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| Photo by Jack Howard |
| Click photo to launch a gallery of baseball and softball images. |
Pitchers, Position 2
It's always a good idea to get a few shots of both starting pitchers early in the game. You never know if it's their day to throw a perfect game, and who wouldn't want a photo of that? For head-on shots, shoot from Position 2. By pressing your long lens right up to the fence between chain links, you'll get a very clean center of the frame, as the bits of fencing in the edge of the frame are so far off the plane of critical focus to be an issue. As the pitchers will be moving forward during their motion, Continuous Autofocus is recommended. Make sure to keep your active Autofocus point (we suggest the center point) on the pitcher, so it doesn't search and discover the outfield fence during the pitcher's motion from Position 2.
Capturing softball pitchers, with their underhand pitching style combined with gracefully powerful windups, lends itself to vertical compositions that show the whole body. Don't frame too tightly, or you'll crop out the highest reach of their windup. Shoot a few practice bursts before the inning during their warm-up pitches to get a feel for their motion. (The pitchers generally aren't throwing their best stuff, and there may be players out of position in the background, so these aren't really great game action shots, but should give you a feel for that pitcher's style for when the game is actually live.) Work on your timing -- try to anticipate the most dramatic freeze-frame of their motion and try to catch that in your first frame. Keep the shutter button down and burst shots all the way through the release. Shooting full-body with softball pitchers give a good bit of room in the frame for the ball, once it is released. Once you are comfortable with your timing and have a full-body winner of the softball pitcher, don't be afraid to tighten up the frame to make a shot that cuts off at the knees. This will give greater detail to the release.
Baseball pitchers present a different set of challenges. Some pitchers have dramatic, interesting, even bizarre windups, which tell the story of that particular hurler. All of the above softball advice holds true for full-body, head-on shots of the pitcher showing the entire windup. But the overhanded pitching style also lends itself to much tighter compositions, showing just the pitcher's upper torso, face, and throwing arm. The expressions pitchers make in mid-hurl are often intense. Filling the frame with more of the face and less dead space brings these expressions to the foreground -- telling the story of the game in a different way. Again, study the pitcher's windup and release. Certain pitchers always throw from a tight overhand windup -- lending itself to a vertical framing. Sidearm pitchers work better in horizontal frames. Pitchers who mix it up? Good luck! Depending on the pitcher's motion, expression, and follow-through, the best shot of a baseball pitcher may be in windup or follow-through. Burst all the way through the pitcher's motion, study the shots on your LCD, and try to time your first shot in the burst to catch that moment.
Pitchers, Position 1 and 3
Positions 1 and 3 also lend themselves to capturing action profiles of pitchers in both softball and baseball. You'd think there'd be a simple rule such as: First base side works better for left-handed hurlers, but that's not a totally true statement. Again, study the pitcher's windup and motion and determine which baseline gives a better action profile. From these side positions, full-body shots of softball pitchers can be quite dramatic, and tight horizontal shots of baseball pitchers from the waist up are usually winners. A great thing about shooting the pitcher from position 1 and 3 is that you can pre-focus on the pitcher once they are in pre-windup. Since their forward motion is parallel to the focal plane, there's no need to keep the AF active all the way through the pitch. Obtain focus and you're good to go. Just burst away once they start their pitch. Check the background of the shot -- is it possible to move your shooting position a foot or two to the right or left to clean up the background by putting the edge of the dugout, instead of the cars in the parking lot, behind the pitcher?
It's best to focus on shots of the pitcher when there are no baserunners for two reasons: baserunners can lead to great action, and base coaches tend to move in your way when they've got runners in scoring position. Shoot the pitchers early in the innings, before anyone makes it to a base.
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