I know, the sidebar link isn't working yet.  It'll work by tomorrow morning.

The thumbnail in the sidebar will change every time Photo of the Day changes.  Technology!

Totally.  Awesome.

He's all glutes!

You know you're on the far side of 30 when All-Star athletes listen to music that make your ears bleed.

This after a decade listening to 80s metal and early 90s gangsta rap.  Sigh.

Hah, I know what you mean.

When I dyed my hair blue for Opening Day a few years ago (and I did it up flying backwards out of my head, evil Tetsuo style), I knew it was time to go back to my regular colour and style when a kid in a Slipknot shirt came up to me and started asking all kinds of questions about how I did it.  He thought it was really "sick".

That said, the song works when it's really loud over a cheering crowd as closer music.

Awesome pic. 

One question, why does it say Photo of the Week on the side bar on the right? And Photo of the Day on the left?

Also, are we able to look back on previous POTD's? (when there's more than 1...)

The new Photo of the Day icon hasn't been added yet.  Soon-ish.

Monday's photo will have a link back to today's, Tuesday's back to Monday, and so on.  Or if you click the "Photo of the Week" topic on the left side in the Topics list, you'll see all the articles that have been flagged as Photo of the Day/Week.

NFH,

Great picture.  I am sure you've covered this before in a previous thread but I am wondering how you go about taking such great pictures.  I understand you use a Pentax, but what settings do you use on your camera for the lighting conditions at the Rogers Centre?  I am an avid photographer and I have attempted to take pictures many times at the ball game, but they never seem to turn out very well.  Especially when I'm trying to take an "action" shot.  What film speed do you use, what shutter speed and what aperture are you using?

Having asked all of this, I realize that you might be using a digital camera.  But do you have any advice to those of us using the SLR type?  I am using a Minolta with a 300mm lens and a rather powerful flash.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Can't wait to watch Halladay pitch today...

Hi seags83!

I'm just headed out to the Rogers Centre now, but I'll come back and reply to you in detail.  This year's Photo of the Day will be all digital, but last year was half and half, and the year before was all film.  The technique is the same, anyways.

If I don't reply today, I'll get to it tomorrow.  But I will answer!

When the dome is closed, the light is actually very good inside of Rogers Centre.  Very good for a stadium, anyways.

First thing I would recommend is that you leave your flash at home.  Without some serious oomph (and I mean serious), you won't have enough to light up the field.  And if you do have enough oomph, you'll probably get kicked out.

Exposure is 1/500 sec at f2.8 at ISO 800 when the lights are on.  I find it's a tiny bit darker around the plate, so I give it an extra third of a stop.  That may actually just be me being nuts and reacting to the dugout darkness in the background of the shots.

Now, unless you've spent big crazy dollars on your lenses, you probably won't have any long f2.8s.  You could probably get away with 1/250 f4 if you had long-ish f4 lenses.  In either scenario you'd want a monopod.  1/250 will be too slow for stopping the motion of the pitcher or freezing the bat.  1/500 is actually a little slow for that.  But there's not much else you can do but switch to a higher speed film or buy faster lenses.

If your fastest lens is slower than f4, I recommend not trying to shoot at night or with the dome closed -- wait for a day game, which is far brighter.  Use a monopod, an 800 ISO film (the 1600s are all significantly poorer films than the current 800s, by a lot), and shoot with your aperture wide enough to get your shutter speed up over 1/500 or so.

Did that help?  Can I clairify anything?

Tomorrow's picture goes up at midnight.  It's Troy Glaus.