Hitting the baseball road, as I call it, 15 years ago, there was no master plan of what I was trying to accomplish. Rumors of my eminent demise were floating around and I thought it was better to be on the road somewhere than meet Kilgore Trout's maker in a small unheated room. "Pick a theme and work it to exhaustion...the subject must be something you truly love or truly hate." Dorothea Lange said and I have. Every Winter I brood and tell myself I am done shooting and Spring erupts and I am at it again.
From dancing around the country (Curly Shuffle, of course) I have narrowed my approach to things. At the parks, I spend as much time with people as I can. Fans, workers, former radio announcers...it is a great place to be. In Greenville, SC this past summer, I noticed a woman darting around the sidelines. It struck me that she was a pro and we ignored each other. It turned out that Yu-Heng was learning as she went along. She had chosen to go to different ballparks and photograph players of Asian heritage, specifically those from her home of Taiwan. Chih-Hsien Chiang, a big second baseman for the Greenville Drive was a subject for her. In three games, I taught her everything I could about b'ball photography, all of those little tricks that one picks up. She is even using one of my cameras in this photo. I know a guy that uses the umpire's pants to take a neutral exposure reading. Using the tan colored dirt of the infield works for me and probably less likely to have people question what I am focusing on.
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