Did Someone Say Baseball?

[Old Timer]

Been a while since I've had anything to contribute on the Sports Forum. I finally got to shoot a baseball game this afternoon. Here a few of for your review. All of these were with the D200. Trying it for the first time for sports.

[swmdrayfan]

Finally got out there, eh Larry? Everything looks good to go.
You're in mid-season form. I'm still waiting for it to get above 50 with no snow before I shoot ball games.

[Old Timer]

I am a ways off mid-season form but all in all things went pretty well. Bat on the ball was still the toughest one to try and get dialed in. But I really liked how you could see the bend in the bat on the shot I posted.

[Jimmy B]

Nice shots Larry. One of these evenings i will wander over to the local little league field and give it a shot. I have never shot baseball.
Jimmy B

[Old Timer]

Little League is a great place to start to shot baseball. Not only do you get a chance to shoot action at a little slower pace but it's great for human intrest type shots. You just never know what you'll catch one of those kids doing. And Jimmy don't forget there are lots of young moms around little league.

[MonkeyWrench]

Nice shots Larry. One of these evenings i will wander over to the local little league field and give it a shot. I have never shot baseball.
Jimmy B

I slipped over to the baseball game in progress when I was shooting my sons track meet and tried my luck. I didn't get any real good action shots but I forwarded the pictures on to the parents and they were very happy. I think we sometimes take for granted our equipment and even our skills. I think I was the only one there with a camera much less the only one with the 300mm zoom lens. So if you make it to the field, plan to share your pics. I was just going to throw the shots away, but one of my co-workers was at the game and asked me about the pics. I may go back and shoot an entire game for them just for fun and practice.

Larry, great shots and I can truly appreciate your bat on the ball pic. That was the one I was trying to get and couldn't.

[swmdrayfan]

I slipped over to the baseball game in progress when I was shooting my sons track meet and tried my luck. I didn't get any real good action shots but I forwarded the pictures on to the parents and they were very happy. I think we sometimes take for granted our equipment and even our skills. I think I was the only one there with a camera much less the only one with the 300mm zoom lens. So if you make it to the field, plan to share your pics. I was just going to throw the shots away, but one of my co-workers was at the game and asked me about the pics. I may go back and shoot an entire game for them just for fun and practice.

Larry, great shots and I can truly appreciate your bat on the ball pic. That was the one I was trying to get and couldn't.

And you're right---most times the parents don't give a hoot about the quality. What we'd consider 'throwaways' , they value as keepsakes of their child's sports experience, no matter the level. I think it comes down to someone who's shooting with a little p & s, and they see someone with a dslr and a big lens as being more experienced--therefore capable of getting the 'tough' shots.
Monkey, those 'contact' shots are hard to get--it's all about timing. I usually try to watch when the hitter starts his swing. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. You also have to consider the level of play. Pros are able to get the bat head thru the strike zone a lot faster than say...a high school player. The same is true for pitchers. Timing the swing against a 92 mph fastball as opposed to an 85 mph fastball is a little more difficult. The more you shoot, the better your timing.

[Old Timer]

And you're right---most times the parents don't give a hoot about the quality. What we'd consider 'throwaways' , they value as keepsakes of their child's sports experience, no matter the level.


Monkey, those 'contact' shots are hard to get--it's all about timing. The more you shoot, the better your timing.

John I think you pretty well hit it on the head with both these statements. I dump a lot of shots that parents and the kids themselves would love to have. I have started to lower my standards a little on my sales site just because of that.

And yes it is all about timing. You can't rely on 5 or even 8 fps to catch impact and release shots. It's timing that counts. Now on something like a slide at second or at home I'll hold that release down and try for the whole sequence of the play. Usually there is one that stands out and is the real keeper though. But many times there is a shot just before or after the main action that has a lot of reaction from the players or other details that make them very worth having.

[JSPhoto]

Larry, great shots and I can truly appreciate your bat on the ball pic. That was the one I was trying to get and couldn't.

MonkeyWrench,
Not sure what camera your using but one thing you need to compute in your head is shutter lag. Basically you may need to push the shutter button before you think you should to account for shutter lag. You need to consider the pitchers timing, the batters timing and your own timing, including the gear your using to get these shots where the ball is on the bat or the ball is on the pitchers finger tips. It's all in the timing. Practice and more practice. At some point it will become second nature. The tough part then is switching from one sport to another, it's not easy to go from track to baseball or baseball to basketball as you have to switch gears and it throws the timing off a bit. Or try spending 10 hours baking at Indianapolis Motor Speedway shooting cars going 220mph then try shooting baseball and track that night.....that really throws the timing, especially when you are really tired.

JS

[livin4lax09]

nice shots OT. great timing on that BOB shot. As you said, 8 fps can't come close to capturing it. Even with 25 fps, you couldn't be guaranteed you get the ball on bat. Not a fan of that first shot because it looks out of focus, but the other ones are nice and sharp. Looks like you had nice lighting to shoot with. Did you try to boost your SS to stop that action? I know some people like to see the motion blur on pitchers and batters, but I think its also interesting to see the frozen action. Or was the light too low at this point?

[Old Timer]

Looks like you had nice lighting to shoot with. Did you try to boost your SS to stop that action? I know some people like to see the motion blur on pitchers and batters, but I think its also interesting to see the frozen action. Or was the light too low at this point?

Brent I tend to agree with you about freezing the action. However as you point out several here argue for a little motion blur. On this shot I was in aperture priority shooting at f2.8 and the camera selected the 1/500th SS. I would have preferred to shoot faster but it was near 7 pm and I was at ISO 400. Just after this one I did boost the ISO a bit to maintain a little faster shutter speed.