A Baseball Blurb

I love watching my son play baseball. Did you know that?

Our team is doing great this season so far. We have won every single game with only 2 teams even scoring on us. Everybody is in super spirits....although Big Dan has had some moments of distress. He has been down on himself because he's worked so hard gearing up for the season, and even in spite of that, he is still feeling inadequate. I think he just gets so nervous when he's at the plate. Instead of really focusing on getting on base, he focuses more on getting it over the fence. His fielding has been good though. He in is competition with another senior for 1st base and so he doesn't get to play all the time, but he hasn't had any errors and that says so much.

Ok, with all that said, I got some super shots at the last couple of games that I wanted to share and a couple of tips...if anybody is interested.

Do you remember when I talked about the sports setting here? In sports mode (in good lighting), you can shoot continuously which is what I did here. This is Big Dan fielding first base.





I was extremely pleased. All I did was tweak the contrast a bit in my photo editing software because I like vibrant color. One thing I will note is even with my 75-300 lens, instead of staying in my seat and zooming in, I like to get up close and personal with my subject, and I find that zooming in at the max sometimes causes me to lose clarity.

Here he is still at the same position, but I turned my camera to shoot landscape for a different look, and also to include the runner.



To me, the batting pictures are a bit more challenging. I have to be 100% ready and the continuous shooting here is the only way I'm really going to capture the hit. Out of about 10 shots, this is the only one that was really good, but I LOVED capturing the blur of the bat as it rebounded off the ball. That's some good action right there.

Good News! Last night Big Dan got a great hit! He got a double with a hit that went all the way to the fence. I was so happy because he really needed that pick me up. I was mad at myself, though because he had a face first dive into 2nd and I totally wasn't ready to capture that on camera. I'm sure you will notice the dirt in these next 2 photographs though. haha.

Remember I told you how I like to get up close and personal? Well, it's the best way. I get funny looks sometimes and I had to travel far from the stands clear to the other side of the home dugout to get over to 3rd base, but look what it got me!!

I'm so glad Big Dan has finally gotten out of that "mom, you're embarrassing me" stage. I thought that day would never come, but it's so funny....now the first thing he wants to know is "if I got any good pictures!". Makes getting out of my seat totally worth the smile on his face.

Shooting...Sports Style

I have officially entered the land of "crazy". I keep longing for blog time, but it just isn't happening....and the sad part is, I can't foresee much in the future either. Spring is right around the corner and you know what that means. We had our first Varsity baseball game of the season Tuesday night and I must say...I absolutely love that feeling. It actually wasn't too cold, but I brought my little buddy heater just in case. I'm sure there are some cold nights upon us seeing as how there are 27 games on the schedule and that doesn't even include the weekend tournaments. Just say...I hope you won't give up on me.

With all that being said, I wanted to blog a little on sports photography. I have a couple of tidbits that I have discovered by trial and error, and I also have a question for you.

Little Ann just finished up her season of Center Court basketball. It is a league sponsored by a church in our area and they played at the church gymnasium on Saturday's. I had a little trouble taking pictures in there at first. The walls are light blue and the floors are a darker shade. I had issues getting the coloring right. Gym shooting has always been tough even at the school because of the fluorescent lighting (kind of like stage).

Through trial and error I discovered that if you will change to manual setting, and go to your white balance, you will find all kinds of neat different lighting options. I chose the one for fluorescent lighting and it made a world of difference. Sometimes, I still tweak the ones I take in that blue gym to a more natural look once I get home, but it sure does get you a clearer picture than if you just shot automatic. You have to admit this is pretty good for dark gym lighting.

The next thing I have always had issues with is the action. I can't tell you how many times I have thought about (and actually held in my hand) the big, BIG daddy sports lens. With both kids playing sports, I thought I must have that. The best thing of all was even though it was 2 grand, my sweet husband told me I could buy it. Something inside just kept telling me I just needed to keep playing with what I had. And I'm glad I did.

Action is important to me and I just couldn't stand to see my son a blur as he was running down the court. So one night as I watched him play basketball, I kept noticing that the lady that was taking pictures for the county paper had a camera just like mine. We talked for awhile and that is when I was introduced to the Tv setting. It stands for timed value. According to my manual: in the Tv mode you set the shutter speed and the camera automatically sets the aperture value to suit the subject's brightness. The faster the shutter speed, the better the camera can freeze a moving subject. BINGO. This was the best news to me. Check these out.

Although you can't see her face here, what I want you to notice is there is absolutely no blurring in this shot at all, and you can clearly see she is running down the court.

These next two shots are some for sure action and I was very pleased with the way they turned out. I will forever be grateful for the Tv setting!


Baseball can make for some great pictures as far as lighting is concerned, but if you are shooting automatic, I have found that you will still get quite a bit of blur when your subject is running or swinging a bat. The next greatest discovery I've made is the actual sports setting (it is the little man running on your dial). This actually is an automatic setting that will get you continuous shooting if you hold your snap button down. It will take pictures continually as your subject is in motion and they are not blurred. Great news, huh?

Where the problem comes in is when the sun goes down. I have found that you can't use the sports setting when there isn't any lighting. I usually just put my camera away after dark because I never can seem to get a good shot. This one turned out pretty well of Big Dan because I actually got out of my seat to shoot through the fence directly behind the batters box, used my flash...and it just so happened he was positioned right underneath field lighting. It helped that he was standing still or it wouldn't have been good.

I hope you find this somewhat interesting and if my trial and error can help you...well, then it was worth it!

So, that brings me to my question for you. All you Canon Rebel users....what on earth do you do to get good night shots?

What I Wish I Knew and Some Inspiration for Naomi

This is my camera. Or you could call it my baby. I love this thing. It goes practically everywhere I go, for I hate to miss opportunities for good pictures. (Even though it's not the handiest thing to carry around.) The problem is....I'm camera illiterate. I wish I knew so much more about the capabilities of my camera, yet, I don't. Most of my shooting is on automatic, but I know my camera is capable of so much more.

It's a Canon Rebel XT and although it's nothing special, it was quite pricey when I purchased it as my first digital 3 years ago. I paid over $1,000 for it, but I'm sure you can purchase the same model now for 1/2 of that or less. It doesn't make it worth any less to me, but I so long for some great photography and have faith that "my baby" can do it. (Not so much me, though..)

Here are some extra's hubby has bought me that I really like.

-my external eye piece extender.

I really like this because it helps keep my makeup and smudges off my lcd screen.

-my battery pack.

He got me this for Christmas this year and it is wonderful. I had issues leaving my camera on (I know..it's that scatterbrained personality of mine) and everytime I got ready to shoot, my battery would be dead. It makes the camera a little heavier, but knowing I have plenty of battery to last is worth the extra weight.

-my external flash.

ok. this is an extra, but I'm not sure I can say I really like it. I have absolutely no idea how to use it and even when I have it on my camera on automatic, I seem to get better pictures using the flash without the external one. Any suggestions?

-my rubber pull out sun shield.
I have just recently discovered what a nice tool this is to have. I have been taking church directory pictures in noon sunlight and was having issues with sun spots on faces. This alleviated my problem and I was very glad to discover this remedy.

Has anyone ever taken any online tutorials or found websites helpful?

So much I wish I knew.

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This part of my post is for Naomi. She asked for some scrapbooking inspiration because she was doing some pages for a family member. Naomi, this isn't much, or one of my better pages, but it is one I did for myself and my husband and thought you might could use the layout or quote (or anything...haha)

The background is just several different patterned papers torn and I inked the edges. I used buttons to accent the black/white photo. I used big foam letters that I inked in paint for the title, and the journaling was done on the computer. I printed it on vellum paper and inked the edges. Used sparkle brads to adhere to page because I hate when glue shows through your vellum. Enjoy!