When Everything Comes Together

This photo was a lot of luck all coming together. The high school baseball season is a tricky thing. A few weather delays early, and the entire schedule that you thought that you had disappears. If I remember right this was one of those nights. You never know when the local team will play, but when I heard the loudspeaker I would know that it was time to get the gear and head to Bob Friend. As the sun set I stayed longer than I had planned because the light was so good. I am glad that I did because I made one of my favorite baseball images ever by staying. The light was perfect here to show off a lot of what makes baseball great.

To Watermark Or Not?

One thing that I was struggling with coming into the high school baseball season was whether or not to watermark and lock my photos of the local teams. When I first started this whole thing I would make the portraits of some of the players on the team so I felt like giving out a few action photos during the season was not a big deal. I would show up and unlock my gallery. Everyone benefited from a few that paid for my service. It was not the best business idea, but I felt good doing it. As this spring was coming closer I was starting to re-think that idea. It had been a few years since I made any portraits for the local team. I was still giving out free photos, but those free photos were coming with requests that took up more and more of my time. My thank you was turning into a way for me to spend more time away from family with no money coming into the business. The icing on the cake was a parent sending me a screenshot of a parents group where they openly talked about not paying me because I would show up for free. This thing that I used to do as a thank you had now turned against me somehow. I think that whenever local sports start back up again that the photos will be locked and with a watermark on the photos. I hate watermarks. I hate everything about them. They distract from the image. It is a way though to keep my photos from being misused. It is a shame that it comes to this, but at some point my time is worth something. I have some time to sort everything out before the next games I imagine.