Red Sox Baseball: An American Tradition at Fenway Park

I wouldn't call myself a "baseball fan."  I enjoy sports but I never really got into the sport of baseball.  There are baseball fans, and then there are Red Sox fans.  You know you are getting close to Boston when most cars have red sox stickers on them and you can't walk down the street without coming across someone wearing Red Sox attire or seeing it on a billboard, on packaging, on signs or overhearing it in conversations that usually go something like, "blah blah, blah...Red Sox, blah, blah, wicked, etc."

Even during the game, there were fans sitting right behind me talking about players, how much money they were getting, their stats and the like.  No, not just for a few minutes....it went on the entire game.

Young and old, fans came out to support the team even though they aren't the best team in the league. I believe a lot of it has to do with tradition.  If you grow up going to the games, you will continue to go when you are older to remember the time you were there when you were younger.  I didn't grow up going to games but I do remember watching the Braves with my grandparents at their house each time I went to visit.  It was a tradition to watch with the TV full blast and when the commercials would come on my grandfather would put it on mute and let out a big, "whew" (being that the TV was so loud) and my grandmother saying, "isn't Andruw Jones the cutest thing?"

As simple as a baseball game is, be prepared to come hungry for junk food and pack extra cash in your wallet.  Everything is at least ten times as expensive as it would be at the store and there are lines to wait in to get just about anything you are craving like a hot dog, pizza, twirling giant pretzels that have been on for hours, ice cream, chowda, popcorn, peanuts and did I mention hot dogs?  I was surprised to see veggie dogs at one stand so I asked to see one and it looked like a dehydrated vienna sausage so I passed.

If anything, it was a sight to see and an experience to have once in a lifetime.  Fenway Park is one of the best stadiums to see a game since it hasn't changed much since it opened April 20, 1912.   The green monster is still run by hand and Pesky's Pole is full of signatures...in fact, one idiot climbed up during the game to get his name on the pole and stood there to wait for security to take him away as fans cheered him on and booed the police.

Thank you Ronnie for taking me to the game so I was able to step on board the Red Sox fan mothership and experience traditions that will live on for years to come.  Next time, I know you will get on the big screen singing "Sweet Caroline."

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A Good Bye Gathering And A Family Reunion Portrait

I went for the ride and joined a gathering for a good bye party and a reunion of sorts.  Since I was a passenger, I really had no idea where I was but I believe I was somewhere in the state of Massachusetts.

I thought a going away party would be around 20 people at the most, sitting around chit chatting about the weather or what was going on in everyone's lives.  Well, yes...people were chit chatting but I was taken back on how many people were there.  Then I started asking who everyone was and for the most part, everyone was related!

 I can count all the direct members of my family on one hand.  I am not used to a family gathering that looked like this!  I asked how everyone knew each other and the response typically went like this: "that is my cousin and those are her kids and that guy next to her is my cousin's husband and that kid is his son but the other kid next to his belongs to my cousin's aunt who is over there talking to my other cousin's sister in law."

As complicated as it sounded, I think questions would have added to the mix of complications so I nodded as my brain tried to mix and match kids with parents with siblings with parents.

I met Anne Maxon last year while I was in Boston and she has such a beautiful family so I wanted to take a portrait of her, her husband and their four beautiful children.  Her kids are naturals.  We walked behind the house and I pointed to the ground on where to stand and as soon as I put the camera to my eye, they were all smiling and posing.

Later in the evening, the entire family started gathering together to take a group portrait.  I heard one woman say, "there is a photographer that is going to take our family picture." Instantly, I was excited to see who was going to take their picture to meet the photographer and talk about pictures but I soon realized that everyone was looking at me.  I was the photographer they were referring to.  I haven't taken many group portraits, especially this size but I was willing to snap away.  I then took a group photo of the kids in the family which was challenging.  Lucky for me, I had the parents behind me snapping their fingers and clapping away to get the attention of their kids to look at them.

Everyone at the event was very kind to me about my photographs.  I was thrilled to be approached by people I've never met before to tell me they enjoy viewing my images. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of the family, if only for a little while.