Junior Fan Makes Some Noise

Last night, we went to see the Cincinnati Reds play (and get beat by) the Milwaukee Brewers. It was my father-in-law’s birthday, and he wanted to watch a Reds game in really good seats at Great American Ball Park.

My father-in-law’s the type of guy who knows everything about baseball. He answered all the trivia questions on the big scoreboard screen before I could even finish reading them. He’s met and got autographs from baseball legends like Hank Aaron, Mickey Mantle and Pete Rose. He used to play baseball as a kid and says he was really good. So good, in fact, that if his dad had let him, he thinks he would have had a good chance at the Majors as a pitcher.

I don’t consider myself a huge sports fan, but I do like baseball. I understand baseball - the rules, the plays, and I love the energy. The other sports I understand are basketball and bowling. Roman tries to teach me the rules of football as we watch either the Cincinnati Bengals or Ohio State play, but I still think it’s just a bunch of men running around for the sole purpose to knock other guys down. Makes no sense to me.

Back to the baseball game. Our seats were great. During the 6th inning, my father-in-law (who’s also a photo nut) and I took our cameras down close to the seats near the dugout (about 25 rows down from our seats) to get some shots of Ken Griffey Junior on deck. Luckily, there were some seats open so we didn’t look like squatters. I only had my Nikon P1 point-and-shoot with me. Had I known we’d have the opportunity to get that close, I would have brought my Canon! It seemed like Junior even posed for me when he saw the beautiful woman with the camera. ;-)


I managed to get some good shots, but I’m a little disappointed in the amount of noise in the shots. There seemed to be a lot. When I use the P1 in very well-lit situations, I get great effects, like I did in the Orchid house at the Krohn Conservatory. I even enlarged that one to 16" x 20" and it looked fantastic. No noise at all.




All in all, it was a great night of baseball. Even if the Reds did lose. I got to see some great players do their thing. Here’s a shot of one of the best pitchers in the league, Aaron Harang. if you look closely, you can see the ball just leaving his hand.