Lacrosse Photos with new Nikon

Last night I looked at some of the photos I've taken over the last few lacrosse games - some weren't too bad. I learned that day games - with lots of light - are much easier to shoot. It allows me to open the F-stop to maximum, to get a nice tight depth of field focus on a player... yet still have enough light to allow for a fast shutter speed to slow down the action to 'capture' the moment.

Here are a few that I think are fairly good shots.

Elliot has open goal

Chris west defending

Brent tips a pass

Check out the ball in front of the Goalie

Jake's shot low - Goalie missed it for a score!

Josh's shot is in the back of the net!

BYU -vs- Simon Frasier Game

Today was the BYU -vs- Simon Frasier lacrosse game at the RB Practice Turf field. It was a bit cold, but the sun came out and we had a great time watching Lacrosse.Brent got a great 'ground ball' and was going toward the other goal and was tripped... The Simon Frasier team came down from Vancouver BC - and played a very slow boring offense. Our boys didn't play great... but we handily won the game. A lot of 3rd & 4th string players also got a chance for playing time.
Brent got lots of playing time and it was refreshing to have 'normal' (read fair) referees. No... they don't always support the 'Y' - but... they called both sides - thus the 'normal' word up above.Patty, Duane, Sarah and Bryce came to the game as well and afterwards we had a late lunch at Brick Oven.
Duane needed some things transferred from his old laptop to his new one... but the old laptop *only* had a floppy and the new one only USB... thus I had to scrounge around at the office and find a laptop that could do the transfers - but we got him on his way with the new laptop and old data all together.

Tomorrow I'm off to Orlando for a week of teaching AirMagnet - Alysha is down their right now with the Timpanogos Cheer squad at nationals.

Ahoy - I sail...

I found this picture from last week's sailing adventure...

Ahoy, I sail...

AM-204 - Philadelphia

Tuesday was all spent flying to Philadelphia. Orange County to Atlanta, Atlanta to Philly. Then three days of teaching Advanced Wireless Network Design for AirMagnet. Then Home.

How come the snow follows me wherever I go?

Whittier Lacrosse Game

Monday - February 18th
After a nice lunch down in Laguna Beach - we headed north to Whittier College to watch the final BYU Lacrosse game.
Micah Melville had to film from high above the field... thanks Micah!

The boys played hard - but a couple of the same poor refs were even more blatant in their bias calls. I've never seen more bias reffing. When we made comments about the reffing... the ref in question came over and gave us a glare and a message to stop or he'd punish the team.
BYU had quite a few supporters in the audience. It was a very cold evening... but we yelled a lot to keep warm.

One of the Whittier players was obscenely rough to our Attackmen whenever the refs weren't looking. Even some times when they were... but never a call. Except against our guys. The game was very tight... we led for awhile... then they tied... then in overtime they did a bunch of blatant fouls - didn't get called... then three times a ball went out of bounds the refs gave it back to the 'Poets' and they finally scored the winning goal. The BYU boys played a well played game - Brent got in a couple of times as well. He played in both halves of all three away games.

It was fun to have these games to go and watch him and the team. Jill and I had a nice, busy, fun little vacation together in Southern California.

Monday in Laguna Beach

Monday - February 18th At the Fireside Sunday night we met with the Ferrins and decided to go back to Laguna Beach for the day... and eat at Las Brisas again... even though they didn't have my favorite dish.

We walked on the beach, did some shopping, and had a little lunch before heading north to drive up to Whittier for the final LAX game.

Busy Sunday in SoCal

Sunday - February 17th

Jill and I had a fairly busy Sunday in Southern California. We started by attending a church service at the First Christian Church of Fullerton. The place where Barry and Donna worship. I've been there a couple of times before for their Tuesday evening Contemplative Service with Barry. So I thought this would be a nice way to see what their Sunday services are like. We had a new experience, singing songs - some we new the melody, but with different words, and other songs with the words projected on the two big screens, but didn't know the melody... They do things just a *bit* differently than we are used to in our LDS services. Women were dressed in pants - Jill felt a bit overdressed in her Sunday dress. Not very many children in the congregation, and the choir all dressed in robes, and the pastor talking as he walked around using a wireless microphone all led to a unique church experience. They must have used a different version of the Bible as well - some of the quotes from Isaiah felt a bit 'too easy' - so I looked up the matching quotes in the King James version on my iPhone and realized the quoted scriptures on the big screens must have come from a different translation. (I never remember the word 'communicate' in the bible)

The people were friendly, helpful and genuinely glad to have us share their worship service with them.

Then quickly back to the hotel to change and drive with Kenny & Cathy to the Essentia Water bottling plant. I was very interested in the water purification, ionization, and bottling process Kenny uses for his Essentia water. Jill swears by the stuff. Me, I figure you can just put water back in the bottle from the tap and put it back in the fridge - but my kids and wife don't agree with me. We also got to see the actual blow molding process of making the bottles - from a 'preform' plastic slug, to a bottle in just seconds... cool. Don't we all look good in the hair nets?

Bottle 'Preform'Heated Preform going into blow mold

Bottles coming out of Blow Mold
Finished Bottles
Cathy & Jill with Hair Nets
Keith at Blow Mold Machine

We thought to drive to Rodeo Drive and walk around - but by the time we got there in the LA Traffic... it was time to head back south again. We picked up our car and drove down the coast to Laguna Beach to a restaurant recommended by Wayne. Cathy teased Wayne about this being a 'mexican' restaurant with a name like Las Brisas... he said it wasn't Mexican food... see sign below... They did serve some Mexican dishes, but my meal didn't taste 'Mexican' at all.

I got to try Ceviche... made from raw Sea Bass and marinated in Lime Juice to 'cook' the fish. I had a bit of trepidation... but after a bit of prodding from Wayne I gave it a try, and actually enjoyed it - and had multiple servings with some great chips. For the main entree I tried some Shrimp that sounded a bit like Scampi... but was I surprised. It turned out to be one of the top ten best meals I've ever had. It reminded me of the sauce on a fish meal down on the Brazilian coast - a fantastic flavor. I don't think it had saffron in it... but it had a great subtle flavor and was kind of 'orange'. Jokingly I told Kenny he should stay another day just so he could eat this fine meal a second day in a row. After I got back to the hotel I looked up the Las Brisas on the Internet - but sadly found the dinner menu wasn't available the next day... bummer. We then drove straight up to Downey for a fireside put on by the BYU Lacrosse team. Pat, Paul, and Josh all gave good talks - followed by the Coach also giving a good talk. It was fun to be with Brent and talk with him and his friends.

A busy day... but full of fun and new experiences.

BYU -vs- Chapman University

Saturday - February 16th

We shared the responsibility for the Team Dinner after the game - so we prepped before the game in purchasing water, gatorade, cookies, chips, etc. as condiments for the great BBQ sandwiches the Ferrin's had catered for the boys after the game.

It was a very hard-fought contest! I thought the ref's were way to biased. I've seen lots of Lacrosse games... but even Coach Lamb was upset with the amount of hard checks the Chapman boys got away with. If the ref's are just fair - go ahead and let each team do their best. But it's the unfairness of calling all the calls one way - 6:1 foul ratio between BYU and Chapman...
But we could have played much better - by my count we only had 3 Face Off successes out of 31 opportunities. The Chapman Face Off guy was amazing!The game was played on a brand new stadium - and the fans were SO MUCH better than UCSB on Thursday! Lots of folks were at the game cheering - for both sides.We stayed close in the game, up a little, down a little, and even had a chance in the final seconds to pull it off... but we lost this game by just one point.Because of a 'mix up' with the team Jersey's - Brent was playing in #23 instead of his normal #47. They only brought the 2005 jerseys with up to 45... so he was in #23 in these pictures.Brent was able to get playing time in each half - I'm proud of him for working so hard to have the spot he does as a Freshman!They weren't too excited after the game... but did enjoy the meal we provided.

Day Sailing on the Pacific Ocean

Saturday - February 16th
We drove back down to Dana Point - had a nice breakfast at a quaint restaurant then off to Wayne's Sailboat - the 'Dulcinea'. He has a slip right down below his home in the Dana Point Marina.

Thanks to Wayne's generosity we were able to spend a couple of hours out sailing the 'ocean blue' of the Pacific. Not really going very far out to see... but more than enough for Cathy's comfort. I'm glad she agreed to come along with us on this little adventure.
We had fun sailing (Me especially having not done it for many a year) - and seeing the homes and other boats on the water. I even got a bit of a tan while catching some 'rays' while skimming the waves.
Jill had a bit of fun trying out Wayne's new Hammock he bought in Encinata.

It was a nice relaxing day - just quietly sailing. Fantastic!