This week I shot prep baseball on back-2-back days and was treated to my favorite shooting position, overhead third. The challenge with shooting prep sports is finding a clean background. If you're a frequent reader of this blog you'll know how much of a stickler I am for clean backgrounds. There is no way to better clean up your backgrounds than by going up high above the playing surface. The problem is that very few venues allow the possibility of elevated shooting positions. This week was much different.
At Marian Central Catholic on Monday and Burlington Central on Tuesday I shot from the roof of the third base dugouts. Technically I don't think that either location was an photo position but everyone seemed to be ok with me being there. With the 400mm, and sometimes adding a 1.4x extender, I had great reach to all of the infield positions as well as left field.
Both games we're fun to watch and provided me with some nice action to photograph. Having spent the majority of my younger days on the diamond, I often had a good idea of where the ball was going to be hit. I can take a look at the pitcher, batter, the batter's position in the order, where they're standing in the box and where the catcher is setting up and can get a pretty good idea of where the ball will be hit. As a result I will focus in on a particular player in the field and read their body language as the ball is hit. In both photos one and three I was already focused in on that player and was rewarded with some nice action.
The chance to photograph my first love with great access and clean backgrounds made this a really enjoyable couple of days for me.
-JCE
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