Historic rivalry. That’s how sports writers often describe the tradition of competition between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Chicago Cubs. Baseball inspired booze-fueled block party is how I refer to any game at Wrigley Field. I lived on Chicago’s north side for two years, and during that period I stumbled among the masses at Clark and Addison more than a few times. Last weekend I returned to the Windy City and was able to catch the marquis event that only happens 9 or 10 times a year: Cubs/Card at Wrigley.

An old friend, Scott Zaleski, found amazing seats for the game. We sat only a few rows behind first base and had a great view of all the action on the field. The seats were so good that the only real advantage press photographers had on me were their $9,000 400mm f/2.8 lenses. That said, I think my Nikon D300 with $785 Nikon 18-200mm VR lens and killer vantage point gave me the opportunity for some great shots.

The photo above is of Cubs outfielder Alfonso Soriano breaking a bat. I took this shot later in the game when there was a mix of natural and artificial light. To stop as much action as possible, I set the camera to shutter priority mode and dialed in 1/1000th of a second. Since the light was fading, the camera compensated for this quick shutter speed by choosing ISO 1600 and selecting the widest available aperture, f/5.6, on my fully extended Nikon 18-200mm VR lens.

Scott and Chris pre-gaming at Murphy’s Bleachers.
Sheffield and Waveland. Chicago, IL.

After grabbing a few Old Styles at Murphy’s Bleachers; the gang was ready for some Cubs baseball. In addition to Scott; I attended the game with a fellow Loyola alum, Ross, and also Chris, an old friend from Grand Rapids.

Chris, Ross & Scott at Wrigley.

The Cubs put Ryan Dempster on the mound to start the game. He pitched decently well and although he didn’t pick up the win, he kept the Cubs close.

Nikon D300. Nikon 18-200mm VR lens @ 200mm.
Manual. 1/1600 second @ f/8. ISO 1100.

I shot most of the game in manual. I dialed in f/8 as it is reasonably sharp at 200mm (on the 18-200mm VR, the maximum aperture setting at that focal length is f/5.6). To freeze the action, I selected a shutter speed of 1/1600th of a second. With aperture and shutter speed fixed, I let the camera auto choose ISO to get the best exposure using Nikon’s matrix meter.

Ryan Theriot at bat.
Nikon D300. Nikon 18-200mm VR @ 200mm.
Manual. 1/1600 second @ f/8. ISO 1250.

Chicago loves beer.

Albert Pujols fouls off a pitch.
Nikon D300. Nikon 18-200mm VR @ 200mm.
Manual. 1/1600 second @ f/8. ISO 1600.

Cubs first base coach gets to first base?

Molina slides in.
Nikon D300. Nikon 18-200mm VR @ 200mm.
Manual. 1/1600 second @ f/6.3. ISO 1400.

Lou Piniella, Manager of the Chicago Cubs.

Cardinals Reliever.
Nikon D300. Nikon 18-200mm VR @ 200mm.
Manual. 1/1600 second @ f/8. ISO 1400.

Jay Cutler sings take me out to the ball game during the 7th inning stretch.

“Go Cubs, Go!”

Derek Lee takes a cut.
Nikon D300. Nikon 18-200mm VR @ 200mm.
Manual. 1/1000 second @ f/5.6. ISO 1600.

As the game wore on we started losing natural light. I still wanted to get decently fast shutter speeds, so I switched to shutter priority and dialed in 1/1000th of a second.

After several lead changes, the game was tied at the end of the ninth inning. Aramis Ramirez homered in the bottom of the 11th to secure a walk-off victory for the hometown Cubs. Wrigley erupted and sang a boisterous rendition of “Go Cubs, Go!” as the delighted fans spilled onto the streets and into the local bars.

Check out these pictures and several more in the slideshow below. Click here for a full screen version or visit the set the on Flickr.

Update: Portions of this post are now featured in the Chicago Sun-Times blog Sports Pros(e), Photography Class: When cameras meet Confines.

Starfucker is on the road again. So is the Andy Aupperlee Explosion 5000. I recently caught the cleverly named poppers in both Seattle and Chicago. I saw Starfucker twice before on their Fall 2008 tour, once in Washington DC (blog post here) and again several weeks later in Seattle. Over the winter Starfucker added a full-time drummer, Keil of Guidance Counselor, and recorded an EP titled Jupiter.

Starfucker live at Empty Bottle in Chicago, IL. April 17, 2009.

Starfucker 2.0 is a major improvement. Readers of this blog and Blog Mule will note that I loved Starfucker in their 3-piece format. Adding Keil as a dedicated drummer frees up Shawn and Josh to contribute more live instrumentation to the performance. An additional keyboard or guitar allows the band to rely less on pre-recorded parts, significantly enhancing the energy of the show. Mix in an expanded repertoire and you’ve got a ripe version of Starfucker.

Ryan and Josh at Empty Bottle in Chicago.

Shawn at the Vera in Seattle.

At the heart of Starfucker is multi-instrumentalism. Shawn, Ryan and Josh effortlessly glide between guitars, keyboards, turntables, vintage electronic equipment and percussion. At times the band is even comfortable using each hand to play a different instrument.

Shawn and Ryan battle it out on the keyboards in Seattle.

The Seattle leg of this Starfucker tour happened at the all ages Vera Project. The Vera can be a strange place to see a show. If the tweens aren’t feeling it, they’ll stand around awkwardly and maybe even sit down on the floor. Fortunately for Julie and me (both of us are a good decade+ beyond tweenhood), the crowd was ready to get rowdy.

Vera Tweens.

The tweens got so carried away with Starfucker that they actually crowd surfed. Ryan, Starfucker’s frontman, felt the love and jumped into the audience himself.

The battle continues in Chicago.

I rolled into the Empty Bottle in Chicago with an entourage three cabs deep. I cruised over with Scott, an old Chicago pal, and an even older G Rap friend, Chris Brown (Vice President of Brown Industries). Fellow Loyola alumni Ross and Cara joined me, along with my brother Aaron, sister Betsy and cousin Derek. David and Austin, both of Seattle fame, were in town for the weekend and joined the throng. I even convinced Jon Caldwell and his lovely girlfriend, Dana, to get down to Starfucker.

Since I was surrounded by so many friends and family, I only took a few photos of the Chicago performance. I was too busy making sure the Aupperlees, the Loyola Ramblers, the Strengholts, the executives, the market makers, the Boeing employees and their muses were doing whatever you should do at Starfucker. Towards the end of the set, the Chicago crowd warmed up a bit and busted a move along with us. Ryan even jumped off the stage during “Medicine” and incited a small dance riot. Starfucker is a fun band that plays fun, clever music. Seldom do 10 of my friends, let alone from different geographies and backgrounds, all agree on music. Making an accountant, journalist, fashion designer, law student and Lynden native dance proves Starfucker must be on to something.

After the show I caught up with Ryan and Keil. They graciously signed a shirt and humored my stories about seeing them in different cities. Ryan even gave Chris a sincere consultation about which size t-shirt to buy. Can somebody please post photos of Chris wearing his new fashions at Gardellas? Since they are selling the not-yet-released-and-excellent Jupiter EP, a few of us picked up the new record too. Aaron promptly sat on his copy in the cab ride home and broke it—good thing I can send him the mp3s.

For more pictures from both Seattle and Chicago, visit my Flickr set—or watch the slideshow below. Also be sure to check out Julie Harmsen’s excellent photos from the Seattle show. Most of the photos featured here are shot with the Nikon D300 camera and the Nikon 50mm f/1.8 lens. At least one picture was composed with the Nikon 35mm f/1.8 DX and the extremely wide photos are courtesy of the Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8. To compensate for the low light, these lenses were shot wide-open with ISOs of 1600 to 3200.