Spring Training Baseball - part 2

We woke up Sunday to beautiful weather that made up for everything we had gone through the previous day. It was sunny yet cool, with deep blue skies and puffy white clouds - perfect weather for anything outdoors. We had taken advantage of the free time in the morning to visit the Jupiter lighthouse, when normally we would have been traveling to a different venue for the day's game.

We were glad to see that many of the Cardinals regulars were in the lineup today, unlike what we had experienced yesterday. I had hoped to get some decent photos of Albert Pujols and others, so there should be a chance for that at least in the early innings.

With camera in hand, I'm drawn to baseball and other sports, because I am always trying to get that perfect shot - the one I feel would be worthy of appearing on the cover of Sports Illustrated or some other publication. But usually those shots come only when you are really into the game. These are times when you check out the situation and ask yourself where the next play is likely to be. Is the batter right-handed or left-handed? Will the ball likely go to the left side or the right? Which fielder is likely to make the play? Will there be a play at 2nd base such as the pivot for a double-play? And for those times when you guess correctly you need to have the proper lens and correct settings, and also be ready ahead of time if you hope to capture the shot you envision.

I love to get the shot of a base runner sliding under the leaping shortstop, who has gotten the throw and gone airborne while in the process of making the relay to first to complete a double play. I've gotten several variations of those over the last couple years, and it always feels good to capture that action. It usually is best when anticipating such a shot to pre-focus on the area where the action is expected to be, and hold the focus lock so that you will start out with a well focused image. Another shot I have not yet gotten is one of an infielder leaping to snag a line drive that would have otherwise gone over his head and into the outfield. I've had several tries where I cut off the glove hand, which ruined the shot. If you haven't anticipated the shot and set up for it before hand, you'll surely miss it when it does happen. 

39719 Hernandez

 In this photo from last year, during a stealing attempt Mets shortstop Anderson Hernandez takes the throw and leaps high to avoid the sliding runner while attempting to make the tag. It would have been a great play but the ball came loose and went into center field, so the runner was safe.

Even with a fast camera, it's always a challenge to time the release of the pitch when attempting to capture a good photo of the pitcher. I personally like position myself at an angle as close in toward home plate as possible for this shot, so the perspective is similar to what the batter sees. In some parks, that's not possible unless you are on the field because when viewed from the seats there is a protective screen behind home plate that gets in the way. I usually try to fire from just outside the screen. I find that it's best to fire a couple quick shots (2 or 3 at most) rather than spray and pray with a long burst. And sometimes I just fire one shot on successive pitches until I time it right. 

62262 Todd Wellemeyer

The shot is more appealing if you are able to capture the expression on the face of the pitcher, and also time it at just the right time to show the best action. Often a good shot can be had prior to the release if there is something else in the photo that shows emotion. I like this one because of the expression on the face of Cardinals pitcher, Todd Wellemeyer. Below is another photo showing his follow through, viewed from the opposite side. 

62162 Wellemeyer

The more I think about it, the more I realize that it's very difficult to get a shot right at the release, that also captures a good expression on the pitcher's face.

62031 Albert Pujols

Since Albert Pujols is probably the most popular Cardinal's player, I naturally wanted to try and capture some memorable images of him. There are several different attempts below showing him at the bat and during a swing, and also standing at 1st base.

62034 - Albert Pujols



61937 - Albert Pujols

For baseball photography the first challenge is positioning myself to get close enough to fill the frame with the player, but at the same time framing the shot so that the bat or some part of the player's body is not cut off from the photo during the swing. Using a prime lens (fixed focal length), it's sometimes difficult to find a good position to shoot from that gives the best angle for the intended shot, without having obstructions in the way. I was using a Canon 300mm f2.8L IS lens, and for some shots, I added a 1.4x extender. Not having on-field credentials for spring training baseball, we were constantly having people walk in front of us while we tried to shoot from the standing-room only area of the aisle. And there's nothing that can be done about that.

Once you get into position, the next thing to do is make sure you have chosen a proper aperture setting to get enough depth of field for the shot you intend to make. I usually calculate it before hand, but I always carry my PDA which has a depth of field calculator, so I can also check on the fly if a situation arises that I had not expected. With baseball, you need a lot more depth of field for a pitcher's delivery than you need for a batter's swing, because the pitcher probably covers a distance of about 5 or 6 feet from the time he stands on the rubber until he finally releases the pitch. In other words, if you shoot wide open at f2.8 and lock focus on him while he stands on the mound, he will no longer be in sharp focus with those settings at the point where he lets go of the ball. I have tried using AI Servo focus to track the movement of the pitcher, but seem to get better results pre-focusing on the position of the pitcher during a prior pitch, and then holding that focus lock and waiting to fire on the next pitch when he is in the same position.
 

61454 -

A professional level DSLR can track a moving subject, but it needs some data to get started in order to be able to predict where the subject will be for each successive shot. Short movements like those of a pitcher winding and throwing a pitch may not provide enough data fast enough to accurately predict where the pitcher will be at the next shot in every case. It is usually recommended that you track a moving subject for a second or two in order to give the microprocessor in the camera a chance to calculate the distance to the subject, and how quickly and how much it is changing. There's not really time to do this with a pitcher's delivery because the ball is on the way to the plate faster than that.

This is why using a little narrower aperture makes sense. It gives a wider depth of field and thus provides a larger margin for error. One way to eliminate this problem is to shoot the pitcher from the side instead of the front, since the distance does not change during the delivery from that angle. But that's a different photo all together. I did that a lot on Saturday because the light was low after the rain, especially as it got later. And I was shooting at f2.8 just to get enough shutter speed to freeze the action. I like to get shutter speeds of 1/2000 or higher, and I try to never go below 1/1500. Late Saturday afternoon, I was only getting about 1/800 wide open at f2.8 and iso 400. That was already too slow for some shots, so it was not possible to stop down the aperture and still get properly exposed, sharp photos. When photographing the batter, I would much rather shoot from center field with a long lens, than shoot from the batter's side. When you are watching a game on TV, that is usually the perspective you get. But it was not possible on this trip.

62008 Mather



62417 - Pickoff

In this photo, the Orioles base runner was easily picked off at first base, but it was ruled that Cardinals pitcher Brad Thompson had balked, so the runner was awarded 2nd base.

We didn't get to see any balls hit out of the park this weekend, but the closest was probably this long fly ball hit by Rick Ankiel, that was run down and caught in the warning track by Orioles center fielder Adam Jones.

62192 Adam Jones

I didn't feel like I got any real killer shots this weekend, but it was a great weekend none the less, and it is nice to know that the regular season is right around the corner. Without baseball, I would not have any sports to follow during the annual withdrawal I go through when the Stanley Cup Playoffs end and before the NFL football season begins. Click here for more photos.  

Spring Training Baseball - part 1

Last week the brown grass in my yard had started to turn green and the cold gray branches of the crape myrtle trees were beginning to sprout with green miniature signs of new life. Soon my yard would be busting out with the colorful blossoms of four different colors of crape myrtle trees. Spring was in the air and that means sixteen major league baseball teams were in Florida tuning up for the 2009 season. And it was also time for my annual baseball trip.

Where I go depends mainly on which games I can get tickets for, as getting tickets for good seats has become somewhat of a racket in recent years. It seems that before the tickets go on sale to the general public, ticket brokers have already been allowed to purchase blocks of tickets for the best seats in the stadiums, which they in turn resell on their websites for about 3 times the face value. What it means is that you either swallow hard and pay if you want really good seats, or you roll the dice with everyone else who clogs up the Ticketmaster website at the very same instant that tickets go on sale, and hope for the best of the leftovers.

Since I am a person of principles, I go for the latter. My friend Terry likes sports too, and we usually make a baseball trip as well as a couple hockey trips during the hockey season. And I think my wife probably enjoys it when I get out of the house for a few days. This year we ended up getting tickets for games between the Boston Red Sox and Florida Marlins, and the St. Louis Cardinals vs the Baltimore Orioles. This was the first time we had been lucky enough to get tickets to see the Red Sox, although we were disappointed that Jason Bay was the only regular starter was in the lineup Saturday. Many players were still at the World Baseball Classic, and could not yet be present at spring training. Since both the Marlins and Cardinals play at Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter, we were able to conveniently see both games in the same venue, which made for one less travel day and allowed us to spend that time visiting the Jupiter lighthouse on Sunday morning instead.

As luck would have it, it began to rain prior to game time on Saturday, and we got ourselves and our camera equipment wet before we ever entered the stadium. We went in and ventured out into the open as the rain stopped. But the rain came back again and again and we watched the ground crew first uncover the infield, only to recover it again. Soon the 1:05 start time passed and it was clear that the game would be delayed if played at all. As the rain fell harder we went for cover and after a while we decided to go check in to the hotel since it was only a half mile away. We figured we could easily get back to the stadium in a few minutes if the game began.
That did eventually happen, but we did not arrive back at the game until the 3rd inning. We had been checking the (supposedly) "live game update" on the Internet, which showed nothing happening. But we decided to get in the car and drive back to the stadium just to make sure. When we saw the stadium lights on, we knew the game was being played. There had been a 2 1/2 hour rain delay. The good news was that the crowd had thinned out considerably and now we are able to pick a good spot in the standing room area of the aisle, and get a decent angle for photos. It was cool and breezy and it really felt great. And there was no sun to worry about so there was no need for sunblock. The bad news was that the light was a lot lower and decent shutter speeds were difficult to get, even shooting wide open with f2.8 glass.

We actually had good seats for this game, down in the 7th row a little bit behind 3rd base. But it is much easier to shoot photos from up in the aisle, where we were are not shooting from in between other spectator's heads in front of us, and not worrying about obstructing anyones view behind us with our oversized camera lenses. We shot for a while from the aisle, and later went down to the seats, but since the crowd was so thin, we just went down to the first row in our section, which was nearly empty. It was still drizzling rain, and you could see the raindrops in the photos (note the rain drops in the first photo at the top of this page). It might be difficult to get any pictures worth showing anybody this day, but who cares? We were sitting comfortably and enjoying the cool breeze, and it's baseball season again, so it didn't really matter.

As it turned out, I managed a few good photos the first day, and all things considered, we felt fortunate to be able to see baseball at all after the way the afternoon started.

(Continued in Part 2, above)

In the beginning...we shot film

I started this blog to document my photography activities. I plan to use this space to share my thoughts as I set out to perserve the memories of places I have traveled, events I have witnessed, and wonders of nature I have had the privilege to witness first hand.From time to time I may also go back and revisit some events of the last few years, but generally I will write about my current activites, so that will become the main focus going forward.

I have made many friends while traveling around with the camera, and I expect that some of them will also be referenced here from time to time, as I credit them for lot of my development in photography. And I also enjoy helping others with their cameras and also with photography questions when I am able.
My story begins back in the film days....
I bought my first SLR camera, a Canon AE-1 Program, when I was around 18 years old. What fascinated me immediately was the ability to control depth of field using different aperture settings, so that one could make the subject stand out from a blurred background and almost seem to jump off the page in the prints. Exploring different settings in that first camera, and using them to control the effects in the photo, are probably what got me hooked on photography. I had that camera for around 30 years, and I used it until I finally broke the film winder one year while on vacation. I still used it a few more days, and intermittently after that, but had to carefully hold the tiny crank in place in order to rewind the film at the end of a roll.

Soon I was looking at new cameras, but decided that it was time to switch to digital. The cost of digital SLRs at that time was still pretty high, with a decent body costing around $4000 or more. Even if I thought I wanted to do that, I knew there was one person I would have to convince first, so I decided to wait until the prices came down a bit. My wife got me a nice 35mm point and shoot film camera for Christmas that year, that helped bridge the gap until I would switch to digital.

I finally purchased my first DLSR, a Canon 10d, on April 13, 2003. The only reason I remember the date is that digital cameras conveniently record the date along with a lot of other useful data, with each shot.

Starting out in digital was a major breakthrough for me. The benefit of being able to instantly see results and make adjustments, is the one thing that makes it so much easier to learn today than it ever was with film. In the old (film) days, I remember one of my biggest disappointments was taking some pictures from a cruise ship entering the harbour in Copenhagen, Denmark, only to get the film developed later and and realize that the exposure or some other element was not correct. When you mess up today, you simply make adjustments and retake the shot.

I wore out the Canon 10d over the course of about 3 years, and upgraded to a Canon 1D Mark2-N in March 2006. The Mark-2N is my dream camera, with far more features and more control than the 10d, plus it has dual microprocessors which provide for lightning-fast focusing, and also better picture quality. This was Canon's top of the line professional sports camera at the time, and is capable of firing 8.5 frames per second. The biggest difference I first noticed was the ability of the camera to track a moving subject, such as a flying bird, and keep it in focus. I had long been frustrated by trying to capture images such as this with the 10d, because it simply could not focus fast enough on a moving subject.

This photo of a wood stork in flight was captured on my 2nd day with the Mk2N.
 
In addition to nature subjects, I also enjoy sports photography. I especially like baseball, and I have shot for the University of North Florida for the last couple years, and have supplied their sports information director with images from some of the games. They like to use them on the university website.

I started out shooting JPG format, but switched totally to RAW about 2 years ago. It is the greater latitude for editing raw that finally convinced me. It's also possible to make batch edits to a whole group of photos in raw, and that can be a real time saver. Raw files take up about 2 1/2 times as much space on the memory card and hard drive as jpg files, but it's well worth it, especially since memory prices have dropped so much. When I think back I wish I had used raw from the beginning, because it would have allowed me to go back now and do some fixes to some early images that I shot as jpgs.