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Two weeks later....State Baseball
June 22, 2007Okay...this is way late and I'm sorry about that.
So, J.Scott Russell and I headed down to always fun Austin (Round Rock more specifically). Already, the trip is more fun than the previous two trips down the Hwy. 281...simply because now I have somebody to talk to on the way down.
We goofed off, listened to loud 80's rock, he took a nap (I couldn't....since I was driving). The hours flew by a heck of a lot quicker.
Now, generally speaking, baseball isn't my fave. sport to shoot. But it's easily my fave. sport to watch. Shooting baseball isn't easy, because there aren't a whole lot of chances for really great art, and when those chances happen...you have to be lucky and in the right spot with the right lens.
Archer City's semifinal game was kinda boring if you ask me. I mean, they won and all, but there wasn't a lot of action...and when there was, I wasn't lucky enough to be in the right spot. I still got some good photos.
So, without further delay...here are some baseball stuffs.
One of the things I here from folks who are into sports photography is how "hard" it is to get a good bat on the ball photo during the game. It's not...you just have to have quick reflexes and good timing.
The trick isn't to rely on your camera's motor drive (The D2Hs I use can shoot at 8-frames per second). This isn't a sequence of shots like in football where you could have the running back breaking through the line....
This is a split second....I was lucky and nabbed a bunch of near ball on bats. But I nailed two of them on each day.
The trick is to get a good shot of a base hit or homer...instead of a ground ball out. Both of my hits were important to the game...and lots of fun to look at. I didn't know an aluminum bat would bend like that.
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So what do you do when the game is boring but you need photos?....try something different.
Move around the ballpark and take chances, or shoot things that you might not normally. This case, with a runner on first base, there's always the chance that you'll get a steal at second (Which I call the "cover your ass" shot).
Because of the positioning of the photo wells at the Dell Diamond, this shot was possible.
Another angle was to go up in the stands and behind home plate...but I didn't want the catcher or the umpire in the way...so move a little to the right and you've got an isolated shot with no background clutter (from being up higher) and no home plate clutter. I love these kinds of shots becase you can move the angles a bit and change the entire photo easily.
Another case of trying to make something different happen on a boring game... I had enough length on my camera lens to shoot from the outfield bleachers (or grass berm more accurately). I was trying to get a shot of the batters hitting the ball, but didn't get anything worthwhile.
So, I decided to shoot the Archer City baserunners coming up to first....it worked out well with a low throw and good stretch. Just a bit of a different angle.
So...when you have a boring game, your only hope is to get good post-game reaction. You have to be quick and pay attention to, because you hope for stuff like this....
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Now...the ultimate vindication for shooting hours of baseball can happen at a moments notice, and the bigger the game, the bigger the moment will have an impact and the bigger fool you look if you don't shoot it right.
Archer City had one of the good moments..... then the pure joy that is winning a state title.
Easily my fave. baseball photo of all time (the first one in this series)....
So the end of the game is nearing, and Archer City is mowing them down in the last inning, I was just in the stands down the first base line waiting to jump onto the field and shoot the jube that was soon to follow.
I had already taken my 400mm f2.8 lens off one of my cameras and replaced it with the 17-55mm f2.8. The other camera had the 70-200mm f2.8 lens for the further back joy shots.
The last batter sends a popup towards right field, and I knew that if the kid caught it, he was going to go crazy, giving me a few frames before I would swing back around to the dugout and pitchers mound where the dog-pile would most likely take place.
So I turn the camera towards Weldon Stallcup, and he's running.....and running....and running towards the foul line. I never looked away from the viewfinder and as he started to dive, I pushed the shutter and held it down for about 20 frames.
The three panel photo ran in the paper the next day.
I had more to choose from...but I wanted the peak-est moments. Here are those three...and seven others in a sequence.
Then...the party was on.....
Posted by Jason Palmer at 10:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Comments
I like the first base shot! Trying to find different shots in baseball is tough. Seems like I get the same shots every game. I'm always trying to find new angles and I think the first base shots works really well from the outfield! Kudos!
Oh, the dive shot is kinda OK too? LOL :)
