Tag Archives: sport

Some Minor League Fun

A recent work trip took me to Indianapolis for a few days. A client was down there at a facility and I was meeting with them on a number of topics over a few days. Since we were all staying away from home, we had free time at the end of the day when we could go out and see what the local area had to offer. The first night I was there, the rest of the guys had already worked out what they wanted to do so I was happy to tag along.

Indianapolis has a minor league baseball team, the Indians. They are based at a nice ballpark close the the heart of downtown. For those that have been following this blog for a while, you will recall that Nancy and I had a weekend in Indianapolis last year when the baby elephant was first appearing in public at the zoo. The hotel we stayed in was very close to the ballpark and from one end of the building you got a great view of it from above.

This time I was going to get to see the inside of the park and enjoy an evening of baseball. It should be noted that I am not much of a baseball fan. I know some imports like me that are huge fans of the game but I have never really got into it. I used to think that it was something you had to grow up with but that is obviously not the case given the friends I have that have got into it. For me, it is another sport I am happy to watch but one that doesn’t get me passionate. As with many sports, though, seeing it in person is so much more fun than watching it on TV.

A trip to the ballpark is a social experience for me. You get to hang out in a (usually) good-natured crowd, watch some sport, eat some food that you wouldn’t normally bother with and drink some beer. On a warm evening, there really isn’t much to complain about with that. If you don’t know either of the teams, you tend to root for the home guys and, in this case, that worked out pretty well since they won convincingly.

I took my camera along because I knew that we were heading to the game before I left home. It was an evening game and the stand was blocking the sun from the west so light was always going to be an issue. As the game wore on, the ISO settings went higher and higher. Looking at the shots at full zoom, they really show the impact of the noise. However, since these are small versions of the shots, they shouldn’t look too bad. They were never intended for publication so it is far better to have clarity of the shot than to have a lot of blurry shots with low noise!

I was shooting with the 100-400 which is not a great low light lens at the best of times but it did reasonably well. I also took along the fisheye zoom since a sports stadium is an interesting shape for that type of lens. The park allowed you to walk all around the perimeter so I did take a stroll at one point to see what everything looked like from other parts of the ground. It was nice to see the different perspectives.

I did try shooting from directly behind the batter’s position as the pitcher faced me. The netting is a problem here, of course. A faster lens may have better allowed me to take the net out of focus but it was already pretty dark by then so I was fighting on a few fronts. It didn’t really matter of course. I was doing this for fun and if the shots are not quite Sports Illustrated standard, I am not going to lose too much sleep.

A fun night out and a win for “our” team. In the end, that was enough and getting to take a few pictures along the way only made it better. Thanks for the idea guys.

Snocross in Short Sleeves

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March in Wisconsin seems like a pretty good time to schedule a snowmobile race. Unfortunately, that would mean that you didn’t know this year was going to be particularly mild all winter and especially so in March. So it was that the final round of the AMSOil ISOC Snocross race was scheduled for the Grand Geneva Resort in Lake Geneva WI in mid-March.

Just because it was warm, didn’t mean there wouldn’t be racing though. Congratulations to the organizers who made good use of their snow cannons to put a base of snow down on a basic course. Apparently, it was a bit truncated compared to previous years but there was a course. Moreover, the course managed to hold together as the air temperature made its way up to the high 70s (if not creeping into the 80s!). I wondered whether this great job of combating the conditions extended to the clothing the racers wore. I doubt too much snowmobile racing clothing is designed for the high 70s. I suspect it is more about staying warm. They were probably pretty toasty!

I hadn’t applied for media credentials for this event so was only shooting from the public areas. With the course laid out the way it was, this really didn’t prove to be too limiting. There were a few shots I would like to have got but it really didn’t make too much of a difference. The action is close to the people most of the time and they come by pretty frequently so there is usually plenty to see.

I was pretty happy with the outcome to be honest. It was a fun day out and I spent it with a good bunch of guys as well. We would split up at times but end up back at similar locations before too long so it worked well. One of those disappointing things about shooting an action sport like this is that you find yourself focusing on a particular rider and hear a groan from the crowd. This is a sign that someone has wiped out quite dramatically but all you see is them getting up and retrieving their machine unless you get lucky – certainly luckier than the racer!

Now I just have to work out what the real name is for the machine. I always thought they were snowmobiles but then I watched some stuff from Alaska that said the people in the know call them snowmachines. The announcers at this event didn’t seem to be aware of that so I am just as in the dark as I was beforehand. Anyone know the right term?

Cross Country

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My trip to upstate New York had a certain sporty theme to it. We had a triple header of sports to watch. Today you get part two! My niece was taking part in a cross country meet for her high school. She was glad to be running again after having been out with an injury for a while.

The course was a fun one for spectators but less so for the runners I imagine. A section lower down the hill was apparently quite damp – one girl lost her shoe but continued without it – and the climb back up to the main viewing area looked like something I was glad someone else was doing.

I only saw Sara’s race in full. There were plenty of other age groups at different times and the guys were racing as well but I wasn’t there to see them. Family viewing is what counts. Here are a couple from the day. It’s hard to photograph cross country runners since they always seem to be in so much pain. Most of the pictures involve expressions that I am sure they would not be too grateful about if I were to share them with the world. I’m a nice guy I guess!

Are you ready for some football?

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Devoted followers of this blog (that’s all of you, right?) will know I have had a couple of attempts at photographing football (the American version as opposed to the one that uses a foot to kick a ball). This involved preseason training camp for the Chicago Bears but not a real game. For my first attempt at a live, unplanned action, I did not have a professional game. It was time for High School.

My nephew plays for his high school JV team and they had a game when we were going to be visiting so I took my camera along – like I wouldn’t have done so anyway! I checked that there wouldn’t be a problem photographing at a school event and was reassured that it would be fine.

First something about the surroundings. There was a fence around the field that no-one was to enter. This limited me from some of the things I wanted to do but wasn’t too big a deal. Second, this game was taking place in October in Syracuse NY. This is not a combination that you select for good weather. While I wasn’t bothered about the rain, the lack of light would be an issue.

More of a problem initially was keeping track of what is going on. When watching football on TV I have little trouble keeping track of how the plays are developing. Doing it from the side of the field is a surprisingly different experience. For a while, I could easily lose the ball completely. A bit of practice and this improved considerably.

When the game started out, there was plenty of light and I could get the shutter speeds I was looking for. As the game progressed, the light faded a lot. I kept ramping up the ISO to compensate but it was still a struggle to get a high enough shutter speed. Eventually the lights came on but they were only some compensation. Even at the higher end of the ISO range I was happy to try, the shutter speeds were getting low. Consequently, some of the later shots were as much luck as judgement!

I shot a lot of images during the game. You don’t get a chance to decide in advance whether a play will be any good. Moreover, it is hard to see at a given time whether the key components of the shot are there. I got plenty of shots with some dynamic movement from the players but no visible ball. Without the ball, they really could be anything. Off to the trash with them!

I wandered around the field to try different angles. Starting at the side was fine and I could try some shots along the line of scrimmage. I could also move up and down with the play as the teams advanced. Later I tried shooting from both ends of the field. That provided some quite satisfying angles but you also ran the risk of being at the wrong end when something happened or you saw the back of everything – again, no ball to be seen.

I was not alone on the sidelines. Several parents of the players were also trying to get shots. Between all of us, we probably managed to get a fair few that would be of use. It was fun to talk to them as the game moved on to compare notes on what we were trying to get and what we had got so far.

When I ran through the pictures afterwards, I wondered whether any of them would be useful to the team. You can see some interesting things about the way players lined up and engaged with the other team. You also get to record all of the penalties that the officials missed!

I had a great time (and stayed a lot warmer than the rest of the family since I was always on the move). I would certainly like to try it again although next time it would be nice to have a bit more light to play with. It was the penultimate game of the season for my nephew’s team I guess I won’t see them play again until next year. Oh yes, they won so well done Jamesville Dewitt!

Surfing in Paradise

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If I were to ask you what sport you would associate with Hawaii, it might depend on your age as to what you choose. If you are a bit older, it might be ocean going canoeing (is that how you spell it?) that you think of, perhaps accompanied by the theme to a 70s TV police show. However, if you aren’t in that group, your choice is more likely to be surfing.

Did I go surfing while in Hawaii? Ah, no. Did lots of other people go surfing while we were there? Oh yes. Half the vehicles we passed seemed to have a board on the roof or so it seemed. There were plenty of places to try your skills since most beaches seemed to have breaking surf in some areas. The large numbers of reefs might, of course, make some of those areas a touch risky.

Anyway, I didn’t spend a lot of time tracking down the surfers. Instead, we saw a bunch of people closer inshore not always on full surf boards. Here are some shots of the action we saw. One day I will have to make more of an effort to go out and shoot some surfing since it makes some great shots!