Inside a Baseball’s Dugout

An adequate description of a dugout is, “In baseball, the dugout is a team’s bench area and is located in foul territory between home plate and either first or third base. There are two dugouts, one for the home team and one for the visiting team. In general, the dugout is occupied by all players not prescribed to be on the field at that particular time, as well as coaches and other personnel authorized by the league. The players’ equipment (gloves, batts, batting helmets,  catcher’s equipment, etc.) is usually stored in the dugout.”—(Wikipedia Encyclopedia)

A dugout is also a place of emotions.  This is where players talk to each other about their anxieties, their personal problems, their achievements, their tips for success and so on.  From the dugout the players root for their peers shouting and jumping to their heart’s content.  Yep, in baseball, a dugout is a very special place.  In a nutshell, it’s the water hole of the team.

Below are several pictures of scenes inside the dugout of Abdiel’s team—San Cristobal.  After seeing them, you will understand what a dugout means.  Here we go.

In this picture, Abdiel has a sour face. His team is trailing by five runs and time is running out. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

Everybody wants to know what's happening on the field. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

The hand holding the helmet in an indication that something exciting is happening outside the dugout. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

Looking out from the dugout. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

Faces that capture the emotions of the game. Two faces, two different emotions. That's the beauty of this wonderful sport of baseball. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

These my friends are my final images of the Bing Bing league in Panama where the superstars are born.  It’s a marvelous experience to see these kids enjoy the sport.  Now it’s time to turn the page and move to another subject, as we navigate through the waves of life.    Good Day.

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The Age of Innocence

When I got home and saw these faces, I felt the sensation of an angel passing through my room.  There is such innocence and purity within these photographs.  The eloquence of the subjects is such, that no narrative is necessary; therefore, there are no captions under the photographs.

In situations like this, words are needless.  The message within the images is created inside the mind of the reader.  These are the pictures depicting an age of innocence and purity.  Here we go.

Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

I think these are the best pictures I’ve taken since I started the exciting adventure of photography.  Please return tomorrow for the final photographs of the Bing Bing baseball series.  Good Day.

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Fans

Fans are a special breed of people.  They will do whatever it takes to follow their team and make it win.  They paint their faces and bodies with the traditional colors of the team, wear extremely odd hats, wear weirdy looking clothes, and travel millions of miles anywhere in the globe to see their team win or lose.  If they lose, the party stops during the early rays of the sun, and if the team lose, the party goes on anyway…albeit with a few sad tears.

Usually when you go to a sports venues, the thousands of fans look like a giant flood of people.  Their faces and bodies are lost by the immensity of the crowd.  Fans look like small dots of bright colors in the distance; like magnified pixels on the bright screen of your computer.  At stadiums, fans are faceless.  Only their roar is clearly perceived.

During my recent visit to Rod Carew’s stadium, I walked around in an effort to personalize the fans.  I wanted to know how they looked like.  I wanted to know if they were men, women or children.  I wanted to know how they were dressed.  I wanted to photograph the fans in flesh and bone.  No more pixeled-looking figures lost in the distance.

Below are several photographs of fans at a baseball game in Panama City, Panama.  You can see their faces very well, and their beautiful smiles too.  Here we go.

Photograph of a Panamanian family at a baseball game in Panama City, Panama. The dad was having fun with his Panama beer, the mother was having fun following the game, and the daughter was having fun collecting autographs. It was a win-win situation for everybody in the family. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

This fan watched the game with a homely atmosphere. Personal chair, Spanish hand fan, and a close location to the field. Can't get any better than that. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

This young fan was walking through the stadium like a model in a fashion show. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

This fan takes advantage of the window of opportunity to embrace a baseball player. Both of them look so natural. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

This young woman was adamantly reluctant to have her picture taken. I had to convince her boyfriend before getting her to pose. You can obviously see how proud the boyfriend looks. With a woman like that, I would also feel most proud. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

The smiles these fans gave me lighted up the stadium. They looked absolutely gorgeous, in search of a better English word. Photo by ©Omar Upegui R.

And now you know how fans look like in a baseball game in Panama City, Panama.  They look just like any other fan in any city around the world—really cool!  Good Day.

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People and Faces of the Coastal Strip in Panama

One of my favorite subjects in photography are people and faces.  They say so much without words.  Specially faces of old people or faces of very young children.  When I visited the Coastal Strip on December 8, 2009, I looked around for interesting faces to share with you.  I found a face of a young girl painted like a cat which was particularly attractive.  I also observed our grandnephews for new facial expressions.  They are an inspiration to us, as you probably would have noticed.

Please share with me today, some of the people and faces observed at the Coastal Strip on December 8, 2009.  Here we go.

A young kitty-girl present at the Coastal Strip waiting for the lighting of a tall Christmas tree. (Credit: ©Omar Upegui R.)

Anonymous faces anxiously waiting for the lighting of a Christmas tree at the Coastal Strip in Panama City, Panama on December 8, 2009. (Credit: ©Omar Upegui R.)

Two beautiful Digitel assistants distribute promotional balloons to the children present at the Coastal Strip. These gorgeous faces almost melted down my Birthday camera. (Credit: ©Omar Upegui R.)

Are you looking at me? Carol tastes a caramelized Apple at Panama's Coastal Strip on December 8, 2009. (Credit: ©Omar Upegui R.)

Abdiel takes a big bite at a bright red sweetened apple at the Coastal Strip. (Credit: ©Omar Upegui R.)

A penny for your thoughts? Abdiel and Carol take a break after monkeying for a while at the Coastal Strip. (Credit: ©Omar Upegui R.)

As you can see, people look more or less the same all over the world.  Panama is no exception.  People—specially children—are fascinating subjects to photograph.  It was a most enjoyable evening at the Coastal Strip.  Good Day.

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Joke: Making Faces

Ms. Smith, Johnny’s next door neighbor, stopped to reprove Johnny for making faces:  “Johnny, when I was your age, my mother used to tell me that if I made ugly faces, at some moment it would freeze and stay like that.”

Johnny looked up at her and thoughtfully replied: “Well, Ms. Smith, you can’t say you weren’t forewarned.”

Ms. Smith fainted.

Good Day! 

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Photograph of the Day: Oh My God!

(Credit: Pixdaus.com)

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The Face Behind the Posts

I’ve been blogging for the last five years.  I first started using LifeJournal under the blog name of Epiac’s Place. It was a direct no nonsense blogging platform which served me well and taught me many things about social networks. As my blogging needs changed, I switched to WordPress which I consider the best blogging platform available today.

At LifeJournal I had my picture next to my profile so my readers would know how the author looked like.  WordPress does not offer you this possibility, so many of my readers at Lingua Franca have no idea how Omar Upegui R. looks like.

All books include a photograph of the author on the back cover of the book.  I think it’s a good idea to create a bond between author and readers.  Today I decided to include my photo in an effort to introduce myself to my readers.  It was created using a special software called PhotoFunia.

PhotoFunia is an online photo editing tool that gives you a fun-filled experience.  You upload any photo and just wait to see the special effects.  The application automatically identifies the face in the photo and let’s you add cool photo effects and create interesting photo montages.

PhotoFunia is free and very easy to use.  Just select any effect you like from over 100 different choices, upload your photo, and the software will take care of the rest.

Having said that, here’s my photograph with a couple of interesting effects.  Here we go.

(Credit: Omar Upegui R./PhotoFunia)

(Credit: Omar Upegui R./PhotoFunia)

(Credit: Omar Upegui R./PhotoFunia)

And now you know the face of the guy who writes at Lingua Franca.  Good Day.

Source:  PhotoFunia

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The Future of Panama

During my recent visit to the installations of the National Lottery, I was lucky to find the cutest little girls at the entrance of the site.  After taking their pictures and enjoying them at home, I wondered what would these little girls be doing in the next twenty years?

Would one of them go into politics and become the second woman president of Panama?  Would the other girl be interested in law, and become the brightest lawyer of the country?  Who knows?  One thing is certain, these girls represent the future of the country.  I hope they grow up to dazzle us with their performance.  The only problem is that I won’t be around to find out what became of them.  Tough luck!

Now my dear readers, below are two examples of the future of Panama—the land divided, the world united.  Here we go.

To have those nice cheeks you need to drink a lot of milk, and her momma sure has the resources to provide that. (Credit: Omar Upegui R.)

At a young age you can foresee a child's personality. One is extroverted and happy, the other is shy and kind of insecure. (Credit: Omar Upegui R.)

This is the young face face of somebody who laughs at the world. Happiness is her demeanor. (Credit: Omar Upegui R.)

This is how an angel from Heaven looks like---pure and total innocence. (Credit: Omar Upegui R.)

Yep, these are the pure and innocent young faces of the future citizens of Panama.  I wish them well.  Good Day.

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Photograph of the Day: Upside Down Face

(Credit: Bits & Pieces.com)

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The Struggle With Life

If you have been following my posts, you already know that I have been visiting the Santa Ana Plaza and taking pictures of this antique and nostalgic area.  Several of these photographs have been displayed here.

During one of these visits, I went inside an old barber shop that was recently bought by my wife’s nephew.  The name of the barber shop is “Barbería Santa Ana” located diagonally to the Santa Ana Plaza.  This is an area where you have to keep your eyes wide open, because it’s adjacent to the slums of Santa Ana neighborhood, one of the dangerous red zones in Panama City.  By red zone, I mean an area of high crime rate.

Santa Ana is considered by many rap singers of Panama, a “ghetto”, associating the neighborhood with the ghettos of Poland during the Nazi occupation.  Many songs have been composed and sung regarding the poor conditions of these “ghettos” where the law of the gun imposes.

While I was inside the barber shop taking a few pictures of Edy, the barber, a tired looking man entered the building.  He walked in slow motion, as if the weight of his body was too heavy to carry.  He mumbled, “Buenos Días” (Good Morning) very softly, almost like a whisper.  Then, without saying anything else, he sat on the barber’s chair.

Edy immediately started to do his job with a pair of sharp scissors, combs and  an electric hair cutting machine.  The man just sat there.  His body was there, but his mind was somewhere else.  There was no sparkle in his eyes, as if he had turned off the lights of his soul.  He stared at nowhere, immersed in his own deep thoughts.  The whole expression of his face was that of a defeated man fighting some kind of inner demons.

He had deep wrinkles on his forehead, like scars left behind after a heavy struggle with life.  Even though he did not looked  old, he was loosing hair on the front part of his head.  I couldn’t take my eyes off his face; he looked so beaten up and sad.  In a certain way, it reminded me of Roberto Duran when he said, “No más, no más” during his fight with Sugar Ray Leonard.  This man was telling life, “no más, no más”—no more, no more.

I asked if I could take a picture of him and he just nodded.  I think he tried to smile, but the smile resisted to come out.  Maybe smiling was not part of his personality, or he was too tired to smile.  I took his picture.

This is how Edy’s customer looked like that cool Sunday morning at Plaza Santa Ana. Here we go.

Photograph of the sad man who entered the barber shop to have his hair cut one cool Sunday morning in Panama City, Panama. (Credit: Omar Upegui R.)

The city has many faces, this is one of them.  Good Day.

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