"Elgin starting pitcher Mike Kovach works the fifth inning against Crystal Lake at Trout Park in Elgin, Monday, June 22, 2009. The Crystal Lake Cardinals - a wood bat team - won, 12-1, in the Chicago Suburban Baseball League game."
Epic light. Epic access.
Those two things make me about as happy as one could be. I couldn't have asked for a better assignment and consequently it's easily one of my top three favorite assignments that I've had here at the Northwest Herald.
My assignment called for getting some "bat action" photos since the focus was on the novelty of the wood bat league that features college players who are home for the summer. Shooting batting is a dime-a-dozen so I knew that I could shoot a lot "for myself" and still get what I needed for the assignment. I was 45 minutes early to the game which was huge because it allowed me to interact with some of the players and get some shots that you don't typically get in any other situation. Rarely do I get to hang around the team as they are getting ready so I tried to make the best of it.
Since the assignment was on the wood-bat aspect of the game (college players play with aluminum bats) I made sure to get some shots to help tell that story. It was by far the hottest day of the year at around 90 degrees and when you add in the 80 percent humidity you can understand why I was sweating just shooting pictures.
The light made up for the uncomfortable heat, though. Combine that with a field sans advertising everywhere, I had a great place to make some images. I even went to great lengths to get some of my images, including lying completely on my stomach on the uncomfortable gravel to get a low angle of the batters. This garnered a response from Crystal Lake catcher Joe DiMaggio on his way to the plate to the tune of "Justin, they need to give you a raise buddy."
Amen.
-JCE
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