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.

Maybe I'm Bad Luck...

So, on Saturday, I had to shoot two softball games and a baseball game. All three games were doubleheaders, so time wasn't really a factor. I shot the first game of Hardin-Simmons' softball games and the second game of ACU's softball DH. McMurry had a baseball game that was starting an hour behind the softball games, and since baseball games usually go longer I had plenty of time for all three.

Well, at the end of the day, I'm sure all three teams may have been happy if I didn't show up, since all three lost their games. I'm thinking I may have been bad luck. The good thing about it though is I was able to make some nice images from the two softball games, both plays at the plate, one of them with a nice bit of dirt getting kicked up. Well, if I'm going to covering the losing side of the game at least I can come away with a few decent shots.

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.

6 Games, 3 Days It's the Baseball Playoffs...

The week after hell week is when the baseball/softball playoffs kick into full gear. This year was no different. In fact it was a lot busier than normal. With baseball in the third round and softball in the fourth, our teams are normally pared down. This year was a little different. Normally we have about 4-6 teams still alive. This year the number was 15! Day one was Thursday, it started with a regional semifinal softball game in Trent, Albany played Forsan. I got a nice shot of a girl leaping to catch a fly ball which would have been fine just the way it was, add in a guy behind the fence ducking out of the way, and well it just makes it a little funny. After that it was back to Abilene and Jim Ned playing Holliday in a one-game playoff, the team that knocked them out the year before. That was by far the best game of the weekend. Jim Ned won in a close won and made for a nice jube shot after Jim Ned's pitcher struck out the final batter.

On Friday, it was the "easy" day, only one game, Cooper vs. Canyon in Lubbock. This game was a lot closer than I thought it would be. Cooper lost but kept it pretty close most of the game. Near the end of the game, I made my favorite shot of the weekend after the second baseman and shortstop got tangled up and the ball dropped right in the frame. Saturday, was long, and hotter than hell! Cooper got beat down pretty bad and there wasn't a whole lot worth showing off. The next game was on the other side of the campus of Lubbock Christian University. Stamford was playing Clarendon. It was supposed to be a pretty good game Stamford had lost the first game 1-0. I hadn't planned on staying both games even if they won the first one. But the game was so good, it was close for a while until Stamford blew up in the sixth inning and didn't look back. So I figured I'd send some pictures then go est dinner and come back to see how things were going. When I got back it was close and Stamford was up. I shot a few frames but was pretty much just killing time to get a celebration/dejection shot. Stamford ended up winning the game pretty close, which made some nice jube shots. A nice 10 hour, three game day in the books, and I still had to drive home.

Weathering the Storm...

Last Friday was my first day back after a week and a half of vacation. My assignments were to shoot a portrait of a city council candidate for an election preview then McMurry University's Spring football practice and after that to Breckenridge to shoot softball. It started raining while I was in the middle of the portrait, that was ok because it wasn't coming down hard and we were under a tree. By the time I got to McMurry it was pouring! The practice was going on like normal which at least that was good, there was no thunder or lightning, just rain so I shot the assignment. I had to shoot both a practice shot and get a shot for a feature about one of the assistant coaches. It was easy enough, and although I was drenched in the 20 minutes I was out there I was at least able to get out of the rain.

So, when I got back to the office I was sure the softball game was going to be rained out. Breckenridge is about 65 miles northeast of here, but the storms were headed that way. I checked with the reporter and the game was still on. He called the coach and she said they were going to play, but if something changed she would call his cell phone to let him know. So, as we were driving up there through the pouring rain we were sure the call would come any minute that the game was called off... it never happened.

We got there and they were playing, in the rain. And it was coming down! So much so I grabbed a towel and my waterproof windbreaker. I threw the towel over my 300mm lens so it wouldn't get totally water logged. The game was awful, it was so sloppy out there the pitcher could barely even hold on to the ball! I ended up grabbing a quick shot of the people in the stands huddled under their umbrellas, in case a weather feature was needed. Good thing I did. Because after the end of the inning they called the game. The field was just too sloppy. So, we drove an hour each way to shoot 20 minutes of a softball game that was never even a game! I'm just glad I had a photo to turn in since we still ran a story about all the games that day that were postponed.
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State Softball

Thursday was the first day of a really busy weekend. In fact, Thursday was the easy day, all I had to do was drive to Austin, shoot Early High's school's softball game in the state tournament and put together a slide show for the web and I'm done. It sounded easy enough. I'd seen this team play before and they were very good. However, when a team gets no-hit in its game, getting all those photos becomes A LOT harder!

I know from covering last year's state tournament that pitching usually dominates in the state tourney. So, I wasn't expecting a whole lot of hits, but for the team to get no-hit wasn't expected either. One thing about Early is they don't make a lot of errors, which they didn't make in their game either, which would have been great for them had they gotten some hits, and maybe scored some runs. Instead, it was just another zero on the board.

The one thing about these big games I can always count on is the end of the game and the reactions that it brings. It's pretty much a given that when you lose this late in the year there will be some emotions. There was. And it's a damn good thing too, because other than a mediocre at best second base shot I got pretty much nothing from the game. I guess it's a good thing this game was played at 4pm so I knew there wouldn't be deadline issues and I could hang around and watch the players get their medals. The top photo of the girls hugging happened quickly, I saw the two girls holding hands and kept my eye on them, then the other two hugged. I let out a big sigh of relief after that... I knew I would at least have something to send in. The good thing about this is I wouldn't have a scheduling conflict on Saturday having to shoot a softball game and the state track meet at the same time.