Baseball Cont'd. Vienna Wanderers Won Finals

Shortstop throwing at 1st base
300mm, 1/400s, f2.8, ISO 6400

Vienna Wanderers won Austrian baseball finals. First few innings game looked quite tight and I hoped Diving Ducks would go ahead and win this game, then tomorrow I would have had a chance to watch and shoot next game of the finals. But it did not happen.

I was surprised to see so many photographers and media today including national TV. Ok, this was Austrian finals and some coverage was required. Funny thing, I was explaining to few guys from Gepa, Kurier basic sequences of actions, most of them (all of them) simply had no idea what was going on baseball field. And with baseball, actions anticipation is crucial... when you have runner on 1st and/or 2nd base with 1 out, and 3-2 count, or runner on 3rd and game is tied with one out... you have to feel it!

You point your lens to where the most probable action might happen like nice tagging at home plate when runners tackle catcher who finally even drops the ball after impact and runner is safe and scores... you do not want to photograph all the time the batter, there is so much happening besides home plate.

I concentrated on getting actions around bases, slides, steals, tags etc. Throughout the game I stayed in the dugout with Ducks by 1st base to have good angle for actions at home, and close enough for pick-ups at 1st.

3rd baseman throwing at 1st base.. with runner in the frame
300mm, 1/400s, f2.8, ISO 6400

I know the language may sound crazy, but for those who know baseball, they will know exactly what I am talking about.

Action at home
300mm, 1/400s, f2.8, ISO 6400

Photography wise today's shooting was a challenge. Game started at 6:30 p.m. under floodlights, and they were not as strong as photographer could wished for. 

Whole night I used 300mm f/2.8 lens, camera set to manual with 1/500s, ISO 6400, and of course f/2.8. 1/500s is not really enough to fully freeze fast action. Baseball may seem slow but when things happen, they happen really fast, so I wished for more ISO. I could have gone higher to 12800, and even 25600 but at the same time wanted to preserve some image quality... (when will my new camera arrive?)

Pick-off attempt at 1st
300mm, 1/400s, f2.8, ISO 6400

I do not even want to mention continuous shooting mode... well, I did. 5D II is simply useless when it comes to fast shooting, unless you have luck or really well press shutter button in advance you will miss fast moment. 5D is great for landscapes, but for shooting actions... tough job.

Action at home
300mm, 1/400s, f2.8, ISO 6400

So I got what I got and had fun, and that's important!

Cheers

Jerzy