My Favorite Photos From This Past West Lafayette Baseball Season

In 2012 I started going to my first West Lafayette Baseball games. My nephew was on the team so I was at nearly every game. Over the years I have lost connection with the team a bit so I was not getting to as many games as I could. This year I had a reason to go to a few games, and I found myself at a few more. It was cool getting an inside look at this team again.

This is the kind of photo that you cannot plan. A ball is hit to the outfield and you swing to see if the player is near. All year long you hope for an opportunity for a diving catch, but you rarely get it. Here I had just that chance.

Here is another play that just sort of unfolded in front of me. I was on Eric before the play, and I lucked out when he made a great stop and then went airborne for the throw to first.

As senior night was winding down West Side had a chance to walk it off. I loved this moment just before the big hit when you had three players anticipating the moment. Sports is a brotherhood, and this photo kind of shows that.

As the season was winding down I was trying to do some different things at the games. Here I tried to make a photo showing some of the park and the beautiful blue hour sky. At the time I had no idea that senior Corey Adams was throwing a no-hitter. Looking back my extra photos were perfect for that night.
One great thing about Bob Friend Field is that I can get very low all around the park.  That allows me a little more freedom to make some photos. This was one of my favorites from the year. The sky and the big hit all came together for a fun photo.

This is another photo from the Corey Adams no-hitter. At the time like I said above I didn’t know he was throwing one, and as it turns out neither did he. It was a fun night though. This photo was kind of a throwback kind of picture to me. There is something that just seems old school about it.

One great thing about Bob Friend Field is that it has a dirt infield. When a player slides you get all kinds of particles in the air, and that makes for good photos. Here I think it helps this photo of a slide into second base.

This year I saw two no-hitters. The funny thing about both of them is that I had no idea that either of them were happening in the moment. The scoreboard at Bob Friend does not have a hit column and I was with my little one for this game. I was still making photos that I liked, but I also was helping her understand the game a little. I even had to leave for a bit to walk her over to the school for her scout meeting. After Evan Cooke threw the last pitch of the game the team mobbed him. I guessed it was for the complete game shutout. Later that night I found out that he threw a no-hitter. Thanks to this team I was able to photograph two no-hitters this year. My little one made a couple of photos of Evan during the game so technically she has photographed a no-hitter now too.

I love the way that the light hits this field. You get some great chances to make some interesting photos for a long time due to the way that the field is oriented. Here I had some fun trying to get the sun to leak into the lens a little while making my action photos.

Here is another blue hour photo at Bob Friend Field. I love how this stadium and the lights look in the blue hour light. This year more than any other I started having some fun after the sun went down. This was one of my favorite photos of that time.

With the screen that covers the entire area around the plate you can get low and make some fun photos of the players in the on deck circle. I would move around to put the stadium lights in different places. Here things really worked out for a photo that I liked.

Over the next couple of weeks I will go over some of my favorite photos from this spring high school sports season. I think my next post will highlight some of my favorite Harrison baseball photos. This was a fun spring season that resulted in some photos that I really liked. This year I started having a little more fun with my photos and going for it a bit more. I was not worried about game galleries, but rather making some interesting photos to me. That was pretty freeing, and it helped make a stronger year end gallery in my eyes.