Howard Kendrick His first (and no doubt favorite) subjects for Howie Kendrick's photography hobby: his two kids.

Baseball players travel a lot, spending half the season in a dozen or so great North American cities, plus Cleveland.

But most ballplayers had might as well stay at home given how little they get out and experience a city on a road trip. Players get to the ballpark so early in the day now -- most arrive between noon and 2 o'clock for a 7:05 p.m. game -- and games can last so long into the night that the next step in stadium design will be adding lockers with king-sized beds and chocolate mints on the pillows. Players spend much of their careers on what should be great summer road trips, but too few take away anything more from the experience than the leftover cash from their per diem.

"It took me six years to get out of my hotel room,'' Anaheim second baseman Howie Kendrick acknowledges. "I'm not a person who is shy about going different places. I love going different places."

Kendrick didn't get out and start exploring until he was properly motivated. What provided that motivation was taking photos of his two young sons last year and discovering the joy of photography. Now he brings a camera with him to record the sites -- and sights -- of the road, and posts the images on Tumblr (look for his blog at HK472B) and other social media.

"It's just something good to get me out of the room and get me to see different things, to experience the places we are," he says. "Because sometimes on the road, you can get tired of sitting in your room. Another thing you can do is go out and shop. And that gets old, too."

Photography, he says, gives him "that opportunity to do something different, to see something different."

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