It's Softball Season!

Yesterday our Intermediate Red Softball Team (pretty much all 7th graders) beat Sacred Hearts, 12-6. It was an exciting game with many lead changes, lots of errors, lots of passed balls, lots of hit batters, lots of stolen bases, a bunch of singles and a few towering triples. To summarize, there wasn't a lot of defense on either team, but it was still fun!

I always am asked what my favorite sport is to photograph. It's a tough question because I really enjoy every sport I shoot. One thing I really get a kick out of is producing a "Sports Illustrated" quality photo. This means that the indoor, low light sports have a big disadvantage. I don't believe in using a flash during athletic contests. It is too disruptive and has the potential to affect the game. I do have the needed quality equipment to still be able to cover the indoor sports, but there are lots of hoops I need to go through to get an acceptable product.

The sport that probably has the most opportunities for fabulous photos is soccer. The light is usually very good and the action is continuous. With a long lens (I use a 140mm-420mm zoom) I can pretty much cover the whole field. A close second to soccer would be water polo (during daylight). This makes sense as water polo is very similar to soccer in a lot of ways.

Which sport is the most challenging? In my opinion, it is softball/baseball. The really great shots in softball or baseball are spectacular plays made by the defense. It is very difficult to get a great shot by just following the ball. You need to anticipate the play. So, if there are no outs or 1 out, and a man on first that can run, what do you get ready for? You either focus on first for a pickoff throw to first, or on second for the steal. There is lots of guesswork but when you guess right, the payoff is big. I need to really be on my toes, always thinking, to have a good day doing softball!

Football has some of the same characteristics as softball.

The hardest sport to photograph is probably indoor volleyball. The light is usually poor. The action is fast and somewhat unpredictable. Another very difficult sport is judo. This is one of the fastest sports I cover, the light is also poor, and the participants have their head looking down almost continuously. Very tough!

Every sport has it's idiosyncrasies. It's fun figuring them out!

To see more photos from yesterday's game, please visit my Smugmug galleries.