The Week That Was In Sports

This week things really started to get going for softball. I photographed four games with only one cancellation. I also walked up to a baseball game just before it was walked off.

A Doubleheader In Rensselaer

Saturday morning I was in Rensselaer for a softball doubleheader. I will admit that I was super tired after photographing and editing a concert the night before. West Side split the two games on the day. The light was great for softball photos for most of the time that I was there. I had been to this field before so I knew that I needed fast glass to shoot through the thick fence. I had my 300mm f/2.8 with me along with the 50-150mm f/2 for game action. My 16-35mm lens was on hand too for pregame images.

Having Some Fun With The Sky

The sky before game one was a beautiful cloudless blue. With the teams red uniforms I knew that a wide shot would look pretty cool during the anthem. I don’t make many high school anthem photos. Here though things worked out for a photo that I really liked.

Get Dirty

I loved this head first slide into home. The loose dirt around the plate just flew everywhere making for a very cool photo. These are the kinds of photos that you are hoping for when you head to a game. You don’t usually get this clean of a play at the plate, but things worked out here for a series of images that I really liked.

Getting Dialed In

Every game this year I am getting better at getting to where I need to be when the ball is hit. Here I lucked out and got to this looping liner just when it hit the mitt of the fielder. These are the photos that I love to make, and it feels good when they start to become routine again.

Photographing A Team For A Season

When you photograph a team for the season you know the stories when they happen. I knew that this was the first time that this freshman had played the field for varsity in her career. She had pinch run before, but this was her first field action of her career. I tried to move to get the logo of the team in the background for a photo that tells a small story. Earlier in the game I missed an amazing catch trying to make a story telling photo so it doesn’t always work out. When you photograph an entire season though you will miss things. I always error on the side of storytelling though so that at the end of the season I am happy with what I was able to do.

A Doubleheader And A Promposal

Tuesday night I was tipped off during the game that after the fact there would be a promposal. These are always fun photos so I was down to make them. As I said above I look at what I do as documenting the season. These little moments are a part of that season to document. If I know that they are going to happen I am always up for making the photos.

Defeating Benton Central

BC is always a fun game to make photos at. The teams usually are evenly matched, and it is a conference game. Benton Central is a team that I don’t see very often, but when I do I am impressed. This year I had fun watching them in the hoops classic in basketball. They were not always the most talented team on the floor, but man they played smart and hard. They are the same way on the softball field so this was a good win for West Side.

Photographing The JV Game

After varsity plays on a lot of nights the JV team will take the field. These games can range from 3 innings affairs to full games. I never usually know what is going on so I photograph them like they are three inning games. I try and make photos of all of the players if I can. We have gone through the JV experience before. Sometimes the games would be cancelled right about when the first pitch should have been thrown. I try and make as many photos as I can of the players so that they have the same memories as everyone else.

JV Gets The Good Light

The best light that I will see during the season will always be during JV games. I love these types of photos so I will always go wide when blue hour hits. Of course I have to hope that nothing amazing happens in the field while I am doing this, but it is worth it to make these blue hour photos.

A Fun Out

Early in the varsity game against Fountain Central there was this play at second base. It was not the typical force out at a base so I knew right away that it was going in the gallery.

Why I Do This

This photo is why I do this. My oldest got into the game Wednesday night and went two for three including a walk off double. I have been doing this photography thing for a while now. These kinds of photos keep me going. At this point in the game my knees were screaming at me to get off of them. For a few minutes though I forgot all about the knee pain and had some fun documenting this play. These are also the hardest moments that I photograph because I am usually fist pumping with one hand while making the photos.

A Quick Baseball Game

At one point I had planned to be at the entire West Side baseball game on Thursday night. We had a softball cancellation so I had a free night to photograph baseball. Everyone was home early though so we went out to eat instead of me heading to the game. I thought that I would have enough time to see some baseball as the sun was setting. Of course as I was walking up to the field I saw a runner on third in a tie game in the bottom of the 7th. I most likely would not have much time at this game. I got set up just in time for a walk off hit by pitch that gave West Side the win. I didn’t get my good light photos, but I did get a nice walk off.