Back At Bob Friend Field Again

This year with no midweek college games I knew that I would want to fill that void a bit. I decided to try and see games at all of the local high school fields. I have already visited two for the first time, and now we can add an old friend to the list. I have been going to games at Bob Friend Field since watching my nephew play there in 2012. I have made a lot of photos there, and it is always good to come back and make some more. The fact that it is in my neighborhood is always a big plus as well. I used to know more of the kids on the team as well. I really don’t know anyone at this point. I know of a couple of the kids. The starting pitcher for instance is an amazing content producer. If the playing side of athletics does not work out for him he has a future in covering athletics for sure.

Making Photos For Me

For years I would show up to the field and cover it like any other event that I would cover. I would make photos of every player and make sure that I had good coverage. Last night I felt myself start to fall into that mode again. After four softball games over the weekend that was easy to do. At some point though I realized that I have never sold a photo at this field so I decided to just make photos for me. It was kind of my day off so why not have some fun? I went away from the sun to try and make some more artful photos.

Photographing Backlit

This field is made for making backlit photos. You have a lot of range on the third base side with the new netting to work the photo to get right where you need to be. A couple of years ago I made one of my favorite baseball photos ever of West Side catcher Owen Walbaum from this exact spot. This game went far too quickly though to get the truly great light. Maybe the game Thursday can go a little longer.

The Sony 200-600mm Lens

I really have been having fun using the Sony 200-600mm lens this year. The bokeh is not what I would get from my 400 or 600 primes, but having that range with one light and compact lens is hard to beat. I bought the lens with the idea that it would be perfect for softball and baseball. So far it has shown itself to be just that.

The One Hour Challenge

I went to the field Monday night with the idea that I would have about an hour to make photos. The goal is to make as many different photos as I can in that hour. Of course the light started to stream in better and better so I kind of just worked that for a while. I was not at the field for an hour as the game ended pretty quickly, but I still came away with some photos that I really liked.

What Is Next?

So far on my high school baseball season I have had a cool little pattern forming. I saw Jeff play Central Catholic to start the year. Then I saw Central Catholic play Twin Lakes the next week. This week Twin Lakes was playing in my neighborhood so they let me keep this little streak alive. Right now the plan is to be back on Thursday to see West Side take on Harrison. If I keep with the pattern I would see Harrison play a local school next, but I don’t know if that will happen.

More Photos From The Game

I think I finally have a plan for how this blog will work going forward now. The post with the photos from the game will now go out much earlier than this blog post. Sports photos have an expiration date on them I always feel like. After the busy weekend my photos from the game would have come out today, and I felt like that was way too long so I decided to have three posts go out yesterday. You can go back and see the full photo gallery from my hour at the field here.