7) When opening lineup starts, look at dugout. If you're rooting for home team, beginning of game is a great time to get player photographs as they are running out onto field. If not, take photographs during middle of inning. If you don't get perfect photo, delete bad photographs during lull times and try later during game.

8) To take a picture of a swinging batter that will last a lifetime, do following:

*) Preparation is key. First, before game, know how to operate your digital camera. Practice focusing camera and quickly deleting unused photos - sometimes you can delete an unwanted photo before it is completely saved to camera's memory.

*) Before pitch, focus your viewfinder on batter's box and try not to cut out any of batter's body. Zoom in as appropriate, but remember more you zoom in, slower potential shutter speed needed to take a clear photo.

*) Anticipate shutter lag. Lock your focus before pitch; this usually is done by pressing shutter button down half-way.

*) Time it... time it... then as soon as ball is about to hit bat, press down fully on shutter button.

*) If pitch is a strike or swing is not one to be remembered, cancel save so your picture is not written to memory. This way, you can save room for other photos.

9) Look around for photo opportunities not directly related to action. Take a photograph of grounds crew cleaning bases and raking dirt between innings. Get a few shots of crowd. Take a picture of scoreboard. Look at surrounding area. If you want to remember full experience of a baseball game years from now, you should take advantage of one of best features of a digital camera - ability to take lots and lots of photographs - and shoot photographs showcasing FULL baseball experience.

10) Take a break during game! You came to baseball game to enjoy spectacle, not just to take pictures, right? Designate a few innings as photo-free time where you just sit back, munch on a hot dog, drink a soda, and soak in environment.

Remember to study your digital camera manual first and practice, practice, practice! Follow these ten tips and you'll be on your way to taking "home run" baseball photographs in no time.

Copyright 2005 Andrew Malek.

12) Kerr/Kerr (11, 50.71) There's still a fairly sizable gap between her skills and his, although he has improved. They have nice foxtrot expression. Theirs twizzles in sbs footwork was very messy towards end. Their quickstep was fine, but not quite as good as foxtrot.

13) Gregory/Petukhov (12, 50.22) I got advice to only watch him, not her, and I enjoyed them much more than usual. Interpret that as you want. Of course, then I missed mistake she made on twizzles during sbs footwork, which also lacked flow. Decent Charleston expression. Too much stroking in foxtrot section.

14) Kulikova/Novikov (14, 48.72) She did best with quickstep, while he shone in foxtrot. Second quickstep had very little traditional quickstep character. They had a slightly messy quality overall.

I did not rank rest of teams.

Hoffman/Elek (17, 45.34) They start with a foxtrot, which was absolutely lovely and really captured rhythm. The quickstep was very good too, but did not quite work as well as foxtrot. And somebody needs to teach Atilla to twizzle, because I'm sick of him messing those up, as he did on sbs footwork. And then he had trouble lifting Nora on final lift, although a portion of that can probably be blamed on her 472346 pound dress. But overall, this was a very nice OD.

Gudina/Beletski (18, 42.85) They start off with an enthusiastic Charleston. But foxtrot was dull, with little difficulty. And unfortunately they could not pick up energy level with final quickstep section, to Dancing Fool of all songs.

Watanabe/Kido (15, 46.57) A very good and in-character quickstep. Diagonal footwork could flow better. Their foxtrot was good, but not quite as in character as quickstep. He has some trouble with last lift.

Grebenkina/Azronjan (16, 46.02) Great energy, and their movements are very dance-y and fit quickstep well. Their foxtrot is to extremely odd music - just a rhythm and no melody. But they end with another well-done quickstep section.

Beier/Beier (20, 41.66) Very cute and charming, with a good ballroom interpretation of rhythms.

Kauc/Zych (22, 40.92) Fabulous foxtrot expression. Twizzles during sbs footwork were messy. Basic skating is very good. This program lacked falls that their programs usually have, but it also lacked energy and attack. Their quickstep expression is also very nice.

Pechalat/Bourzat (23, 40.71) They start with a very charming and well characterized Charleston. But she takes a bad fall during sbs footwork. Their musicality in foxtrot was good, but choreography wasn't very ballroom. They fixed that during a great quickstep section.

Yang/Gao (19, 42.67) Decent foxtrot. She hits a lovely position during lift. She's very charming. Charleston is nice too. He looks to have trouble rotating final lift.

Golovina/Voika (21, 41.57) They start with movements that seem to exaggerated for more subtle foxtrot rhythm. But they still have good musicality and energy. Decent quickstep, but again movements don't fit rhythm very well.

Munana/Munana (25, 36.31) As sick as I am of Chicago ODs, this one was great. Both rhythms, especially Charleston, were interpreted fabulously. Both skaters sparkled. They clearly do not have technical ability of top teams, but if they can ad technical content in future, they most definitely will be contenders.

Akimova/Shakalov (29, 31.35) Very polished, but little else going for them. He tripped on sbs footwork. Diagonal footwork is . Their musicality is pretty good.

Aureli/Vaturi (24, 38.66) They start off with a lot of dancing in place. They have somewhat poor ice coverage on sbs steps. But they have a good understanding of both quickstep and foxtrot. Unfortunately, they really lack in technical content.

Haunstetter/Hoenlein (27. 33.00) Chicago. Again. But they have a very good Charleston, and his foot position during lift was fabulous. Ugly and out-of-sync twizzles. The rest of sbs wasn't much better. They looked like they were skating two different programs during sbs steps. He is terrific.

Buck/Nelson-Bond (28, 32.85) Good Charleston expression. Pretty good speed through diagonal footwork. She hits great positions in their lifts. Their weakness seems to be basic skating. They also had unison trouble on sbs footwork.

Keller/Keller (26, 33.23) Really weird Charleston music. Decent musicality. Their program is very empty. They also lacked energy. Their quickstep expression was best of three rhythms.

Galcheniuk/Krupen (30, 28.14) Most of their skating is decent. Their programs aren't empty, and their musical interpretation is okay. Plus, they have nice energy. Unfortunately, nothing about their skating is anything better than decent, especially their basic skating.

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Competition Reviews