What Else Is Going to Come Flying At Me?

I got beaned in the head today with a volleyball. Not that that has anything to do with anything, it just happened to be the first thing that came to mind when I decided to sit down and try to blog tonight.

I'm trying to get back into the habit of posting more. I know the posts here on MM have been a little sparse lately. But life happens. And work happens.

Work seems to be happening a lot lately. It's just that time of year when we're busy with back-to-school activities and such.

That's what I was doing when I got bonked by the aforementioned volleyball.

I started the day running late to shoot a cross country meet. Luckily I made it there and to the side of the starting gates with about 10 minutes to spare.

No I did not get run over by one of the runners. It's pretty easy to stay out of the path of another human running in a generally straight line.

But I was assailed by renegade volleyballs on four occasions later in the day when shooting multiple games in a tournament that the college I work at was hosting.

I caught one in mid-air when I had the camera down for a moment and the ball sailed into the bleachers. Another landed right beside me as I was crouching down to get off a shot. Then I had one come in low, right at me, that I saw out of the corner of my eye and was able to dodge.

But the evil one -- and I don't even know who hit it, came along right as I was about to press the shutter. And all I could do what say "Where did that come from?" (as if it was any real mystery) and make a few girls sitting near me laugh.

This isn't the first time something like this has happened.

I've had to jump out of the way on several occasions during wrestling meets or basketball games when players have sailed over the edge of the court or mat.

I had a softball hit the fence probably less than six inches above my head the first weekend I started using my work Nikon. I jokingly told my boss about that the following Monday. He laughed a little and said "Just make sure the camera stays out of the line of fire."

Gee thanks .... So much for my head.

I should be thankful I at least haven't gotten hit by a 85 mph baseball. That would do some damage.

But I guess it's all a hazard of shooting sports photos.

So 'tis time to be more vigilant about renegade objects coming my way. Or get out of the way myself.

Eh, not likely to happen. I like a challenge.

Oh, and by the way, I think I just came up with the title and topic for my next post. It's called "A Tale of Two Idiots". Stay tuned...