Make your photos stand out by capturing the steps leading up to a fully-bloomed flower. Find seedlings just popping out of the ground or closed buds. These objects can be just as beautiful as a colorful bloom. Plus, these photos are more representative of what spring is all about: new life and growth.

Rain and Reflections

 

With the wet weather that accompanies the spring, photographers have plenty of opportunities to capture photos of falling rain and dewy flowers. If you do plan to shoot in the rain, make sure you have a hood for your camera to protect it from getting wet. Keep plastic bags and towels handy for keeping things dry, including your hands for when you are touching the camera. When you go to shoot, leave your shutter open for a little longer to capture the rain falling; this will result in long streak so of rain fall that look like strands of silver falling from the sky. Take pictures of the rain hitting a river, stream or lake for a uniquely textured effect.

Another opportunity for photographers takes place right after a rainfall. Take pictures of the rain-soaked environment afterwards for a springtime look. Make sure you capture the unique, pale light that follows the rain in a landscape photo. You can also go for close-ups after the rain. Puddles and other bodies of water provide excellent opportunities to capture reflections. Challenge yourself to create a ripple-effect photo by blowing on or touching the water in the puddle right before you take the picture.

 

 

Springtime Portraits

When it comes to photographing people in the spring, get outside in the cool weather for a few portrait shots. This weather often makes for nice portraits because the light is a crisp, blueish hue during the spring. Because the light is a cooler color, considering having your portrait subjects dress in similar colors to match - pastels are good for children, while whites, blues, greens and purples are better for adults.

 

The best time to take photos of people in the spring is once some of your natural surroundings have started to bloom again. You don't need to wait until the leaves are fully-grown on the trees - in fact, trees look beautiful in their temporary state when they are dotted in tiny green buds. If you wait until things begin to bloom, it will add a pop of color to your photo and it will demonstrate to other people who may see the photo that it was taken in the spring.

 

Now get out there and take some photos!

 

Big D Photo

Wildlife Photography Tips

With Springtime approaching soon, I thought I would pass on a few photography tips for anyone interested in wildlife images.


1) Be Patient
Sometimes nature is on its own time table and you can not speed it up or or slow it down.

2) Nature Rules
Nature always wins. There will always be photo opportunities for you each day. You will never get them all because you weren't ready or you came by 2 minutes too late. In fact, you may still be talking about an opportunity that you didn't capture that occurred 5 years ago. Look forward to the next opportunity.

3) Be There At The Right Moment And Be Prepared
If you have a camera in hand, always be prepared and ready. Plenty of opportunities are missed because of not being prepared.

4) Be Patient

Dragon Fly - Big D Photo

Need I say more? No patience... no good photographs.    

5) Understand The Language Of Wild
Study the language of the birds and animals to help you identify photo opportunities.

6) Learn To See Small Movements
Learn to see small movements to help you identify photo opportunities.

7) You Don't Have To Be Close To Large Wildlife
It's very simple. Large animals are big and they can be photographed from a farther distance away.

8) Photograph Wildlife In Normal Behavior
A photograph of an animal in normal behavior is more interesting since many people have never seen wildlife in normal behavior.

 9) Try To Photograph An Unobstructed Eye
When we view a photograph of wildlife, our eyes always look straight to the eye of the animal similar to the same way we establish eye contact with another person.

10) Learn The Safety Distance From Small Wildlife
By learning the safety distance to a small animal, you will frighten less animals away.


Fallow Deer - Big D Photo


11) Small Wildlife Appear Even Smaller
Try to photograph small animals from a low camera position to accentuate their size.

12) Learn To Photograph Wildlife On The Move
Practice photographing wildlife that is moving in your backyard or at the park.

13) Wildlife Will Continue To Remain In Baseline If Not Perceived Threatened  
All wildlife that doesn't feel threatened will continue to go about their normal wildlife ways. Learn how to stop and remain still until the wildlife considers you safe.

Big D Photo

Top 5 Black & White Photography Tips

Black & white photography, for me, is one of the most interesting and inspiring aspects of this art form we call our hobby and passion. It’s raw & refined, natural & unusual, bold & subtle, mysterious & open, emotional & impassive, simple & complex, black & white & everything in between. The monochromatic image has been with photography since the beginning, but what began as the only way to capture images has turned into something much deeper.




Photo by Billy York - BigDPhoto.com



PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE

An experienced black & white photographer can see the world without color. They’ve trained their mind to pick up contrast and tone while blocking the distraction of colors. This isn’t a skill that you can pick up in a short amount of time; it’s something that comes naturally in time. I can’t say that I’m gifted enough to have monochrome vision, but I have been able to notice certain scenes and subjects that would lend themselves to black & white.
One way to help train your brain is to make a conscious effort — in other words, practice. Trevor carpenter gave us the perfect example when he started his October Challenge. Basically, he decided to limit his photography to black & white for an entire month. This gave him a chance to experiment with the medium and learn from his own work, and in his project recap he states “I have found, especially in recent days, that as I’m shooting and conceiving a shot, I see the potential impact of the composition in black & white.”

FOCUS ON CONTRAST

Black & white photography is about the black, the white, and all the tones in between. The human eye is built to pick up two things: light intensity and color. When you remove the color, your eyes become more sensitive to the light intensity. We naturally pick out areas of contrast — it’s how we distinguish one thing from another. As a black & white photographer, your main objective is to make your point with shades of gray. Use contrast to show your onlookers what’s important and what’s not. Seek out scenes that naturally show signs of high contrast, and your black & white photos will be more compelling right from the start.
When post-processing a black & white image, the use of Photoshop techniques like levels, curves, and layer blends give you a wide variety of output options. In addition to these things, burning and dodging are highly effective methods of improving contrast. They work so well because they allow you to focus the edit on a localized portion of the image without affecting the surrounding areas.

FOCUS ON TEXTURE

Texture is really just a form of contrast, but it is perceived quite differently. If you think about it, texture is the regular or irregular pattern of shadows and highlights at various intensities. Black & white photos really lend themselves to texture because color generally add another layer of complexity, thus masking most subtle textures. Look for areas of interesting texture that can be photographed by zeroing in on specific surfaces and examining them for signs of patterned contrast.
The choices you make in post-processing can really make a difference in the texture too. During the black & white conversion, you can usually pull texture out of otherwise smooth surfaces based on your choice of conversion methods. In digital photos, blues and reds generally contain more noise than greens, so tools like the channel mixer and the black & white adjustment layer in Photoshop can really accentuate those embedded textures.

CAPTURE IN COLOR

This is mainly aimed at digital photographers… If your camera gives you the option of shooting in color or black & white, NEVER shoot in black & white. The camera is really capturing color, then converting to black & white. Photo editing software can do a much better job at the conversion, and you’ll have more flexibility on the output of the final image. It’s really amazing how different a photo can look solely based on the post-processing, so it’s best not to limit yourself before the photo even makes it out of the camera.
The one exception to this rule is if you wanted to use the black & white capture to give you a preview of what the scene might look like as a monochrome image. It may help you identify good black & white scenes more immediately, but once you find your shot switch back over to color capture and shoot it again.

USE COLOR FILTERS

Black & white film photographers make use of color filters to change the captured tones in their photographs. Ever see those monochrome images with dark skies and puffy white clouds? That’s not natural; it requires the use of color filtering to produce the desired effect.
Using an actual color filter with a digital camera is perfectly acceptable and it has its merits, but it’s not completely necessary. Software like Photoshop has the ability to apply non-destructive color filters. It also has the ability to produce the same results as a color filter during the black & white conversion. For those of you using Photoshop CS3 or CS5, you’ll see that the black & white adjustment dialog has several preset filters that can be applied and modified to suit the photo.

So if you’re interested in pursuing a little black & white photography, really think about these things — before, during, and after you shoot. Anybody can produce black & white photos, but it takes a little more thought and skill to produce good black & whites.

Big D Photo

source: EpicEdits