Into everyone’s life a little baseball must fall

I wasn’t sure what to title this post, it was either the above title or Argh, there be pirates here matey.

Well, Major League Baseball’s Pittsburgh Pirates that is.

It’s a rare thing when the weather is nice enough to open the roof of the baseball stadium for a day game and when it happens, as a photographer you tend to get a bit giddy and go all shot-crazy. The lighting can be a bit harsh and exposing for the highlights and the shadows can be a real challenge but having some natural light in a place where most of the season is played in a covered stadium is enough to make even the most experienced photographer’s heads explode.

To see more baseball images click the continue reading link below.

MLB – Chasing the light, the heart of darkness and trying to improve my baseball photography

Photographing Major League Baseball in Phoenix can be a bit of a challenge, you only get a few “hat trick” games per season. What I mean by “hat trick” is a day game, with the roof of our stadium open and the home team in their red uniforms. More often than not our games start at 6:40 PM and the roof is closed which can put you at 2000 and up for ISO, and that doesn’t always make the best images.

I don’t want this to sound like I’m complaining, just that capturing good clean images that photo buyers are looking for can be a bit of a challenge. I try to face those challenges head-on, but at times I am not up to the task. Every game and every team has a different personality to it and you try to do the best you can with the given conditions.

Here is a look at a few of my favorite images so far this season, and some of my epic fail shots as well. I’ll leave it up to you to determine which shots are winners and which shots are headed for the fail bin.

I liked this shot of Arizona Diamondbacks Justin Upton (10) at the plate because it was one of those rare “hat trick” games. I think I should have given this shot a little bit more head-room and the lighting is somewhat harsh, but overall I liked it because you get to see his eyes and the entire bat at the end of his follow-through.

To see more great baseball images, click the more link below.

Monster Energy AMA Supercross Round 2 – JAN 15 Chase Field, Phoenix AZ

Shooting AMA Supercross has been on my “bucket list” of things I wanted to shoot for a few years now and I finally managed to break the door down and get them to let me cover the supercross here in Phoenix.

Shooting supercross is tough, fast-moving motorcycles and riders, dirt flying everywhere, and because it is held in a stadium I’m guessing challenging lighting conditions. The Phoenix Supercross is held in Chase Field, normally a baseball stadium, but the event organizers put plywood over the entire field and dirt on top of that and create a fantastic supercross racetrack. Chase Field is a tough place to shoot when the roof is closed, which is most of the baseball season because it gets hot here in the desert, but today the weather is nice and temps will be in the mid-70′s so I mistakenly think they will have the stadium roof open for the practice and qualifying sessions starting around noon. On my drive down to the stadium there is a point on the freeway where I can see downtown and the stadium so I can tell if the roof is open or closed before I even get to the stadium. I notice that the roof is closed and realize that I will have a very challenging day ahead of me shooting AMA Supercross for the first time.

Let the fun begin.

For a few minutes there was a splash of sunlight that came in through the side of the building so I spent as much time as I could “playing” with it. I think this shot is the best result from that session as Supercross Lites rider Brad Nauditt powers out of a berm.

See more Monster Energy AMA Supercross action by clicking on the more link below (hint, it’s worth a look because there is some hot stuff in there.)

MLB Extra Innings, uh I mean extra images . . .

I haven’t been real excited about my skills shooting football lately so I thought I’d go back and take a look at some of the last few baseball games. Maybe get some inspiration back.

So, how about some baseball? I was having fun with my watermark on a few of these, I hope you like them.

I love the reaction on San Francisco Giants Cody Ross (13) face as he reacts to being hit by a pitch at the plate. The expression on his face is what makes this image for me, sure it would be a better image if you could see the ball hitting his arm, but I just didn’t time it right and his expression and the ball are not in the same frame.

See more by clicking on the more link.

Street portrait project, well sort of . . .

I’ve seen the random stranger street portrait thing done by other photographers and have always wanted to try this, and as it turns out some other photographers in the local area wanted to do the same thing. The problem is they were doing it on a day when I was at a baseball game, bummer for me. So I tried to do something like it at the baseball game. I talked with some of the vendors that were working at the game and asked if I could take their picture, well some said sure and some said, “we are not allowed to have our pictures taken, we can take your picture, but they don’t want us to get our picture taken” I thought that was a bit of a strange response, but figured whatever, and moved on to another vendor.

Here is a few shots I got.

I tried hand-holding my 580EX II and triggering it wirelessly, but that wasn’t working as I couldn’t hold the flash, change camera settings and aim the flash all at the at the same time, so I just put the flash on the camera’s hotshoe and shot ETTL II, and the results were not as bad as I thought they would be.

See more images by clicking on the more link.

What this blog needs is more Major League Baseball . . .

I don’t know if this blog needs more baseball or not, but I will post some baseball images because that is what I have been shooting these days. I’ve been shooting a bunch of other stuff that doesn’t fit into nice neat little categories so for this post I’ll offer up some baseball.

The local team in not doing so well in the standings and that means the fans haven’t been attending games, maybe this will help.

06 July 2010: Chicago Cubs pitcher Ted Lilly (30) during warmup before a regular season game between the Chicago Cubs and the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona. The Cubs defeated the Diamondbacks 6-4 in 9 innings.

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Some of my favorite baseball images

I wanted to put up some more baseball images for your viewing pleasure.

Just love the large field of green in this one.

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Major League Baseball and Chase Field in Phoenix Arizona

I wanted to show my diversity and let you know that I enjoy shooting a large variety of different types of subjects. I love baseball, mostly because it is played at a different pace than most other sports and although it is a team sport the focus is always on an individual, like the pitcher, or batter or runner.

When you shoot a baseball game you can always count on needing to be at the ballpark at least two hours before the game, and most games are three-plus hours long, so you can expect a very long day.

With Chase Field if the roof is closed you will struggle with lighting issues, I don’t care how much f2.8 glass you bring you will be pushing the ISOs to get your shutter speeds high enough to stop the action, that is just the way it is and you know that before you even get to the ballpark.

Chase Field is a great facility and tons of fun to shoot there, at times a real challenge, but always fun.

Read the rest of the story by clicking on the “more” link below.