The Pitch

[JSPhoto]

Shot at a high school game early in the season. Well lit for a high school field.
Shutter 1/1024 f2.8 456mm ISO 1000. No flash.

This was cropped from the original. The shot shows the speed of the pitchers arm and the ball just as it leaves his fingers, yet stops everything else which is exactly what I wanted on this one. The dirt flying off the pitchers shoe was "stopped". Even with the high ISO all I needed to clean up what little noise there was, was to use "despeckle" in Adobe Elements.

JS

[swmdrayfan]

Shot at a high school game early in the season. Well lit for a high school field.
Shutter 1/1024 f2.8 456mm ISO 1000. No flash.

This was cropped from the original. The shot shows the speed of the pitchers arm and the ball just as it leaves his fingers, yet stops everything else which is exactly what I wanted on this one. The dirt flying off the pitchers shoe was "stopped". Even with the high ISO all I needed to clean up what little noise there was, was to use "despeckle" in Adobe Elements.

JS

not a bad shot, but would it have looked better cropped a touch?
Here is a similar photo that I took in June. Getting the exact moment of release is very difficult, as you have noticed in your picture.

[Old Timer]

Since this seems to have become something of a pitcher releases the ball thread I'll jumb in with a couple just because I haven't posted an image over here in a while. One is a Highschool game the other several rungs down, 9 year old LL game. Just for fun here they are. Hope to get more active on this form once football season starts.

[JSPhoto]

Old Timer,
Do you shoot at the Indy 500 ??

JS

[Old Timer]

Old Timer,
Do you shoot at the Indy 500 ??

JS

I've been to Indy twice never with credentials. The first time was in the 70's and had great grandstand seats on the front stretch with a 200mm and a 300mm with a 2x tel converter I got some very nice shots of the pit stops and front stretch action. A.J. Foyte won his last 500 that day. The last time was late 80's and I was there for practice/qualifying day had pit access as a guest of Valvoline. Best images from that day were in the garage area. I would love to shot some auto racing, but haven't had the opportunity for many years. Did a little NASCAR back in the stone ages. Last time I was at a NASCAR race it was the Winston Cup and Darrel Waltrip was a rockie. I had press cred than and had a great day in the pits. Back then you could wonder around with the drivers and crews, a rain delay gave me an opportunity to meet and talk to many of the top NASCAR drivers of the day.

[JSPhoto]

Ok, I was curious because there is a guy who shoots the 500 who looks like you...thought maybe it was you.
I have been shooting the last 4 500's and 400's. It's becoming more of a pain in the rear though and many shooters are getting fed up. Between the yellow shirts and NASCAR taking pictures at these two races is getting impossible. Turn 2 no longer has holes to shoot through North of the rescue truck. Turn is about the same. Parking is impossible. This may have been my last year there, not sure yet.
I may just go to Kentucky next year for the IRL race...one paper has offered to send me.

JS

[Old Timer]

Ok, I was curious because there is a guy who shoots the 500 who looks like you...thought maybe it was you.
I have been shooting the last 4 500's and 400's. It's becoming more of a pain in the rear though and many shooters are getting fed up. Between the yellow shirts and NASCAR taking pictures at these two races is getting impossible. Turn 2 no longer has holes to shoot through North of the rescue truck. Turn is about the same. Parking is impossible. This may have been my last year there, not sure yet.
I may just go to Kentucky next year for the IRL race...one paper has offered to send me.

JS

I would take them up on it is a great track and from what I hear they try to treat you right. It is about 100 miles north west of where I live here in KY.

[JSPhoto]

I already told him I'd go....not like he'd have to force me to go to a race track
I can't get him to send me to Colorado though..... but might con him into Chicago
I'm hoping he can get me to one or two Colt's games this year but won't hold my breath o that one. I shot one Colt's game last year. Tonight it's volleyball between to local high schools. And this weekend I may get a couple shots of the Blue Angels (as they fly over my house right now!) They are here for the Mt Comfort (Indianapolis) Airshow which is just a couple miles from house.

JS

[Old Timer]

It's a real struggle to find an intersting sporting event to shoot around here. We do have our first highschool football game of the season Friday night and I hope to give the Nikon a real test on that one.

[JSPhoto]

No struggle here to find sports to shoot! In fact for me it's becoming more "can I fit that in to the schedule?".
Take this past weekend:
Friday night: Eastern Hancock vs Alexandria football
Satuday: Jeff George Breast Cancer Awareness Gridiron Classic aka Warrior Gridiron Classic at Warren Central High School - 4 games, 1 day, starting at 11am, final game ended just after midnight with a 70-50 score! Uo till 2:30am getting pictures ready to send.
Sunday: 9am started sending photos to Midwest Sports Publishing,
11:30 done sending pics and on the road to shoot some pics of the Indiana Fever for Midwest Sports Publishing, got my pics and headed back home to go through them at 2:30pm
Get home after 1hour drive do to the air show at Mt Comfort airport - Blue Angels were there. another hour editing and 30 minutes sending pics.
Run outside and take some shots of the Blue Angels over my home.
Today
Still working on editing 1000+ shots from the 4 games on Sat..... got plenty of to sell though.

JS

[Old Timer]

WOW!! I just hope that the profits will match the effort that you have made. I'm sure there was a ton quality images. Hope you will have a chance to share a few with us here at PR.