Cass Park
Friday night baseball for Pam and I means keeping up with grandson Daryoush’s achievements on the field. He’s come a long way this season. Best viewed on large 4K HD screen with surround sound.
The beginning features a minute or so of our glorious autumn foliage. A hot air balloon also makes an appearance, “watch for it.”
Copyright 2022 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved
Kiteskaters and Cruise Ships
In the early morning hours of Sunday, September 10, 2017 as Hurricane Irma approached the Florida Keys, I cannot sleep, worried about family members north of Miami and in Daytona Beach. To pass the time, I returned to the golden hours of March 4, 2017 evening. On vacation, Pam and I walked Cocoa Beach starting from Lori Wilson Park, headed north.
The light was perfect when I decided to switch to Raw-Jpeg mode, feeling the extra space was worth it. I don’t know why I don’t shoot Raw 100% of the time, as always, in retrospect, I regret using jpeg only. The camera was the Sony Alpha 700 dslr with a DT 18-200mm f3.5-6.3 lens purchased 2008 after an expedition to the Superstition Wilderness.
After capturing a wedding photo shoot and surfers there was this set of two Kite Skaters going at least 20 miles an hour. The Sony Alpha was quick enough to capture some of the action in raw mode, I am not satisfied with the sharpness of the images as the lens was not fast enough.
We had never watched kite skaters before and were prepared to understand the vision from watching distant kite surfers out beyond the breakers. North winds are the best for any type of kiting on Cocoa Beach and, that day, the wind was northeast. These riders zipped by in less than a minute. The sport is low key, it does not exist on Wikipedia. Image that. These two are having a fantastic time and stayed upright, going on and on and on down the miles long beach.
1990 KiteSkate pioneers on the USA east coast experimented with four-line controllable parafoil kites powering in-line skates for exciting rides on asphalt surfaces.
The name “Wheels of Doom” suggest the danger of going this fast over a hard, rough surface.
These Cocoa Beach riders are outfitted for speed and safety: pads, helmets.
Barefeet?? Unprotected skin? They must know how to dress, though maybe not. He has never fallen?
The beach within the tide line is solid, the pebbles, broken shells and such unforgiving as asphalt.
Up-close portraits of the teams with competition action shots.
This series was captured on Sunday, September 2, 2018 during the lead up to the Registered Mares – 4 Horse Hitch (Class: 1502) of the Draft category.
I used a Canon EOS-1ds Mark III body with the Canon Lens EF 70 – 300 IS USM lens, Hoya UV filter. No flash.
Standing outside the stadium, in the bright sun, the teams road to the stadium from the barn.
Click a pic for a larger view of the 1200 x 800 image. You need to click twice. The first click with bring up a small image, click on that image for the full view.
There was a long wait for the second team that allowed me some fantastic closeups.
These are inside the stadium, from the bleachers.
Michael Stephen Wills Photography 
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