Baseball Nivana: In Bloom...

John Bloom likes baseball.

Call me Captain Obvious...

Nearly HALF of his artwork images involve hardball related looks. Whether it be his East Marshall Mustang uniform and homefield... or his Perfect Game totally fly flat-billed cap... or all of his Mustang T-shirts and gear from 4 years of play or even just his classic Boston Red Sox cap... Dude loves all things on the diamond.

Luckily for him... his photographer feels the same way about America's Pastime, so bringing out amazing baseball images didn't feel like work... it felt more like play.

I was "invited" by John's mom, AnnDee, to come to more EM games this summer so I could get some candids of John playing a multitude of positions for Coach Denny Allen's squad. While I never mind going to support my alma mater... out of convenience and several other factors... my wife and I have chosen to find our way to more Mustang softball games over the years. So, making it to more than a handful of games this summer, and being given nearly unlimited access to the program by Coach Allen, felt like a re-connection of sorts. And I'm not gonna lie... it was fun for this former player to just be one of the guys again.

Rubbin' elbows with last year's seniors like Luke, Deej and Kues... and schmoozin with this year's group that includes John, Dakota and Lance... it was good times at least a couple nights a week all summer. The result is below with John's collage that features him at 5 different positions (3rd, short, 1st, catch and pitch). John knows how to play the game... and he goes about it the right way, which comes as no surprise as Coaches Allen, Frost and Benzing won't have it any other way.

I have it on good authority from conference foe Cole Thompson (see previous blog "CT Scan") that no one in the NICL West threw harder from the mound than Mr. Bloom. I see that as high praise, ESPECIALLY when you look at John's slight build. Perhaps he's EM's version of San Francisco's Tim Lincecum... another guy that you look at and go.. where does that HEAT come from? Hats off to mechanics, I say.

So we did up the baseball stuff to the max... and I knew that was coming. What I didn't know was the gem I was gonna walk into prior to getting to the ball diamond that Friday morning.

AnnDee asked if we could meet at John's OTHER home-away-from-home at his grandma's place one mile south of Laurel. I think they THOUGHT I was gonna photograph a car, a truck, tractor and a dog and that would be it. Ten or twenty minutes or so, right?

Wrong answer.

I've become the king of finding nooks and crannies that no one else would think of shooting... and an old farmstead was perfect. Just when the Blooms thought we were done at grandmas... there was another spot I just had to photograph. I love the shot in the old shop... the super cool old IH work truck, and the antique gas pumps were unique as well. Grandma better watch out or I might just plop my studio there and use that spot daily!

We had the whole family in attendance for most of the session... so it was nice to reunite with John's folks and 2008 Stewart Photography alum, Aurora. Team Bloom came in real handy when having to take all the tarps off the field in Gilman.. (and to weed the diamond in spots!) Obviously the baseball/softball thing has always been a family affair for this clan, and that's really cool in my book. Thanks for letting me play ball with ya, gang. :)