Baseball

[Rita]

I mentioned in an earlier post that the BC Summer Games were in my town. Did a lot of shooting of sports over the weekend and found it to be a good learning experience as I don't usually shoot sports. Generally I am pretty happy with the results but I am asking for feedback. I will put the different sports in different threads. For a start here are some baseball images.

1.


2.


3.


4.


5.


6.


7.


8.

[Shadowman]

Nice series.

[IzzieK]

OMG! I know this one from my San Diego days...Yep I have watched baseball before. It is different. You are lucky to have a lot of photo ops. Now let me see...
#1 I like this action one, dirt and all..
#2 is OK too. Nice timing on the tongue out.
#3 is very clear and sharp.
#4 -- my favourite of all here...timing is all right and the composition is superb,
#5 sequence from #4. I guessed he missed that hit.
#6 Excellent timing!!! Good composition too and the dirt that accompanied the ball, excellent! 'Sure wish this is mine.
#7 and 8 are good too. Guess someone hit the ball on sequence 7.

'Hope I did good in C&C-ing this one...

[Donald]

Well done, Rita. I think that's a very strong set of images. Each is good in its own right, but as a gallery of images, it is very strong. Only comment I'd make about that is, if you wanted to it to be a gallery, some more mid and wider shots to give context would be good. But that's talking about presentation of the series and is not about the individual images shown here

A classic ball-sports image. Classic because it is so good. You nailed the ball in flight. Anyone who'd never heard of baseball before would know exactly what is about to happen (For my money he should have already started his swing. Bet the ball was past him before he swung through!).

If you wanted to work the image further, one idea would be to darken the background slightly, then 'dodge' on the ball to lighten it and make it 'pop' from the background.

I think you should be immensely proud of that image

This image is, I think, just so full of energy, movement and action. It's superb.

I look forward to seeing what you've done with the other sports.

[Stagecoach]

You have done really well Rita, some good action shots especially with the balls in flight.

They say that the most important thing with sports photography is for the main subject to be recognizable by his face, not easy when you try to capture the ball as well

[Mike Buckley]

A very nice series for all the reasons everyone already mentioned. Considering that you've never shot sporting events, I'm especially impressed.

[AlwaysOnAuto]

My son played baseball in high school and college, so I have a great appreciation for what you've accomplished with these images. Good job! My photographic equipment wasn't as sophisticated as what I have now and I wasn't able to get anything close to these shots. Again, well done.

[Rita]

Thanks all!

Donald, the first image you commented on is actually one of my favourites from the weekend. I like your suggestion to darken the bg and highlight the ball. Will try this later today. Trying for a wider shot was difficult as I was shooting through a wire mesh fence. In hindsight I could have moved to behind right field and tried to shoot over the fence. Hindsight is wonderful isn't it I have some track and field shots as well that I will post shortly.

Grahame, I agree with you. After awhile I choose to try for the ball because the players weren't cooperating with posing for me

Mike, it was a fun weekend of shooting with some success but also a lot of hitting the delete button. I might seek out some more sports during the summer to try this again.

Alan, I love my camera but in this case I sure wish I had more fps.

[Mike Buckley]

a lot of hitting the delete button.

Perhaps the highest delete rate is action photography and the lowest delete rate is studio photography of inanimate subjects. All of that proves that the delete rate doesn't matter; it's only the quality of the keepers that matters and you've done very well in that regard.

[KimC]

Nice series Rita. Photographing baseball is no easy task.

[Rita]

Thanks Kim.

[bnnrcn]

Another nice set Rita

[dje]

Hi Rita

This is a very good set. As others have commented, number 4 is a super image. Well done.

Dave

[Rita]

Thanks again Binnur.

Thank you Dave.

[Digital]

Rita, very nice series. If you told me you were an experienced sports photographer, I would have, without hesitation, believed you.

Bruce

[Rita]

Thank you Bruce.