Brandon Loy

A year ago today I went to two baseball games. I doubt you're surprised.

West Michigan Whitecaps second baseman Brandon Loy's about to field a bouncer--probably hit by Lansing Lugnuts first baseman Kevin Hobson--and whip the ball to first base. It's the sixth inning of a morning game at Cooley Law School Stadium in downtown Lansing, and there are thousands of schoolchildren in the grandstand.

Cheated a bit on my stated rules for this set. Since I knew I'd get something at the ballpark, even though I was shooting in color, I made no effort to take a deliberate black & white pic before leaving for the game. The original photo is here.

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I've shot a lot of baseball pictures over the past few years. Here's my (current) normal camera setup for day baseball:

* White balance is set to match the weather.
* ISO set to 400.
* Exposure mode is Shutter Priority.
* Shutter speed is quite high (3200 for this pic; y' gotta clear 5000 to stop a 95 MPH pitch).
* Shutter release mode is Continuous.
* EV is usually slightly boosted (in this case, though, I had it way down).

I tinker with these constantly, both during games and between games. But these are my expected baseball settings for day games for any camera which lets me set these things. (My night setup is quite different. In daytime I'm usually trying to stop motion, while under the lights I often try to capture it.)

Focus with this camera/lens setup is either spot or manual. YMMV, since autofocus with this lens is pretty slow.

The camera and lens I've already discussed. I've used this lens for fifteen years, and the camera body for six, and I'm really quite comfortable with them.

While I shoot lots of more-or-less set photos of the hitters and pitchers in their respective workspaces, the action shots make the most interesting photographs. Once you get the mechanical stuff right, the best sports photography involves anticipation. And LUCK. In this case, I knew there was a good chance Hobson would hit to second, so I focused on the second baseman and held the camera on him until Loy began moving. At that point I pushed the shutter release, followed the fielder as he moved, and hoped I'd get something interesting. It worked out.

Often it does. More often it doesn't--anticipation, alone, isn't enough.

Oh, yeah: I shoot candids, mostly of the gameday staff, too.

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The second game was in Kalamazoo, where Western was hosting the Spartans. I'd have left the Lansing game early if necessary to catch the first pitch at Bobb/Hyames Stadium/Field, but as it turned out that wasn't necessary.

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This photograph is an outtake from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps.

Number of project photos taken: 269 [but see my comments above]
Title of "roll:" 5/8/2012 - Whitecaps @ Lugnuts
Other photos taken on 5/8/2012: I shot 11 more pix at Luggie game with the Cybershot--which I gave to my brother later that day. At Western I shot well over 500 photographs with the Nikon 1 V1.