The shot too me looks great. If you want to emphacise person move in closer and use wide open lens to fuzz out background.

"Wait'l you hear this one, Granny.

If using a tripod I just place my hand where it shades the lens front element.

From what I can find out the only difference is the warrantee. If nothing breaks they are the same.

I have a Nikon D200, not interested in video. Have done fireworks, a solar eclipse and have not asked anything of it that did not turn out well. Why would I want to upgrade?

It's been years but my dealings with Abe's of Maine has been ok. They would try to sell me more than I asked for but just say no. If you know how to check out an old camera pawn shops can be worth checking out.

I remember Joe saying; "For me the catcher never gave signals, he just yelled to the pitcher what to throw".

Our Knothole program was backed by the United Fund and was school against school A 4th grade team (going into the 5th) 11 years old . a kid who had failed one year might be 12 and if born before
sept 1 could play but not as a pitcher. Playing off was a mixed blessing for stealing on the long 90 foot bases was easier but a line drive anywhere and a throw to 1st base and a double play. The big down side to this program was that a large school could overpower the smaller schools, more to pick from.

I had this problem with an Olympus OM 1. I took the bottom plate off a working copy and watched the sequence of mechanical connections to the shutter release then saw a minor adjustment which I believe tripped the mirror. A tiny pair of needle nosed pliers and a tiny adjustment and all works as new. The Olympus had been dropped.

Another story; Knothole was a little different than regular "youth" baseball in that we played on 90 foot bases earlier and could play off and risk pickoff. Also if a small school showed up with 7 players they could pick up up to 2 players (not a pitcher). Once our opponents were 1 player short so we volunteered one of our benchwarmers to fill in. This kid played the game of his life and I thought we were going to lose because of one of our own players. But I was happy for the little guy--I know he was thinking---"I'll show 'em".

Many years ago my 3rd grade son came home; "Dad, can I play knothole baseball"? Yes of course. I ended up helping coach. Since the team is basically centered around a pitcher you gotta find one.. Who's the pitcher. About everyone's hand goes up, but if 3 or 4 point to one kid then you know you've found your pitcher. You build the team as a family. You try them out to see what each can do best then assign positions. You never chew anyone out for a mistake. If we lost we got together after the game and asked "why did we lose". OK, now we know what we must work on. We won the league championship after which the league president bought tickets to see our minor league team, the Lookouts. Comment from one of our guys; "You mean we gotta sit with those other guys"? Coach; "Look, son we just wanna beat these guys, we don't hate them". MEMORIES. I think I may have learned more from this team than they learned from me. I have a lot of stories about them, one was when we had to pull in our left handed 1st baseman to relieve our pitcher. He did so well that we started him in a few games and he came up with a no-hitter. I have more if anyone is interested.

That's refreshing, to find someone from within our borders who is just an 'American'.

I knew of a team called the "BUMS". It was the acronym of the Methodist church to which they went.

Also "native Americans" gets my dander up. We are ALL native Americans unless immigrants. Even my Indian ancestor Double Head's ancestors were once immigrants. I'm about ready to go into my war dance.

At one time the high end Schwinn Bikes were very good touring bikes for not a lot of money. The number of gears or more properly the gear range should be selected to fit the type touring you plan to do. In the mountains with heavily loaded bike will need low end gears obviously.