One thing that always amazes me about life is how little control we have over much of it…but even more amazing than that is all the little moments of foreshadowing that we can see when we look back at everything along the way with those rose-colored glasses that give us that perfect 20/20 vision.
If you had asked me when I was in eighth grade what I wanted to do, I would have said one thing: Listen to people’s stories. I had grand visions on becoming a journalist where I could talk to those in the middle of turmoil (either naturally or man-made or self-inflicted) and then re-tell those to an audience for their own emotional response. I moved away from that dream into a different view of my future, one that involved more classrooms than newsrooms, but I have kept the tools of my trade close, and love how they have brought me back to my origin in storytelling (thanks to you, of course).
This movement back to basics, back to journalism and photography, made an otherwise normal Facebook post extremely interesting as flowed through onto my screen in the middle of June; it advertised a special event, Photography Night at Target Field. Being that seeing a Twins game this sometime was on my summer bucket list, this piqued my interests; being that I am a photographer, it was pretty much a done deal, and within minutes of seeing the opportunity, I seized it, and had tickets for an early July baseball game against the Kansas City Royals.
Prior to the game (which was a 3-1 victory for the home team), a chunk of us were privy to a special tour of the field, led by the Twins’ official photographer, Brace Hemmelgarn. After walking up and down and all around the venue, peeking at well-known spots up close and seeing some things for the first time, the tour ended with a Q&A with Brace, who revealed his main job objective: To stop the action.
Brace has a brain like mine–always loved graphic design, trained in communications more than fine arts and photography, things of that nature. It was much appreciated, then, that he held this to be true of what he is meant to do. As photographers, that’s what we are meant to do.
Stop the action.
Pause the moment.
Record the emotion.
Photographers get the special task of being able to stop time, all in the hopes of keeping a memory alive. Until Doc Brown comes around and we figure out how to time travel, the only way we can step back into the past is through photographs, so it is important to always try to stop the action. Be it a home run at a baseball game or a smash cake first birthday party, there are some sacred moments that need to be saved. There are stories that need to be told with a simple glance of the eyes.
Here are a few of my actions, stopped, from the Minnesota Twins’ Photography Night at Target Field…
A skyline I never get sick of seeing, as viewed from my room at Loewes Hotel.
Minnie and Paul, up close and personal.
A lovely little bar at Target Field.
Bat + Barrel, a restaurant that is now open to all fans!
Batting practice.
Literally #Twinning, in all ways.
The “Vote Rosie” shirts were a cute, quirky way to get fans in the spirit to vote Eddie Rosario into one of the final All-Star spots. It tied into a larger campaign inspired by “The Bachelor”/”The Bachelorette” with allusions to the rose ceremony. In the end, MLB fans did not accept Minnesota’s Rosie, but he–I mean it–was still adorable.
When on the jumbo screen, clearly you take a picute of it while everyone else waves…
The hometown boy!
