Today marked the beginning of the Lehigh Valley Baseball Academy’s fall baseball season. I photographed the first game of the 14u team in Birdsboro, PA. This team has only had five practices together and still put together a very respectable first game.
I really enjoy the opportunity to photograph sports. The challenge of capturing the action on the field keeps me on my toes. I surely miss a lot of the action. Sometimes the base ump is in my line of sight and sometimes I just cannot focus fast enough to capture the precise action in a play. But today I was able to get some pretty good action shots like this one. What doesn’t show on this photograph is the great throw made by the center fielder. He came up throwing and threw a strike to the catcher. Here, in this photo, you can see the catcher applying the tag. Not only does this shot catch the action of the tag out, but it also highlights the determined facial expression of the catcher as he is applying the tag.
Do you think I did a decent job of capturing the moment with this photograph?
What drives you to be out there with your camera? What motivates you to keeping going behind the viewfinder? Why do you keep taking photographs?
People have a lot of passions that drive them to do a variety of different things. Passion is defined as “intense emotional drive or excitement” in Webster’s Dictionary. You can spot someone with passion a mile away. It comes pouring out in obvious ways that cannot be missed.
Passion is what drives you when the going gets tough. Passion keeps you up late at night figuring out how to do better what drives you so much. Passion is what keeps the fire burning.
Too many photographers give up after they have a great start. But passion will keep us going.
There nothing quite like being behind the viewfinder when the action is in full swing. This weekend I photographed 3 baseball games. I cannot believe that some people honestly believe that baseball is a boring sport. The action is quick and if you blink you are sure to miss the shot. Anticipation and preparation are definitely the name of these games–both baseball and sports photography.
As a baseball coach, I learned to instruct the players to always be ready. They could blow bubble gum bubbles or whatever in-between pitches, but when the pitcher was about to go into his windup each player was to take a prep step and present their glove to the ball, thereby being in a totally ready position.
Photographers must be equally prepared and ready for the next action shot. Knowing when and where the action is about to take place can go a long way in helping to capture the action shot desired. There is nothing I like more than freezing the ball in place just as it is about to fielded by an infielder, or as the ball is about to be hit by a batter!
The next action is out there ready to be captured by your camera. The only question is will you be ready to capture the action?
One of the absolute most exciting challenges in photography is to try to capture action shots.
I like to photograph sports, which requires fast shutter speeds and a healthy number of frames per second. FPS, frames per second, refers to how many shutter releases can be snapped in one second. While this isn’t important for landscape or portrait photography, it is critical for action photography.
My Nikon D70 featured 3 frames per second. This was okay, but earlier this year when I upgraded to the Nikon D300, one of the first things I noticed was the increased FPS. The D300 sports 6 FPS and this is noticeable. For example, when I am photographing a runner caught stealing second base, I now can count on my camera freezing the baseball before it gets to the fielders glove as the base runner is sliding into second base. It is absolutely amazing to witness and hear the speed of the D300!
Baseball action shots, in my humble opinion, should feature the baseball in the photograph whenever possible. I also like to capture the flying dirt as a player is sliding into a base or a catcher putting a tag on a player who attempts a squeeze play.
Action shots require patience and persistence. The challenge this style of photography presents is worth it and I will keep putting myself in places where I can capture the exciting action!
Coach K, the head baseball coach at East Stroudsburg University, hosted his summer camp starting today. It is an excellent opportunity for boys to learn how to swing the bat better and more consistently. This camp is all about repetition and learning!
I arrived just after lunch with my camera and monopod to begin capturing the action. I positioned myself along the first base side and fairly close to the batter. My goal was to capture the nuances of the batter’s swing and hopefully get the ball in the photograph as well.
I ran through a lot of frames in a short time and thought to myself, “Boy, I’m so glad this is a digital camera!” It is just so much cheaper and easier with a digital camera. I can quickly discard the ones I don’t want. After a while, the boys started playing some games where they were instructed to put their newly learned skills to use. It was obvious that the hard work paid off and some very nice line drives came off many of the bats.
Then I got to thinking… Just as the boys are learning the parts of a good swing, so I am learning some of the fundamental ways to photograph baseball. The boys need to learn about the batters’ swing and I need to learn more about photographing the game they love to play!
So, I am learning baseball. What are you learning?
I enjoy photographing many different subjects but sports is one of my favorites. Action photos present a great challenge to capture the exact moment of a play, hopefully with the ball in the frame and perhaps some dust flying.
Player and team portraits help the memories of a special season stay alive and are important for every team and player. Moms especially like to have these keepsakes each season. 8″ x 10″ prints, memory mates incorporating an individual portrait and a team photo together, magnets, and trading cards are available for players and their families.
Capturing the initial photograph is a very important and often overlooked part of the process. A good start requires a quality photograph from the get go. Proper exposure, precise focus, appropriate white balance, and composition are all components of a good starting point.
I then like to use Photoshop to create a frame around which the photograph is placed. Some creative text can also spruce up an otherwise static photo. Take a look at this example and let me know what you think. Is this a good way to remember a special season?
I had the privilege of photographing the Lehigh Valley Baseball Academy’s 15U Team today. Bright & early at 8:30 am were on the field to do the team and player portraits. The guys did a great job cooperating for the team portraits and then had some fun using a bat in a variety of poses for their player portraits. Some put the bat across the back of their neck and rested their wrists over top each end of the bat. Others held the bat and posed in a batting stance. It was fun to see the creativity the players had with one bat when they stepped in front of the camera.
At 3:00 pm I attended their second game of the day to photograph some action shots. The game was full of action, too. We kept dodging rain drops and eventually the rain suspended the game, but not before I had the chance to capture some great action photos. The sky was obviously overcast, which provide great light for photographs. It is amazing to me how the bright colors appear so vividly on days like this. The player uniforms were stunning and brightened up an otherwise dreary day.
Go Stars!
We are currently in a tournament down at Sports at the Beach, near Rehoboth, Delaware. The 12U, 13U, and 14U teams are all here and it is a weekend full of baseball. Today was a fun day. The 14U team played a very good first game and won. Then the 13u team was in a nail-bitter. During this game the 14U players came over to cheer for the 13U team. And boy did they ever cheer! They were extremely enthusiastic and loud!
Team spirit and supporting each other is one of the benefits of playing baseball together. This is one of the many reasons I love this game.
In the first game Kevin was playing left field and had to make a diving attempt at a line drive. He literally laid out and caught the ball in mid-air. Fortunately, I was able to snap off a few photos during this play and I captured one that has Kevin diving and the ball is in his glove. Wow! Trying to capture action shots like this is what sports photography is all about.
Tomorrow will be more of the same and I can’t wait! You gotta love baseball!
Photographing baseball games is one of my photo passions. I coached baseball for nine years and while I do miss coaching, I find that I can still keep myself involved in the game by trying to capture the action with my camera. It is not always easy, but the challenge is invigorating!
I often pre-focus on a spot where I think the next play will take place. Obviously I do not always guess this correctly, but when I do it makes capturing the action much easier. I switched my focus button to be one on the back of my camera instead of with the shutter release. This allows me to focus on a spot, second base for example, and then I can recompose without losing focus on that spot. When a base runner attempts to steal second, I am ready to go.
Watching the contact zone in front of home plate helps me anticipate where the action will take place. Then I can quickly move my camera to the right spot and click away!
