Baseball Players of the Year...

For the baseball players of the year I actually had enough time to come up with a plan of what to shoot and decided to change things up and take the shots outside the studio. Having a couple days ahead of time to plan things I was able to find a baseball field to shoot on. The Hardin-Simmons baseball coach was nice enough to let me borrow their field for a couple of hours to use as a backdrop for the photos. I got there with, Joy Lewis, one of my awesome co-workers about an hour ahead of time to scout out ideas and places to shoot from as well as set up the lights. My first thought was to shoot the pitchers out on the pitcher's mound and then the batters from the dugout.

After a few test shots from the mound and then a couple where I was planning to shoot the batters from inside the dugout, I liked the dugout shots a lot better. The bright light on the mound plus a pretty strong wind that kept blowing over my softbox was becoming a real pain in the ass! So, I went ahead and shot everyone from the dugout. It made it easier to put the light on the players and balance the light with the outside light and the players weren't squinting from the sunlight. I was a lot happier with the final product this year than I have the last couple of times, having a nice field for the backdrop worked out nicer than the dark studio for a change.

A Baseball Game and Softball Boredom...

On Friday, two of my assignments were the crosstown baseball game here in town and a softball game in Sweetwater between Brownwood and Sweetwater, with the winner taking the district 5-3A title.

The first game, the crosstown game, went pretty quick and I was able to stay for most of the game. The problem was the parts I was there for weren't nearly as exciting as I'd have liked them to be. I got a few decent shots, but while I was there just didn't have a whole lot of action going on. The one shot I really did like of the cooper player diving to pull in a ball, I couldn't use since Abilene High ended up winning the game. Oh well, that's part of the problem with baseball, when the pitchers throw too well, the photos tend to take a backseat, along with the offense.

For the softball game in Sweetwater, Brownwood took control of things early and the game was never close. The Lady Lions ended up winning the game, and while there was a lot more offense and action than the baseball game earlier, I ended up getting kind of bored towards the end of the game. Maybe it was because I'd shot 13 innings of baseball/softball that day, maybe it was the total number of games I'd shot over the last few weeks. Either way, when boredom sets in I tend to try and have a little fun with things. On Friday, my cure for boredom was playing around a little with slow shutter speeds and the pitcher. At first I was just dragging the shutter a little to her the motion of her arm, but I didn't like that all that much. I kept leaving it open a little longer and following the pitcher's motion. I got close with the photo, I ended up shooting the top shot at 1/2 a second and at f/22. I'm not totally thrilled with the shot, but I think it's a good start, I wish I could have popped a little flash to bring out her face just a little bit and more importantly the spin of the ball. Oh well, it got me through the game, maybe next time.

Rainy Day Baseball Again...

Last year I can't remember one weekend that any of my assignments got rained out. Hell, I can barely remember many days that we got any rain last year. This year, for the second week in a row the skies were filled with grey clouds. Last week, it was a full on rainy weekend and everything happening outdoors got cancelled. This week, there were clouds in the sky most of the week, but there was no rain, just a bunch of humidity. On Saturday it was drizzling as I was walking into the Cooper softball game. I ended up shooting the first half of the first inning and between innings there was a huge lightning bolt in the sky. By rule any time the teams are pulled off the field it the teams have to stay off the field for at least thirty minutes after the most recent lightning. So, I figured I'd go back to the office and put in the St. Patrick's Day parade pix I had shot in the morning.

I ended up going back to the field after about an hour and they had just gotten started again. I got there in time to shoot Cooper batting in their half of the second inning. There were hitting pretty decent and scored a few runs. Then the rain started coming down, not too hard but coming down. Then the rain starts getting a little harder, there was 2 outs in the inning so, my plan was to tough it out till the end of the inning, one more out and go shoot from one of the dugouts. Well, I guess the umpires were tired of the rain getting heavier and called the players off the field again. Well, that was it, I've been to this game twice and only gotten a grand total of five outs, I'm done here.

After that I went to shoot McMurry baseball and was hoping for a little better luck down the street. I got to the game and it looked like the players were warming up. Woohoo! I guess they were getting ready to play, finally I may get to shoot a get without it being stopped. I go in the press box and find out they were warming up, getting ready for the second game. As I'm walking out on the field it looking like the sun is peeking through the clouds, well, I guess one out of two ain't so bad. I made a few nice frames, but, I know I'm still a way away from having my baseball timing down, at least it's Spring, hopefully we'll have some nice days to shoot.

Austin Bound, Quick Turnaround...

The Albany Lady Lions' first trip to the state softball tournament started with a 11am game in Austin. After having spent 10 days in Austin just a couple of weeks ago, I wanted to spend as much time in my own bed as I could. So, we ended up leaving at 4:30am for the game. That sounded crazy enough, but this one may top it... if Albany won, we spend the night and cover the championship game on Saturday, that's normal enough. However, should they lose, we were going to turn around and be back home that night. Well... they lost.

The really cool thing about state championship games are the venues. The University of Texas has really great facilities all around and the McCombs Softball Complex is no different. It's a beautiful stadium. And, when I;m covering a game here I try to make sure to shoot some photos that kind of show where they are playing. Win or lose this is a big deal. A couple hundred teams start the year with the goal of making it to Austin, and only four from each classification make it. So, in getting to not only shoot for print but having an online slideshow with an unlimited amount of space I try to show everything happening from warmups, to the game, the fans and the post-game celebration/disappointments.

The game started out kind of ugly. Grapeland was hitting well and Albany was making uncharacteristic errors, both fielding and mental on the base paths. I'd chalk it up to nerves. The did end up calming down and playing better. The problem was, when they did start hitting the ball they couldn't string enough together to score. Or, they were hitting the ball well but to the wrong place and were getting out. It's one of those things, that it just wasn't going to be their day. They ended up losing the game 8-3, which meant that my day had just gotten longer. After filing my photos, putting together a slideshow and grabbing some dinner we were headed home. Luckily the reporter drove the way back and I was able to use my wireless card to get online (with a very slow connection at some points) and build the slideshow. So, by 9pm I was home and back in my own bed and ready to cover baseball the next day.

State Bound....

I was running a little late getting to the Graham for the 10am start of Albany's softball game against Petrolia. I wasn't too worried since if Albany won the first game the most important shot was coming at the end for the celebrations photos. And, if they lost the first game, it was going to be a doubleheader. I was hoping they'd go ahead and win the first one so my day would be really short. Of course, that wasn't going to happen. They went up 7-1 early in the game before I got there and the wheels fell off, mental errors and good hitting sunk them. Well at least I didn't make a 1.5 hour trip for 30 minutes of work.

And, if I were to shoot a softball game, I can't think of many places nicer to shoot a high school softball game than in Graham. This may be the nicest high school softball stadium in the country. And with the high that day going up to 109, the best part about it was the stands were covered. Shade in 109 is ALWAYS a good thing. So, I shot the first couple of innings from the top of the stands with a long lens. Albany scored a few quick runs and was afraid we were in for a long game, given that these batters knew the pitchers so well. Luckily there wasn't a whole lot of scoring the rest of the game. Petrolia scored a couple of runs, but Albany did a good job of shutting down any chances for a big run as well as still adding a couple more runs throughout the game.

I've said this before, officially it's not my job to care who wins but make a story-telling photo from the game. However, it's always a lot easier to cover a winner rather than a loser. So, when they held on to win it made some really nice jube shots, especially after losing the first game, looked like it added a little to the celebration.