Tuesday, June 05, 2007
What a difference a couple of years makes
Last Tuesday I had the privilege of photographing the 1A Baseball Semifinal game between Colonel Richardson High School and Harford Technical High School. The game was at 4 p.m. at McCurdy Field in Frederick.
There were many familiar faces in the stands and on the field at the game. Years ago, I had covered many of the boys as they participated in the Northeast Regional tournament in Bristol, Conn.
That tournament was several hundred miles away and lasted for a week. The playoff game in Frederick was only one afternoon in length. But because of the 100-mile plus distance and lateness of the hour of completion, it offered many of the same challenges of coverage from Connecticut.
The difference in the hassle levels between the two events is an example of how far technology and our use of it has progressed in the handful of years between the two.
When my wife Chris and I went up to Bristol to cover our Little League state champs in the regional tournament, we didn’t have WiFi or high speed Internet connections. The motels didn’t provide Internet service of any kind. The first year we went up, we were still using film cameras for that matter and had to get the film processed. But that is a story for another time.
We had to take our computer with us, complete with its dial-up modem into our motel room. Stories would be written and photographs entered into the system. First with prints it was with a flatbed scanner we brought. Later we were digital, so a card reader simplified the process.
Then, through a national Internet provider access, the stories and images would be emailed to the paper. Dial-up made it slow.
Last Tuesday, I wanted to get my photographs back to the office as soon as possible. I knew I would be facing rush-hour traffic on the Washington beltway once the 4 p.m. game was over. My parents live in the Virginia suburbs of D.C. and have a nice high-speed connection. I took the liberty of inviting myself over that evening.
So once the game was completed, I jumped in my car and drove to Northern Virginia instead of all the way back to the Eastern Shore. I did get caught in some (some is an understatement) traffic on the beltway, but I was able to set up my computer, download the images, decide which I wanted to use and set them up hours before I would have if I had driven all the way back to the office. I then transferred the material to a thumb (flash) drive and connected it to my Dad’s computer with its high-speed connection. The material was in Easton office within minutes. I’ll have to suggest he get a WiHi setup in the house to simplify future transfers.
Meanwhile, I was treated to a homestyle dinner rather than a sweaty traffic jam during rush-hour. I later arrived at the office to make sure the material got there properly.
The whole process was much easier than our efforts in Bristol. I know there are technologies available to make the process even easier. I don’t have a wireless broadband connection for my laptop yet. That will come later. The ballpark didn’t have a local WiFi setup like you now find at professional parks and at major colleges. That will come soon, too.
Now if we could just do something about the traffic….
As always, you can reach me at rpolk@chespub.com.
There were many familiar faces in the stands and on the field at the game. Years ago, I had covered many of the boys as they participated in the Northeast Regional tournament in Bristol, Conn.
That tournament was several hundred miles away and lasted for a week. The playoff game in Frederick was only one afternoon in length. But because of the 100-mile plus distance and lateness of the hour of completion, it offered many of the same challenges of coverage from Connecticut.
The difference in the hassle levels between the two events is an example of how far technology and our use of it has progressed in the handful of years between the two.
When my wife Chris and I went up to Bristol to cover our Little League state champs in the regional tournament, we didn’t have WiFi or high speed Internet connections. The motels didn’t provide Internet service of any kind. The first year we went up, we were still using film cameras for that matter and had to get the film processed. But that is a story for another time.
We had to take our computer with us, complete with its dial-up modem into our motel room. Stories would be written and photographs entered into the system. First with prints it was with a flatbed scanner we brought. Later we were digital, so a card reader simplified the process.
Then, through a national Internet provider access, the stories and images would be emailed to the paper. Dial-up made it slow.
Last Tuesday, I wanted to get my photographs back to the office as soon as possible. I knew I would be facing rush-hour traffic on the Washington beltway once the 4 p.m. game was over. My parents live in the Virginia suburbs of D.C. and have a nice high-speed connection. I took the liberty of inviting myself over that evening.
So once the game was completed, I jumped in my car and drove to Northern Virginia instead of all the way back to the Eastern Shore. I did get caught in some (some is an understatement) traffic on the beltway, but I was able to set up my computer, download the images, decide which I wanted to use and set them up hours before I would have if I had driven all the way back to the office. I then transferred the material to a thumb (flash) drive and connected it to my Dad’s computer with its high-speed connection. The material was in Easton office within minutes. I’ll have to suggest he get a WiHi setup in the house to simplify future transfers.
Meanwhile, I was treated to a homestyle dinner rather than a sweaty traffic jam during rush-hour. I later arrived at the office to make sure the material got there properly.
The whole process was much easier than our efforts in Bristol. I know there are technologies available to make the process even easier. I don’t have a wireless broadband connection for my laptop yet. That will come later. The ballpark didn’t have a local WiFi setup like you now find at professional parks and at major colleges. That will come soon, too.
Now if we could just do something about the traffic….
As always, you can reach me at rpolk@chespub.com.
# posted by Richard Polk @ 9:19 AM 
