And It’s Root, Root, Root for the Home Team

5/23/10 – Rebecca Getsfrid – Sports Photographer in Vancouver, Washington and Portland, Oregon

About a week ago, I was commissioned to shoot a little league game up in Battle Ground. The game was yesterday, and while the team I was shooting for didn’t do too well, it was still a lot of fun. I’ll admit I hadn’t shot baseball before, and it’s definitely a whole different style than shooting basketball. When I’m at a basketball game, there’s always a good image somewhere on the court. With baseball, you really have to predict where things might happen, and pray that something actually does.

On the bright side (pre-pun entirely intended), shooting outside during the day makes it a lot easier to shoot with my 70-300. It’s a pretty fantastic lens, despite some fringing at the long end. The entire game was done with that lens, continuous autofocus, f/6.7 ISO1100, and a shutter speed ranging from 1000-4000 depending on the often changing lighting conditions brought on by cloud movement.

Through the game, I learned a few key rules that are easy to share about shooting baseball:

1. It’s super easy to get a good shot of a pitcher.

2. People sliding into a base will always look cool.





3. It doesn’t make you a bad person if you think that kids getting hurt can be hilarious.