My Favorite Purdue Baseball Images From The 2024 Season

I am a little late on some of these recap posts. I do like to put some time in between the season and the post to let the season sink in. This was a fun season where Purdue was in the thick of the Big Ten race nearly the entire season. It was fun to see some meaningful baseball at Alexander Field again. Below are a few of my favorite images from this past Purdue baseball season.

We start off with an overall image of Alexander Field from opening day. I have been making photos in this stadium since 2013 and it never gets old. Here it was a beautiful day for baseball and I wanted to show that off a little.

This was the year of emotion. With Purdue being in the race and playing in big games there was emotion all over the stadium. Here are three of my favorite images showing some of the emotion from the field.

This year Purdue baseball had a student section. As the season went on the players seemed to acknowledge them more and more. I used that to my advantage and moved over next to them to get some more interesting photos. Here is one of my favorite photos from a moment just after a big base hit.

The way that the schedule works out over the year makes it so the team rarely plays during sunset. Over the years the amount of great sunsets at the stadium is pretty low. On this night the sunset was starting to get good right as Purdue was taking the field for the inning. I ran out to make a quick photo to get the great clouds in the shot.

Jackson Dannelley is a player that I have photographed for a few seasons. It started with two seasons for the Lafayette Avaiators. He was one of those great guys that was always interacting with the young fans making their day at the park a little better. Then I was lucky to see him pitch for Purdue for two seasons.

I don’t have the numbers to back this up, but it seems like Purdue turned more double plays this season than I can remember in a long time. Maybe I was just at the games where it seemed to happen more. I don’t think that it is any coincidence that Purdue was near the top of the division late into the year with a good defense behind the pitcher.

Baseball is such a fun sport to photograph. Most of the time though you can be far away from the players. During pregame though you can get a little closer to bring the fans closer to the game.

Purdue prides itself on being tough and taking the hit by pitch. At one point though Mike Bolton seemed to be getting hit every at bat. Here he reacts after the pitch hit him in the head. I can’t believe that teams were throwing at him because you don’t want Mike to get on base. Good things would happen when he was hit.

With the sun setting early in the season I had an idea. Could I find a spot to get the sun coming through the stadium? I got lucky and found a spot where I could make this photo. Next year I would like to try this again, but maybe somewhere on the other side of the netting. I like the idea of making something different though so this photo makes the list.

I love this moment just before the start of the game. With a mirrorless camera I can make these types of photos without a loud shutter click to disturb the player. It is simple, but I really like how it turned out.

I made these photos a couple of games apart, but they have a similar theme. You have the same player in the on deck circle with some great clouds overhead. As the season went on this year I realized that I could have a little fun with my photography. I didn’t have to get every at bat or big play. What was selling was photos like the two above. It made it really fun for me to start going for something different.

I like this photo for a similar reason to the photo a couple up. It is something a little different for me at this stadium. After a few years on the field here it seems like you are making the same photos over and over.

This is something fun after the sun set. I was having some fun with the pitchers motion when I realized that I could stop the ball at a certain point. This is one of those photos that I just made for myself. I knew that it would never sell, but it was fun to make.

The setting sun during pregame helps make for good photos. Here I had some fun during the anthem with the sun behind the players.

Here you have Mike Bolton during blue hour. I have made so many photos of Mike over the years. He was a super fun player to photograph, and when I made this photo I knew that it could very well be the last one that I made of him. The light and the situation worked out pretty good for one last photo.

Another fun overall view of the stadium here. The clouds were amazing, and for a moment a rainbow started to form. It never really formed, but the clouds put on quite a show.

I really like how this image turned out. It is a simple fielding photo, but the background just worked out to make it a little more interesting for me.

This is one of the last photos that I made of the Boilers this season. It is fitting that it is a sunset image. I got down really low to make something interesting here. This is a fun ballpark so it is always fun to make photos that make it look good.

This was a year where I was always learning. My role was a little different with me making images for the wire. I was covering both teams most of the time. In fact there were a few games where I went to the stadium with a much bigger list of players for the opposing team to make photos of. I still found a way to make some photos that I really liked. In fact not having to worry about getting everyone into the gallery opens up a whole new way of photographing the games. I had some fun trying some things out that I haven’t done before. I didn’t get to as many games this year as I would have liked to, but I had a great time when I was able to get out there.