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Well, I have a friend who is a professional sports photographer. For over a year now, we have been trying to get together to shoot one or more games. My friend was going to step me through the process they use from the moment they arrived at the field through the moment they headed home for the night. As you might guess, that is an opportunity that many would love to have and certainly one I would like to take advantage of. I believe that learning the little things they do throughout their process is one of the keys that will help me take my sports photography to the next level. Like Nicole's recent blog about her experience at FantasyCon, it is tough for me to figure out which photos to include.
Instead of trying, I am going to step you through my experience and let that lead to some photos. Sorry for the length of the entry, but it was an interesting and valuable experience and I hope it will help everyone learn a little something as I did. I also wanted to include several photos. Going back through it is also helping me think about the things I learned!
It really isn't as easy as it might sound. I could probably convince my friend to come out to a local high school game where I would get lots of good information and probably achieve most of what I set out to do. But, that isn't exactly working to their normal routine which is one of those things that I want to observe and learn. And, it wouldn't give me the opportunity to meet the pros shooting the same event or contacts that might be a source of work in the future.
So, that means observing the pro in their natural environment
. That means a professional photographer shooting one of their real assignments in a real atmosphere. That also means shooting along with them and having them tear apart my images both positively and negatively. Through my friend's contacts and some of my contacts, we were finally able to get a weekend where we could make this happen.
It had to meet my friend's schedule so that they were shooting when I could make it which meant a weekend. Most importantly, I had to be able to get press credentials to do this. I have had press credentials for many years for shooting high school sports, but getting a press credential to a professional game is not easy. I am not unfamiliar with this - I've shot about half a dozen pro football games and I even got to shoot one Major League baseball game several years ago. But, I have learned quite a bit since shooting that game with my D100 and those opportunities are hard to come by. We finally got that worked out too...
I honestly don't remember enjoying photography any more than I enjoyed this weekend. Some of the NFL games might come close, but I don't think they quite matched up. On June 28th and 29th I photographed two baseball games between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards in Baltimore. I have heard that there are very few women sports photographers, but I was lucky enough to shoot with two of them along with several men on this particular weekend. One of the reasons my friend and I felt this would be a good weekend to shoot is that there were not too many photographers shooting. There was also a golf tournament in the area and many of the photographers were sent there to cover that instead. Interestingly, there IS a pecking order and it isn't just seniority. It is also the organizations the photographers shoot for and the frequency those organizations cover the home team. There also appears to be some give and take as I noticed that I had a better position than some of the folks from time to time.
Where to start....well, I guess I will start at the beginning. As most of you know, my son plays college baseball. He is a baseball fanatic and made the trip up from college with his girlfriend to spend some time with the family. The two of them traveled to Baltimore with me the next day and we got checked in to the hotel. We had an amazing view of the Inner Harbor in Baltimore, but didn't stay long. I had also managed to get them setup with on field passes for the pre-game that day, so we were all in a hurry to get to the field. We had been told to go to the main gate (behind home plate) to pick up our credentials and their game tickets for their seats. This entrance is rather well guarded and actually has glass doors. Inside, they had everything at the main desk and my pro friend had just gotten off the elevator to see if I had shown up.
My son was beyond thrilled with his weekend and his girlfriend seemed to have quite a bit of fun as well. They got taken down to the field and got to meet several of the players and coaches from both teams and Chris Davis of the Orioles tossed my son a ball as he was heading off the field. Their seats were right in front and below the press box behind home plate and, as they found out while chatting, they were with family members of the Rays players. They were next to the press box on the second day, also with Rays family members.
(photo from my son's iPhone - don't know who he got to take it)
My friend took me back onto the elevator up to the second floor to show me the "Photo Room" where all the photographers setup shop each day. The regulars have lockers where they can store gear or whatever they want - of course, I was carrying all of my gear! We were the only photographers there and my friend showed me where I could setup for the day and not be in the way. To save time and make carrying easier, I'd already put my 200-400 on my monopod along with one of my D600s. That made it easier when I also had a shoulder bag with my computer gear and a rolling bag with the rest of my photo gear. I did choose to leave the D7000 and kit lens at home as I knew I wouldn't need them. I took my friend's advice and threw my 24-70 on my other D600 with my Black Rapid strap and stored away the rest in case it was needed. I noticed that about half of the photographers chose a 70-200 as their shorter lens while the rest were carrying 24-70s. One had a 300 on his body and switched between the other two on his second body. Everyone carried two bodies to the field, the other body with a longer lens. Several had 400 2.8, a couple with 300 2.8 and one other shooting the 200-400 like I was shooting.
After I got my computer setup and attached to the provided wifi, I was given a quick tour of the second floor area we were in which was basically a trip into the press box to see if the lineups had been put out yet. My friend also pointed out the soda machine and popcorn machine that were available for the press (those came in handy later). We then grabbed some stools and headed down the elevator to field level. We headed out on the field towards the first base side where we placed the stools in the photo well just on the outfield side of the Orioles dugout.
Not sure why, but the Orioles photo wells are, to me, poorly designed in that from inside the well, the top railing is directly in the way of shooting for anyone who is not really tall or short so you have to sit on a stool to get a good line. There is also a 6" riser at the back of the well which gives enough clearance to shoot over the rail, but it puts you in the way of the folks in the front row. I saw my son as his girlfriend while we were out there, but didn't get the chance to do anything but wave as we were in "prep" mode, getting everything prepared prior to things getting really busy. I was mostly trying to keep up and take everything in!
One of the first things they do is get their software setup with the lineups. Everything they post to their employer must include a caption which includes things like date, location and anything that is happening in the image including the names, numbers and positions of the players.
So this image would have a caption something along the lines of: "June 28, 2014: Baltimore, MD. Tampa Bay Rays Center Fielder Desmond Jennings (#8) hits a home run in the first inning off of Baltimore Orioles starting pitcher Wei-Yen Chen (#16)."
They may also include either the current (or final) score and even the "count" - meaning the number of balls and strikes on the batter when the hit was made. They use PhotoMechanic which allows them to tag images fairly quickly and easily and they have shortcuts that they maintain from day to day. For example, they would have pre-populated their standard caption with the day, location and teams. They would have shortcuts that allow them to put "TB8" along with a character that points to their shortcuts that would fill in the player's name, number and position that the player was playing that day. There are also other items within the information that some organizations may require which also include the photographer's name and any copyright info. It isn't something I need right now, but I definitely need to take some time and get up to speed on this as it will make things easier down the road.
As other photographers showed up, I was introduced to them and they got themselves all setup as well. All too quickly we were grabbing our gear and heading towards the field. We headed for the photo well where we had placed our stools and left the "big glass" there. It kind of scared me, but my friend assured me they would be fine...I was not worried about them getting stolen...but leaving a $10000 piece of glass sitting like this just isn't something I'm used to.
We then headed back out on the field for some pre-game "stalking" as my friend called it. Some photos of the players and managers in their pre-game warmups, signing autographs or relaxing. I felt kind of bad for the player below as he was asked to sign his name on the back of a shirt that had another player's name and number!
My friend is required to post some specific photos of each game which includes photos of each of the managers. Joe Maddon, the Tampa Bay Rays manager was quite friendly, joking with the crowd. I grabbed a few quick photos of him and some of the others in the Rays dugout before walking back around to "stalk" the Orioles dugout.
(Photo from my son's iPhone showing me (in red shirt) in front of Oriole's dugout from their seats)
When I say walking back around, it isn't far as anyone who has seen a baseball field knows. But, one of the first rules I learned - KEEP OFF THE GRASS! No, I learned it before I made a mistake and probably would have stayed off it anyway. You can see the "warning track" of dirt around the field in the last photo above and we had to stay on the dirt.
We jumped back in the well just before the National Anthem. In baseball, the visiting team always bats first. My friend is also required to submit at least two photos of each starting pitcher (one portrait and one landscape). We had chosen the first base photo well since both starting pitchers were left handed. I shot a few of the pitcher on the first pitch or two.
Then I switched over and took the shot above of Desmond Jennings hitting the home run. Glad I switched when I did...I got kind of caught up with the opportunity to shoot the pro players and after that shot I realized that I hadn't really been paying attention to how (or what) my friend was shooting. My friend and the other pro photographers were talking to their cameras. Ahh, yes...another learning experience...when some event (like the home run) occurs, they use the voice record feature on their camera body to record the details of information they need about the event that can later be used to caption the photos! They also shoot the player rounding the bases and getting high fives from teammates just in case a photo is needed. Especially true if they had been shooting the pitcher or some other direction when the hit occurred.
Watching my friend, I asked the question - most of them also use the AE / AF Lock button for focus on their long lenses. Glad to know that one too as I had found it very useful when shooting baseball even if it was difficult for me to use when shooting lacrosse and soccer. Eventually I might get used to that style of focus although I know I lost some images (previously and over this weekend) that I otherwise would have gotten using the shutter button for focus. Since I don't use it all the time (and I hadn't shot baseball in awhile), I sometimes expected the shutter button to do the refocus. Or, in the process of trying to reposition myself, zoom closer to an outfielder and hit the AE / AF button and the shutter button. I just missed getting it done quickly enough to get the shot I was looking for even if I did manage to do all of that in the short time the ball was in the air. Didn't get him fielding the ball here, but did manage a decent shot as he threw the ball to first:
My friend let me know their plan ahead of time and it was a good thing they did. As soon as the third inning was over, we were rolling out of the photo well before the players were heading to the field. We headed through the doors behind home plate on our way back up to the photo room. We started dumping our photos to disk and headed into the Press Box to grab a quick soda. It was at this time I realized my poor planning and grabbed a small bowl of pop corn since I hadn't eaten anything before the 4PM game.
This is the one area where I don't think I got everything I was hoping to get from the experience. And, that was a decision that I made (my friend thanked me later). Watching my friend go through images was rather amazing. They moved quickly and had an earphone in one ear to hear the comments they had made. I was definitely not able to follow everything they were doing but knew they needed to get the shots done, get them uploaded and get back out to the field. So, I kept quiet and did some of my own editing instead when not watching them. I sent some shots (including the first above of the home run) off to the Rays and sent some to my wife and my boys. According to my wife, not long after I sent the image to her, she saw my image on the Rays web site, but by the time I could look at it the next day, it had been replaced by videos from the game. Ah well, too bad!
As soon as my friend was finished we packed up. This time we exited through the Press Box to the stands and shot some photos from a different angle. We then walked down the aisle between innings and jumped back into the first base outside photo well. Here's a couple before we headed back down to the field.
We stayed in that well for the rest of the game. It is my friend's favorite place to shoot from since most of the batters are right handed and thus facing you. I watched several of the photographers to see what they were shooting and get a feel for what they were doing. I was happy to see that most did about the same thing I had been doing with high school and college games. The Rays ended up winning and as the game ended, we shot the players and coaches shaking hands and high fiving over their victory before we grabbed all our gear and the stools and headed upstairs.
More dumping, soda, pop corn and editing was done before my son called me to let me know we were running late for dinner with some family who were in Baltimore so I packed and took off as quickly as I could to meet up with them and head to dinner.
On Day Two, my son and his girlfriend did not have field passes, so they headed over to Baltimore's Inner Harbor and wandered around while I headed to the field early again. My friend greeted me with thanks for letting them do their editing without interruption and promised to sit down and go through their editing process in the coming weeks / month when we were away from the field.
Day Two's starting pitchers were both right handed, so I was a bit surprised when we headed towards the first base photo well again with the stools. My friend answered the question - more right handed batters, but we were going to start in the third base photo well to get the pitchers. It was better to "reserve" the space on the first base side since we would spend more time there.
Again with the photo "stalking" before the game started...
This time we didn't head into the well before the National Anthem so I was able to (unobtrusively) get some shots of the singer and the Orioles during the Anthem. Not something I normally do, but since I could do it without moving, I decided to go for it on this occasion. (In general, my feeling is that unless you are a pro with a requirement to do it, I don't think you should be shooting during ANY National Anthem- especially those photographers that I see from time to time walking around and shooting high school players during the Anthem...it just feels disrespectful...)
We went right to the third base photo well on the outfield side of the Rays dugout and got ready to go. It definitely was not as easy shooting without the stool (although the portion of me that was in contact with the stool for a long game the day before appreciated me not sitting). You either have to bend over and shoot below the rail or go up on the riser in front of fans who paid a good amount for the front row seats. They were all pretty nice and were OK with me getting in the way for a pitch or two.
After the first inning where we were sure to get both pitchers, we hurried around to the first base well before the second inning started. Oh yea - you have to watch the TV cameras - you don't want to walk in front of any of them that are live! That makes them unhappy - and yes, I managed to stay off TV other than my wife said she saw me a couple of times when a foul ball would come near our well, but that wasn't because I screwed up!
After the third inning, we headed back to the photo room as we had done the previous day. I planned ahead and had grabbed a burger before the game, so no pop corn, but that cold soda tasted great on a very hot day. Note that a black shirt was not the right choice that day.
And so it went. The Rays ended up winning again and we headed back upstairs. Both games ended up being pretty long games for not going into extra innings and my backside kept reminding me of how long I'd been sitting on that hard wooden stool, but it definitely seems like the weekend flew by. It amazes me how many little details I remember thinking back and how interesting it is to be that close to the action.
I can definitely say that I would LOVE to do this as a full time job. In order to do that, a few things would need to happen (outside of the obvious part about having someone hire me to do it). To simplify down to the core, I need to learn their editing techniques and how to use their shortcuts. I need to learn how and when to use the voice recordings as that is not required with my current photography. I need to get a stool with some padding OR they need to redesign their photo wells!
You may notice that I didn't mention anything about getting better as a photographer. No, I am not going to suggest I am as talented a photographer as my friend or any of the other photographers I met. I'm also not going to suggest I am less talented. I wasn't trying to keep up with them and had no deadline, so I went through and amazingly enough had narrowed down my images and edited about the same number as they did during the game although I didn't have captions to worry about. I wanted to take my time and go through all of the images where I could think about what I shot and what I felt was right or wrong (if either) in an image.
In baseball you can easily shoot over 20 photos of the same guy at bat. If they see enough pitches, you can go well over that if you are shooting between 2 and 5 images on each pitch, thus most of those fit into the category of who cares. I finished my editing after a couple of days and spent a couple of days going back over the images before I did anything with them.
This past weekend I threw them up on my site where my friend will give me the REAL answer on how I did. However, I searched around and found my friend's images from those two games (among the many other games my friend covers). I was quite pleased as I looked at their images and said "Oh - I got that one" or "I have that just a bit earlier or later" (that can be good or bad)...I am going to go back through my friend's photos over the next few days when I have more time to sit and compare, but I was pretty pleased in comparing their shots to my shots on first glance. If I'm correct in my quick assessment, I did pretty well for someone who does not do this full time. I know there is room for improvement too, but part of that comes simply from more experience and shooting the same thing regularly...
A few parting shots to end this long blog entry - if you've made it this far, thanks for reading! I really didn't intend it to be this long!
I think this has to be my favorite from the weekend - I guess I should use the standard caption
June 29, 2014: Baltimore, MD. Tampa Bay Rays Starting Pitcher Alex Cobb (#53) fields a sacrifice bunt by Baltimore Oriole First Baseman Chris Davis (#19) in the second inning. The Tampa Bay Rays won the game 12-7. Copyright Sportz2Pix
Instead of trying, I am going to step you through my experience and let that lead to some photos. Sorry for the length of the entry, but it was an interesting and valuable experience and I hope it will help everyone learn a little something as I did. I also wanted to include several photos. Going back through it is also helping me think about the things I learned!
It really isn't as easy as it might sound. I could probably convince my friend to come out to a local high school game where I would get lots of good information and probably achieve most of what I set out to do. But, that isn't exactly working to their normal routine which is one of those things that I want to observe and learn. And, it wouldn't give me the opportunity to meet the pros shooting the same event or contacts that might be a source of work in the future.
So, that means observing the pro in their natural environment
. That means a professional photographer shooting one of their real assignments in a real atmosphere. That also means shooting along with them and having them tear apart my images both positively and negatively. Through my friend's contacts and some of my contacts, we were finally able to get a weekend where we could make this happen.It had to meet my friend's schedule so that they were shooting when I could make it which meant a weekend. Most importantly, I had to be able to get press credentials to do this. I have had press credentials for many years for shooting high school sports, but getting a press credential to a professional game is not easy. I am not unfamiliar with this - I've shot about half a dozen pro football games and I even got to shoot one Major League baseball game several years ago. But, I have learned quite a bit since shooting that game with my D100 and those opportunities are hard to come by. We finally got that worked out too...
I honestly don't remember enjoying photography any more than I enjoyed this weekend. Some of the NFL games might come close, but I don't think they quite matched up. On June 28th and 29th I photographed two baseball games between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards in Baltimore. I have heard that there are very few women sports photographers, but I was lucky enough to shoot with two of them along with several men on this particular weekend. One of the reasons my friend and I felt this would be a good weekend to shoot is that there were not too many photographers shooting. There was also a golf tournament in the area and many of the photographers were sent there to cover that instead. Interestingly, there IS a pecking order and it isn't just seniority. It is also the organizations the photographers shoot for and the frequency those organizations cover the home team. There also appears to be some give and take as I noticed that I had a better position than some of the folks from time to time.
Where to start....well, I guess I will start at the beginning. As most of you know, my son plays college baseball. He is a baseball fanatic and made the trip up from college with his girlfriend to spend some time with the family. The two of them traveled to Baltimore with me the next day and we got checked in to the hotel. We had an amazing view of the Inner Harbor in Baltimore, but didn't stay long. I had also managed to get them setup with on field passes for the pre-game that day, so we were all in a hurry to get to the field. We had been told to go to the main gate (behind home plate) to pick up our credentials and their game tickets for their seats. This entrance is rather well guarded and actually has glass doors. Inside, they had everything at the main desk and my pro friend had just gotten off the elevator to see if I had shown up.
My son was beyond thrilled with his weekend and his girlfriend seemed to have quite a bit of fun as well. They got taken down to the field and got to meet several of the players and coaches from both teams and Chris Davis of the Orioles tossed my son a ball as he was heading off the field. Their seats were right in front and below the press box behind home plate and, as they found out while chatting, they were with family members of the Rays players. They were next to the press box on the second day, also with Rays family members.
(photo from my son's iPhone - don't know who he got to take it)
My friend took me back onto the elevator up to the second floor to show me the "Photo Room" where all the photographers setup shop each day. The regulars have lockers where they can store gear or whatever they want - of course, I was carrying all of my gear! We were the only photographers there and my friend showed me where I could setup for the day and not be in the way. To save time and make carrying easier, I'd already put my 200-400 on my monopod along with one of my D600s. That made it easier when I also had a shoulder bag with my computer gear and a rolling bag with the rest of my photo gear. I did choose to leave the D7000 and kit lens at home as I knew I wouldn't need them. I took my friend's advice and threw my 24-70 on my other D600 with my Black Rapid strap and stored away the rest in case it was needed. I noticed that about half of the photographers chose a 70-200 as their shorter lens while the rest were carrying 24-70s. One had a 300 on his body and switched between the other two on his second body. Everyone carried two bodies to the field, the other body with a longer lens. Several had 400 2.8, a couple with 300 2.8 and one other shooting the 200-400 like I was shooting.
After I got my computer setup and attached to the provided wifi, I was given a quick tour of the second floor area we were in which was basically a trip into the press box to see if the lineups had been put out yet. My friend also pointed out the soda machine and popcorn machine that were available for the press (those came in handy later). We then grabbed some stools and headed down the elevator to field level. We headed out on the field towards the first base side where we placed the stools in the photo well just on the outfield side of the Orioles dugout.
Not sure why, but the Orioles photo wells are, to me, poorly designed in that from inside the well, the top railing is directly in the way of shooting for anyone who is not really tall or short so you have to sit on a stool to get a good line. There is also a 6" riser at the back of the well which gives enough clearance to shoot over the rail, but it puts you in the way of the folks in the front row. I saw my son as his girlfriend while we were out there, but didn't get the chance to do anything but wave as we were in "prep" mode, getting everything prepared prior to things getting really busy. I was mostly trying to keep up and take everything in!
One of the first things they do is get their software setup with the lineups. Everything they post to their employer must include a caption which includes things like date, location and anything that is happening in the image including the names, numbers and positions of the players.
So this image would have a caption something along the lines of: "June 28, 2014: Baltimore, MD. Tampa Bay Rays Center Fielder Desmond Jennings (#8) hits a home run in the first inning off of Baltimore Orioles starting pitcher Wei-Yen Chen (#16)."
They may also include either the current (or final) score and even the "count" - meaning the number of balls and strikes on the batter when the hit was made. They use PhotoMechanic which allows them to tag images fairly quickly and easily and they have shortcuts that they maintain from day to day. For example, they would have pre-populated their standard caption with the day, location and teams. They would have shortcuts that allow them to put "TB8" along with a character that points to their shortcuts that would fill in the player's name, number and position that the player was playing that day. There are also other items within the information that some organizations may require which also include the photographer's name and any copyright info. It isn't something I need right now, but I definitely need to take some time and get up to speed on this as it will make things easier down the road.
As other photographers showed up, I was introduced to them and they got themselves all setup as well. All too quickly we were grabbing our gear and heading towards the field. We headed for the photo well where we had placed our stools and left the "big glass" there. It kind of scared me, but my friend assured me they would be fine...I was not worried about them getting stolen...but leaving a $10000 piece of glass sitting like this just isn't something I'm used to.
We then headed back out on the field for some pre-game "stalking" as my friend called it. Some photos of the players and managers in their pre-game warmups, signing autographs or relaxing. I felt kind of bad for the player below as he was asked to sign his name on the back of a shirt that had another player's name and number!
My friend is required to post some specific photos of each game which includes photos of each of the managers. Joe Maddon, the Tampa Bay Rays manager was quite friendly, joking with the crowd. I grabbed a few quick photos of him and some of the others in the Rays dugout before walking back around to "stalk" the Orioles dugout.
(Photo from my son's iPhone showing me (in red shirt) in front of Oriole's dugout from their seats)
When I say walking back around, it isn't far as anyone who has seen a baseball field knows. But, one of the first rules I learned - KEEP OFF THE GRASS! No, I learned it before I made a mistake and probably would have stayed off it anyway. You can see the "warning track" of dirt around the field in the last photo above and we had to stay on the dirt.
We jumped back in the well just before the National Anthem. In baseball, the visiting team always bats first. My friend is also required to submit at least two photos of each starting pitcher (one portrait and one landscape). We had chosen the first base photo well since both starting pitchers were left handed. I shot a few of the pitcher on the first pitch or two.
Then I switched over and took the shot above of Desmond Jennings hitting the home run. Glad I switched when I did...I got kind of caught up with the opportunity to shoot the pro players and after that shot I realized that I hadn't really been paying attention to how (or what) my friend was shooting. My friend and the other pro photographers were talking to their cameras. Ahh, yes...another learning experience...when some event (like the home run) occurs, they use the voice record feature on their camera body to record the details of information they need about the event that can later be used to caption the photos! They also shoot the player rounding the bases and getting high fives from teammates just in case a photo is needed. Especially true if they had been shooting the pitcher or some other direction when the hit occurred.
Watching my friend, I asked the question - most of them also use the AE / AF Lock button for focus on their long lenses. Glad to know that one too as I had found it very useful when shooting baseball even if it was difficult for me to use when shooting lacrosse and soccer. Eventually I might get used to that style of focus although I know I lost some images (previously and over this weekend) that I otherwise would have gotten using the shutter button for focus. Since I don't use it all the time (and I hadn't shot baseball in awhile), I sometimes expected the shutter button to do the refocus. Or, in the process of trying to reposition myself, zoom closer to an outfielder and hit the AE / AF button and the shutter button. I just missed getting it done quickly enough to get the shot I was looking for even if I did manage to do all of that in the short time the ball was in the air. Didn't get him fielding the ball here, but did manage a decent shot as he threw the ball to first:
My friend let me know their plan ahead of time and it was a good thing they did. As soon as the third inning was over, we were rolling out of the photo well before the players were heading to the field. We headed through the doors behind home plate on our way back up to the photo room. We started dumping our photos to disk and headed into the Press Box to grab a quick soda. It was at this time I realized my poor planning and grabbed a small bowl of pop corn since I hadn't eaten anything before the 4PM game.
This is the one area where I don't think I got everything I was hoping to get from the experience. And, that was a decision that I made (my friend thanked me later). Watching my friend go through images was rather amazing. They moved quickly and had an earphone in one ear to hear the comments they had made. I was definitely not able to follow everything they were doing but knew they needed to get the shots done, get them uploaded and get back out to the field. So, I kept quiet and did some of my own editing instead when not watching them. I sent some shots (including the first above of the home run) off to the Rays and sent some to my wife and my boys. According to my wife, not long after I sent the image to her, she saw my image on the Rays web site, but by the time I could look at it the next day, it had been replaced by videos from the game. Ah well, too bad!
As soon as my friend was finished we packed up. This time we exited through the Press Box to the stands and shot some photos from a different angle. We then walked down the aisle between innings and jumped back into the first base outside photo well. Here's a couple before we headed back down to the field.
We stayed in that well for the rest of the game. It is my friend's favorite place to shoot from since most of the batters are right handed and thus facing you. I watched several of the photographers to see what they were shooting and get a feel for what they were doing. I was happy to see that most did about the same thing I had been doing with high school and college games. The Rays ended up winning and as the game ended, we shot the players and coaches shaking hands and high fiving over their victory before we grabbed all our gear and the stools and headed upstairs.
More dumping, soda, pop corn and editing was done before my son called me to let me know we were running late for dinner with some family who were in Baltimore so I packed and took off as quickly as I could to meet up with them and head to dinner.
On Day Two, my son and his girlfriend did not have field passes, so they headed over to Baltimore's Inner Harbor and wandered around while I headed to the field early again. My friend greeted me with thanks for letting them do their editing without interruption and promised to sit down and go through their editing process in the coming weeks / month when we were away from the field.
Day Two's starting pitchers were both right handed, so I was a bit surprised when we headed towards the first base photo well again with the stools. My friend answered the question - more right handed batters, but we were going to start in the third base photo well to get the pitchers. It was better to "reserve" the space on the first base side since we would spend more time there.
Again with the photo "stalking" before the game started...
This time we didn't head into the well before the National Anthem so I was able to (unobtrusively) get some shots of the singer and the Orioles during the Anthem. Not something I normally do, but since I could do it without moving, I decided to go for it on this occasion. (In general, my feeling is that unless you are a pro with a requirement to do it, I don't think you should be shooting during ANY National Anthem- especially those photographers that I see from time to time walking around and shooting high school players during the Anthem...it just feels disrespectful...)
We went right to the third base photo well on the outfield side of the Rays dugout and got ready to go. It definitely was not as easy shooting without the stool (although the portion of me that was in contact with the stool for a long game the day before appreciated me not sitting)
. You either have to bend over and shoot below the rail or go up on the riser in front of fans who paid a good amount for the front row seats. They were all pretty nice and were OK with me getting in the way for a pitch or two.
After the first inning where we were sure to get both pitchers, we hurried around to the first base well before the second inning started. Oh yea - you have to watch the TV cameras - you don't want to walk in front of any of them that are live! That makes them unhappy - and yes, I managed to stay off TV other than my wife said she saw me a couple of times when a foul ball would come near our well, but that wasn't because I screwed up!
After the third inning, we headed back to the photo room as we had done the previous day. I planned ahead and had grabbed a burger before the game, so no pop corn, but that cold soda tasted great on a very hot day. Note that a black shirt was not the right choice that day.
And so it went. The Rays ended up winning again and we headed back upstairs. Both games ended up being pretty long games for not going into extra innings and my backside kept reminding me of how long I'd been sitting on that hard wooden stool, but it definitely seems like the weekend flew by. It amazes me how many little details I remember thinking back and how interesting it is to be that close to the action.
I can definitely say that I would LOVE to do this as a full time job. In order to do that, a few things would need to happen (outside of the obvious part about having someone hire me to do it). To simplify down to the core, I need to learn their editing techniques and how to use their shortcuts. I need to learn how and when to use the voice recordings as that is not required with my current photography. I need to get a stool with some padding OR they need to redesign their photo wells
!You may notice that I didn't mention anything about getting better as a photographer. No, I am not going to suggest I am as talented a photographer as my friend or any of the other photographers I met. I'm also not going to suggest I am less talented. I wasn't trying to keep up with them and had no deadline, so I went through and amazingly enough had narrowed down my images and edited about the same number as they did during the game although I didn't have captions to worry about. I wanted to take my time and go through all of the images where I could think about what I shot and what I felt was right or wrong (if either) in an image.
In baseball you can easily shoot over 20 photos of the same guy at bat. If they see enough pitches, you can go well over that if you are shooting between 2 and 5 images on each pitch, thus most of those fit into the category of who cares. I finished my editing after a couple of days and spent a couple of days going back over the images before I did anything with them.
This past weekend I threw them up on my site where my friend will give me the REAL answer on how I did. However, I searched around and found my friend's images from those two games (among the many other games my friend covers). I was quite pleased as I looked at their images and said "Oh - I got that one" or "I have that just a bit earlier or later" (that can be good or bad)...I am going to go back through my friend's photos over the next few days when I have more time to sit and compare, but I was pretty pleased in comparing their shots to my shots on first glance. If I'm correct in my quick assessment, I did pretty well for someone who does not do this full time. I know there is room for improvement too, but part of that comes simply from more experience and shooting the same thing regularly...
A few parting shots to end this long blog entry - if you've made it this far, thanks for reading! I really didn't intend it to be this long!
I think this has to be my favorite from the weekend - I guess I should use the standard caption
June 29, 2014: Baltimore, MD. Tampa Bay Rays Starting Pitcher Alex Cobb (#53) fields a sacrifice bunt by Baltimore Oriole First Baseman Chris Davis (#19) in the second inning. The Tampa Bay Rays won the game 12-7. Copyright Sportz2Pix
Going as a second shooter or assistant as you did here is a wonderful learning opportunity.
The importance of preparing IPTC presets and keywords can't be stressed enough. Photo mechanic is probably the only way to do this and keep a tight deadline.
Voice annotation is a great help in captioning and when using a camera like my D700 or D300 I keep a Zoom H2 in a pocket connected to a throat mic with PTT . With the clocks synchronized in both bodies and the recorder it is easy to find what sound bite belongs to which photo sequence. The annotation feature of a D3 or D4 is, of course easier to use...
It seems like you had fun and got some very good images out of the experience, so congratulations!