Passion

[RichardGraham]

Hi Folks,

This new board is for what you're passionate about, besides inline hockey.

For instance, I'm a music nut. I like so many different kinds of music that I will die regretting the songs I never got to learn about. Tonight I'm listening to "This Perfect World" by Freedy Johnston. It's not Metallica, that's for sure, but tell me "Bad Reputation" isn't a great song.

I'll stop here. I hope this board works out. I'd like to turn people on to things that make me happy to be alive, and I'd love to hear from you what I'VE been missing. Remember, keep it PG.

Thanks.

Sincerely,

Richard Graham
Editor
Inline Hockey Central

[NLane]

My passion remains anything British Isles. Histories, mysteries and music are all attention drawing to me. Took a history course that was based in London and stood where William and Mary are lying and touched columns in Westminster Abbey that are older than my Country. Love anything the PBS does about Ireland, Scotland and England but mostly the non-contemporary stories and programs.

[RichardGraham]

Hi Nancy,

Thanks for your reply. I appreciate it.

I've enjoyed all the PBS programs I've seen -- they have put some great stuff together over the years. I don't know enough about the British Isles as I'd, but I do know that my ancestors came from Scotland.

My only time in England was about an hour in Heathrow on my way to the Canary Islands back in about 1991. I covered a triathlon in Lanzarote for Triathlete magazine. It was a blast. Lanzarote is a volcanic island like Hawaii, and green plants grow out of the soil that is topped with black lava to keep the soil from blowing away. Couple that with the blue sky, turquoise ocean and white clouds, and it's an awesome sight. Additionally, an artist who became a politician there decreed that no building could be more than two stories high, and all the buildings had to be blue and white or green and white. I thought it looked fantastic. Nothing garish like many of the places in the U.S. The awards ceremony for the triathlon was held in a cavern!

Thanks, Nancy.

Sincerely,

Richard Graham
Editor
Inline Hockey Central

[CoachFoo]

My mom was a Scott. Clan Gunn. She had a little bit of English in her too. She used to get made at me when I told her that when you fight a Britt it's no big deal because they usually lead with their jaw.
Just kidding, I'm part English as well.

I have a great respect for the Old English and Scotts. I want to take my boys to Scottland the first time I go. My biggest regret in life was not taking my mom there before her early exit. Laid her to rest in her Tartan with bag pipes playing Grace. A bit to much for me at the time.

Since then I've learned not to put off anything with my kids. That train of thought has cost me in other ways, but my kids are only kids once. Someday they will walk on my soil.

I share your passion for the Isles. My wife and I took our honeymoon in Eastern Canada. We spent the first few days in Halafax, Nova S. If you like the English and Scott influence, What a place. There are some relatively old churches and castles there. When we went there we had no idea.

If you ever want to attend a very good Scottish and Irish (Can't leave them out) festival. The one in Estes Park, Colorado is fantastic. Early September every year. Bag pipes bands from all over the world, all the clanns, English guard, everything. They even bring over single malt scotch that you can't buy here in the states for a buck a shot.

I better stay off this part of the site. I can ramble on.

[RichardGraham]

Hi Rich,

I'm really glad that I created this message board. Anyone who's not interested in the topics can simply ignore them, but I find it fascinating and fun to learn more about the great people who help keep this Web site alive.

Powerful story. Thanks for sharing it!

>>Since then I've learned not to put off anything with my kids. That train of thought has cost me in other ways, but my kids are only kids once.<<

A lot of people could learn from your example. Wow. Good for you, man.

>>We spent the first few days in Halifax, Nova Scotia... There are some relatively old churches and castles there. When we went there we had no idea.<<

Cool. I'll have to go back. I was born there, and six months later was taken somewhere else by people who called me their parents. [img]/wtimages/icons/wink.gif[/img] I went back during a trip around the U.S. and Canada in 1984, but didn't spend as much time there as I should have.

>>I better stay off this part of the site.<<

Please don't.

>> I can ramble on.<<

Please do. That's what it's for!

Sincerely,

Richard Graham
Editor
Inline Hockey Central

[Rebecca]

Music nut here, but my true passion is for horses. Want to see a good pic? go here: http://image05.webshots.com/5/8/78/4...6pKNbsH_ph.jpg

Rebecca

http://www.collegerollerhockey.net/b...r_stallion.gif

[RichardGraham]

Hi Rebecca,

Horses are pretty cool. I worked on a farm for a couple of months in early 2004 and there were two horses there -- Santori and Houdini. I'd buy a bulk bag of carrots and put it in the back of my Jeep, and every once in a while I'd feed them (and Rodney the llama) carrots. They loved me!

As for the photo, I was unable to access it. FYI:

>Forbidden

You don't have permission to access /5/8/78/46/67587846pKNbsH_ph.jpg on this server.
Apache/2.0.50 Server at image05.webshots.com Port 80<

Sincerely,

Richard Graham
Editor
Inline Hockey Central

[MDE3]

Is that because of the PG nature of this site? [img]/wtimages/icons/wink.gif[/img]....

Passion(s) in my life....been many....not all sports, but golf, hockey and tennis were probably the leaders, although displaced at times by sailing and racing in a few different forms.

Loved archeology and anthropology, and worked on more than a few digs back in the day, for a couple of different museums....

Built hand made guitars, and toyed with the music business through the talents of an ex. I was emmersed in that for a few years...then on to rallye cars for weekend warriors....very fickle.....

Hockey for me got it's rebirth through my kids, as they grew up and mostly through my youngest...Each of their interests was a rebirth of my own.

And then of course there was the "fairer sex"....although I am sure they often debated if my passion for them truly outran the others.....

[JohnHockey1798]

My other passion besides hockey is model trains. I hope one day to build a coffee table with a layout inside. I also like to listen to music and watch movies. As for the opposite sex no luck yet.

John

Toga!! Toga!!

[RichardGraham]

Hi Mike,

>Is that because of the PG nature of this site? ....<

Gosh, I hope not! lol

>Passion(s) in my life....been many....not all sports, but golf, hockey and tennis were probably the leaders, although displaced at times by sailing and racing in a few different forms.<

Yeah, I'd have to say the same. To my list, I'd add photography, travel, reading, and several more passions. Sometimes it comes down to how much time you have, doesn't it?

>Loved archeology and anthropology, and worked on more than a few digs back in the day, for a couple of different museums....<

I stopped at the side of the road in Idaho once and saw an archeological dig in progress. It was cool to be able to go to the site and see the square holes that they'd staked out and dug deep into the ground. It was the early stages of a Native American archeological dig, I believe.

>Built hand made guitars, and toyed with the music business through the talents of an ex. I was emmersed in that for a few years...then on to rallye cars for weekend warriors....very fickle.....<

I can't play worth a damn, but I find that I have had several acoustic guitars and a couple of electric guitars. I figure if I can't play 'em, at least they look good on the wall!

>Hockey for me got it's rebirth through my kids, as they grew up and mostly through my youngest...Each of their interests was a rebirth of my own.<

That's neat. I'll bet that is the case with a lot of parents. Inline hockey refueled my passion for hockey in general back in about 1988 or so. I'd played as a kid, but stopped for more than 20 years. It was great to get back into PLAYING hockey (I've always been an NHL fan) via inline hockey, and then going back to my roots and playing ice hockey as well. It was like a second childhood. Unfortunately, sometimes when you make your passion your business, the various pressures and hassles can take the glow off of it.

>And then of course there was the "fairer sex"....although I am sure they often debated if my passion for them truly outran the others....<

They outran you, huh? [img]/wtimages/icons/wink.gif[/img]

Sincerely,

Richard Graham
Editor
Inline Hockey Central

[RichardGraham]

Hi John,

My brother and I had H.O. scale model cars and tracks when we were kids. That was a lot of fun. Later on, my friends and I would make model cars and planes and things -- and then blow them up with firecrackers and set 'em on fire. What was with up with that? LOL.

Sincerely,

Richard Graham
Editor
Inline Hockey Central

[WMBG_GM]

The two biggies for me are my camera and (mostly) my bicycle. If I can do it on 2 wheels, I do it. The longer it takes, the better. I really have gotten into endurance racing in the last few years. I hope to do a "24 hours of X" sometime. Probably 06 as this year is pretty slammed (and it is only march ) I also want to cross the US North->South on my mountain bike and then go east->west on my road bike.

As far as the camera, there is an almost pure joy of nailing that perfect sports shot. That one instant in time that will never happen again, and you nailed it! Closest thing I can think of (and am allowed to state on this PG board is the perfect 9 iron into a green. Out of the 30,000+ pics I have taken in the last few years, I can think of maybe 5 that fall into that catagory. The one shot that tells the whole story.

Ben Loyall

[RichardGraham]

Hi Ben,

Cool post. Thanks.

Yes, I love photography, too. I shot professionally for Triathlete magazine and then Roller Hockey magazine, but InLine Hockey News had a photo editor, so I stopped shooting as much. A bit of an old-school guy, I still use an old Nikon SLR; the only digital stuff I've shot has been with borrowed cameras. You may have seen some of my photography here:

http://www.inlinehockeycentral.com/g...is080902.shtml

Once I have some time, I'd like to take the thousands of slides I've got in storage and see if I can sell some of those images, or even combine them with writing to make some income on photo essays. I'll be quite disappointed, however, if slides go the way of the dinosaur because of digital photography. (I did, fortunately, get rid of my 8-track tapes in time.) [img]/wtimages/icons/wink.gif[/img]

I currently have an assignment for a motorcycle magazine in which I need to take pictures of a bike and its rider, and I'm hoping to get some sunny weather soon to shoot in. If you get to a newsstand, I have an article on page 20 of the current (March/April) issue of Iron Horse magazine. It's called "Head Games: Fighting Nevada's helmet law... with the law." Let me know what you think.

I think your bicycle racing is cool, as well. I used to cover triathlons and was fortunate enough to go to Hawaii for the Ironman triathlon about eight years in a row. One of my favorite sports shots was a photo I took of a female triathlete riding in the rain in a race in Miami, Florida. I was on the back of a motorcycle, and because it was raining, I stopped down to get the best depth of field I could, and used fill-in flash. The combination of those two factors made the athlete, her bike, and her red bathing suit stand out against a pure black sky. But the "piece de resistance" was the drop of water about to drip off her nose. I've always liked that shot!

Keep shooting and keep riding... and of course, stay involved in inline hockey!

Sincerely,

Richard Graham
Editor
Inline Hockey Central

[WMBG_GM]

Richard,

No way could I use film, not day to day at least. I take the "machine gunner" approach to photography: Get in the right place, see the shot coming, pull the trigger till it passes, then look to see what you got. If I had to actually develop each image.... yikes! I'd have to get good or something

Roller is actually what lit the photog bug in me. After that first season with the Warriors was done, I started pulling together assets for the marketing push for the next season. It dawned on me pretty quickly that while I had claim to the title of MLRH AAA National Champs, I didn't have a single print worth publishing to show for it. By "worth" I'm mean in a technical sense. The only imagery was from a hand held camcorder... Needless to say, the local papers couldn't do much with that.... So, I decided that we needed a photographer to follow us so we could get good prints to use for marketing.

Well, after a few phone calls, I very quickly found out that anybody who owns a camera with a fast, long lens like to charge $$. And since roller hockey barns are some of the darkest rooms I have ever seen that claim to have the lights on, you just can't hand your wife a 'snappy' and get anything useful. To shorten a long story, about 60 seconds with a calculator and a camera catalog, showed me that in order to cover our 7 home games for 1 season, I would spend more money than it took to buy a good digital camera and lens. 2 weeks later, I was the happy owner of an EOS 1D with a 200mm f1.8 prime.

Over the last few years I have figured out which end to not get fingerprints on at least

One of these days I'm hoping to hang up my keyboard and shoot for a living.

I had seen that shot of Laiti on your page before. Didn't realize you shot it on back of a bike. A regular Graham Watson you are To be honest, my 2 favs on the page are the shot of the lady reading & the shot of Freddy stick handling. The first speaks to possibilities and the second is a good "whats wrong with this pic" (if you know nothing of roller aka, the rest of the world). Also it has that "I love this so much I'll do it anywhere" feel to it.

I will look out for Iron Horse as that sounds cool. One of these days I should post a page like that [sigh] never enough time is there



Ben Loyall

[RichardGraham]

Hi Ben,

Great post. Thanks!

>No way could I use film, not day to day at least. I take the "machine gunner" approach to photography: Get in the right place, see the shot coming, pull the trigger till it passes, then look to see what you got. If I had to actually develop each image.... yikes! I'd have to get good or something <

There's definitely a "snobbishness" in my choice to stick with film, but if I had the cash, I'd get a nice digital camera for shooting inside inline hockey rinks in a heartbeat. To be able to toss bad shots and not have to pay for developing; that would be a blessing. One of these days, I will. Another reason is that I have had magazines tell me that they can't use digital shots for covers yet, and I didn't want to have to switch back and forth from film and digital. I think that digital cameras will be good enough for cover shots soon, however.

(I remember my earliest photo shoots for Triathlete magazine. I was going through my shots and thinking I had some pretty neat stuff. Then the art director came over, looked at them through a loupe ... and started tossing them in the trash! I asked him what the hell he was doing, and he told me to look at them carefully through the loupe -- sure enough, the shots were a little soft, some had distracting backgrounds, etc., etc. I learned a lot from that, and I'll always appreciate that art director -- he saved me from a lot of future embarrassment. I know I became a better photographer after that day.)

>One of these days I'm hoping to hang up my keyboard and shoot for a living.<

Be sure to put some money away first. One drawback to digital photography from a purely pragmatic point of view is that almost anyone can take good photographs with a digital camera, and that lessens the earning potential of "professional" photographers. I was at a party attended by newspaper journalists a couple of weeks ago, and one photographer had found his market squeezed so badly that he was now taking elementary school class photos to help pay the bills.

>I had seen that shot of Laiti on your page before. Didn't realize you shot it on back of a bike. A regular Graham Watson you are <

I never met Graham Watson, but I know who you're talking about. I had a lot of fun shooting for Triathlete during the five years I was there. At one event, the Strongman Triathlon in Miyako-Jima, http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/RTG/RI/kyu...iyakojima.html Japan, the guy driving my motorcycle was a speed demon (apologies to Justin). There were times I was afraid for my life!

The shot of the woman reading the book was taken in Lanzarote http://www.discoverlanzarote.com. That island is incredibly beautiful, and she just made it more so. [img]/wtimages/icons/wink.gif[/img]

The shot of Freddy is one of my favorites, too, and was shot at the beach parking lots in Santa Monica, where I used to live. Freddy actually tried out for RHI at one of the team tryouts and was crushed against the boards so hard that he was injured. That was a shame, because it would have been great to see a guy like him make the pros. It wasn't to be.

>One of these days I should post a page like that.<

Just do it!

Sincerely,

Richard Graham
Editor
Inline Hockey Central