New Camera Practice

I got a beautiful new camera for Christmas, which was a total surprise, and I absolutely love it! For the past several years, since I entered the digital age, I've had a great little point-and-shoot Nikon, but recently I've been frustrated by its limitations. Specifically, at Connor's basketball games it's pretty useless unless the gym is very well lit, as well as for anything on a stage (Christmas concerts, school presentations, etc) or extreme close-ups. I thought I needed to get an SLR camera to overcome these problems, and never thought I was ready for the learning curve that would be involved in that. I had no idea that Chris was researching the right next camera for us until I opened it on Christmas morning. He got me a Nikon Coolpix P500, which has an extended zoom, some high speed capability, and a lot more bells and whistles than I've ever had before. I love it! And this past weekend Connor had three basketball games in Windsor, so it was the perfect opportunity for me to practice.

I could write another blog about how much fun it is watching my son play basketball, but I've done that before. This was a pretty full day. We left the house at 7:15 and arrived at the gym two hours later, to find a game already in progress. One of the teams was really dominating the other, and we knew that was the last team our guys would be playing later in the afternoon. That was a bit daunting, but our team took the court with confidence anyway. During our first game the teams traded the lead back and forth the whole time, and in the end, the game went into overtime. Our boys were able to take the lead early in the overtime and won by 5 points. The second game started immediately, playing the team we had seen lose when we arrived. Our team won that one, too, but not by nearly as drastic a margin as the first team had. I was proud of Connor, as always. He concentrated hard on defense, and was able to sink a basket early in the game. We went out to Subway for lunch with most of our team and recharged before our final match up. The boys all knew this was a really hard to beat team, but they went into the game excited anyway.

It was clear from the beginning our guys were not going to win this one. The other team took an early lead and held it. The last half our boys were able to win back some of the ground they had lost, and they were not as soundly beaten as the first team we saw go down, but it wasn't enough. We later found out that this team has been playing together for four years. They have an excellent coach, encouraging and offering constant constructive criticism, and fantastic team spirit. I noticed little things about them that contributed to their team's cohesiveness, like how every member of the team wore one white sock and one black sock, and how at the end they always cheered for both teams, shook hands with the opposing team, and then ran down a high-five line of all their parents. Our team could learn a lot from this one, and I'm glad they had the opportunity to play them.

But this wasn't supposed to be a post about basketball! I guess I just couldn't resist. No, this post wasn't even going to be about words. This post is one about pictures, and I think they tell the story better than I could anyway.

Number 7 is my boy!

Cheering on big brother!

Connor has the ball!

Connor takes a shot!

Love this shot!

Two minutes left in overtime...

This is why I love my new camera! I was sitting all the way across the gym when I took this.
Look at that intense brown eye!

Janelle entertained the other little siblings.

Tip off in the last game. Our team changed into their white jerseys for this one.

Good game, guys!