Fall baseball is in full swing and on Wednesday PV played Liberty in an exciting game.
PV went up on top early and kept adding to their lead. Late in the game, however, Liberty put on an attack that produced enough runs to make it a one-run ballgame. PV tacked on one insurance run late in the game to seal the deal.
I did miss some nice shots again at this game. My 70-200mm lens, even with the 1.4x teleconverter, just doesn’t have enough reach to get the outfielders. Once in a while I can capture them making a catch, but they are quite small in the viewfinder, which makes the auto-focusing difficult and spotty.
One of my primary goals in shooting any sport is to get the ball in the frame. This is easier with a fast camera that can burst 7 frames per second, but it also helps to be able to time the shot properly. I can tell now, for example, when a hitter is going to swing at the pitch. I pay attention to every detail of the batter’s stance and approach to each pitch. If he is going to swing, I see the muscles twitch into action and I know to be ready.
This is a bit more difficult for defensive plays on the field. Getting the ball in these shots takes some forethought and a little luck at times. My nine years of coaching baseball surely helps me anticipate where the next play might take place. This is a huge help in getting the ball in the frame of these defensive plays.
I also like action shots. These shots consist of players running around the bases or reacting to a play. Who says baseball is boring? I don’t buy that argument for a second!
Today’s baseball game between PV and Stroudsburg was an exciting, back and forth game that went into extra innings!
Both teams battled back and forth all afternoon putting hits together and advancing base runners to score runs. 2-0, 3-5, 5-5, 7-5, 7-7, back and forth it went. You gotta love a game that features both hitting and scoring. The game went into the eighth inning and was decided by an RBI single in the bottom half of the inning as Stroudsburg pulled out the victory. What a game!
I could also see the light conditions changing as the game progressed. The fall season has days getting shorter and this brings the golden hour into the tail end of these games. As the sun begins to make its way down toward the horizon, the light becomes stunning.
Here are just some of the photos I was able to capture at this exciting game.
Photographing a baseball game is one of my most favorite things to do. I enjoy spending time behind the viewfinder during a baseball game and figuring out where the peak action might next take place. The thrill of trying to capture the story as the game unfolds is an exciting challenge to me!
Trying to capture the peak action of the plays on the field is my most favorite subject during a game, but many other little things happen during a game as well. Coaches call time out to talk to a player or visit the mound to talk with the pitcher. Celebrations often occur throughout the game and are sprinkled in with all the exciting action. For example, a player gets safely to second base and claps his hands in enthusiasm or a player high-fives another player after a great inning or game.
Today I am posting four celebration images that serve as good samples of what I am talking about here. They all happened in one game and just serve to show that capturing these little celebrations can really help to tell the full story of the game. This is always my goal: capturing the story of the game as it unfolds to the best of my ability. They say “a picture is worth a thousand words.” If this is true, then I wonder how many words a photo gallery of a baseball game is worth? When a photograph tells a story without having to say a word, then I know I’ve done my job.
Each month I pick a “Photo of the Month” to display on my all-baseball website: Perfect Game Photos.
The idea is to feature my favorite peak action photograph in a given month. Sometimes this is easy because a cool photograph sticks in my mind. Oftentimes, however, I have a difficult time narrowing down the choices to just one. There can be a lot of good photos taken at one game let alone in one month!
Sports photography is a challenge I enjoy. The object is simple: tell the story of the game and capture peak action. Peak action is defined as the exact moment when a play is being determined. This can be a line drive caught by a diving infielder, a hitter just making contact with the pitch, or a base runner sliding safely into a base, as is the case with this month’s photograph
I am getting better in my sports photography skills and I am becoming more consistent in getting the peak action.
Today I had the privilege of shooting a baseball game at East Stroudsburg University. It was not a college game but a baseball camp game run by the Warrior’s head baseball coach — Coach Kochmansky. Coach K runs excellent baseball camps to teach young boys the fundamentals of baseball. He teaches the proper swing, how to field a baseball, and all the basic ingredients that helps develop a boy into a solid baseball player. I know this firsthand, because our son, James, attended quite a few of Coach K’s baseball camps and learned a whole lot and developed into a solid hitter and fielder.
These photographs today focus on “The Moment.” The rest of the photographs can be seen on my website.
Most of them focus on the moment of a swing at the plate. It is that precious moment when a batter decides to swing at the pitch or not. He can see the ball and believes he can make solid contact and drive the baseball. A hitter only has a fraction of a second to make this decision and begin his swing. Capturing “The Moment” with my camera is one of the greatest and most rewarding challenges for a sports photographer. Everything has to be just right–proper focus, right composition, correct depth of field, etc.
Do you think I caught “The Moment” in these photos?
Baseball is a game with a lot of what I call stop-n-go action. You can watch a game for a long time and nothing much seems to happen. But close your eyes or blink just at the wrong time and you can miss very exciting action!
There is nothing more exciting than a play at the plate. For non-baseball fans, this simply means a play at home plate when the catcher is trying to tag out a base runner. I suppose it doesn’t hurt that in our family our son, James, is a catcher. I know I’m just as proud as any other father, but James is a great catcher. He receives and blocks well, has a good arm to second base, is throwing out more and more base-stealers, and is not afraid to put his nose into the middle of a play at home plate with a sliding base runner crashing toward him.
Here is one photo I took of him last week. As you can see, the play is at the plate and he is attempting to tag the runner out. This is the action I mean when I say there is nothing more exciting in baseball than a play at the plate. Does this photograph exude action and excitement to you? Will the base runner be safe or will he be out? Will the tag be put on in time or with the player sliding into the plate avoid the tag? In the end, this play resulted in the umpire calling the runner out! James then tossed the ball to the pitcher’s mound and turned to go into his dugout to get ready to hit.
You gotta love the action at the plate! Don’t you think? (Click on the photo to see a larger sized image with more detail)
Baseball has not only been on my mind for the past three months, but in front of my camera, too!
I confess to being a baseball junkie and, fortunately, I am able to fill my cravings by putting many baseball games at the good side of my telephoto lens. I am blessed to be able to photograph our local high school baseball games. Capturing the action of the season is one of my favorite springtime past times! This is not always as easy as it might sound. Rain delays, rescheduled games, and other obstacles got in the way this season. It sure was a cold and rainy spring in northeast Pennsylvania this year! By the end of the season I obtain enough quality photographs to share with the team at their banquet. It is always fun for the players to see their year-in-review, and it is fun for me to have the opportunity to share some of my photographic skills.
Here is a shot I captured at the Mountain Valley Conference Championship Game. It is one of my favorite shots of the season because it shows the action and intensity of these two opposing players. This photo accomplishes several of my sports photography goals:
Take a look at this photo and see if you agree that this photo accomplishes most of these goals.
Today I was back behind the viewfinder to take headshots of the local high school baseball team. My son, who is now a freshman, made the JV team. Last year the varsity team won their District Championship!
I’ve been photographing the action in their games for the past two years and year three looks to be another exciting year on the diamond. I coached baseball at the little league level for nine years and while I do miss the coaching, I get many thrills trying to capture the excitement with my camera!
I find that sports photography and wildlife photography have a lot in common. We can spend a lot of time just waiting for the perfect photo op to arise and then it is fast and furious. Then suddenly, as quickly as it came, it is all over. You’ve got to be ready in a moment’s notice or you will miss the action!
The first scrimmage is on Friday afternoon, so I have some things to get ready. I also wonder when I will next be able to carve out some time to photograph the majestic elk of Pennsylvania. Time just goes by too quickly and we all get too busy too often! I am sure the bulls are probably starting to drop their antlers by now.
In the meantime, it’s “Batter Up!” for me.
Yesterday I was sharing some of the difficulty I am having in deciding which photos should make the cut. I presented three photographs for you to look at and decide how they rate.
Well, today I want to take one photo and see if I can make it better. It happens to be the second photograph from yesterday. This first photo is the exact same one as yesterday. The photograph that follows is my attempt to make it better. What do you think? Is it better than the original?
