I was browsing the internet the other day and found out that the Pennsylvania American Legion Baseball Association was holding their All-Star game at Metro Bank Park, the field in which the Harrisburg Senators, the Washington Nationals double-A play. Later that day, my phone rang and it's my buddy from the local newspaper asking me to cover the game for them. He explained to me that the paper had three particular players from the area they wanted me to focus on, so I made note of these particular players to make sure I got a good combination of candid and action shots on game day.
Sunday arrived and I showed up to the ballpark roughly an hour before the start of the game. Once arriving, I noticed that identifying the players was going to be a little tougher than I had expected. The all-star players were going to be wearing their team jerseys with numbers pinned on the back instead of jerseys supplied by the American Legion for this game.
So whenever I needed to identify a player, I had to remember not to identify them with the number on the front of their jersey, but by the number pinned on their back.
Game time arrived and the players were introduced by Team East and Team West, so I tried to get shots of the teammates giving each other high fives as they were introduced to the crowd. My job of getting the teammates for Team East was easy, because their numbers were 1, 2, and 3. Easy enough, huh?!
Canon EOS 1D Mark II, 70-200mm, 500 ISO, 1/3200 sec, f/4
I decided to shoot the first few innings from the first base dugout and then move around. The East Team was the visiting team, so they batted first. I was not aware, but both teams were allowed to bat their entire roster, even if they didn't field. The first batter up was Joshua Eshleman from Red Land. He was the first player that I needed to get lots of shots of. He would go on to get a single.
Canon EOS 1D Mark IIN, 300mm, 400 ISO, 1/3200 sec, f/2.8
Next up was the second player I needed to photograph, Joe Tuschak, from Dillsburg.
Below, he reacts after popping up for the first out in the first inning for the East Team.
Canon EOS 1D Mark IIN, 300mm, 250 ISO, 1/4000 sec, f/2.8
During the 1st inning, Eshleman would advance to second base, but would have to avoid the chances of being picked off second base.
Canon EOS 1D Mark IIN, 300mm, 250 ISO, 1/4000 sec, f/2.8
Though eventually Eshleman would avoid this and steal third base.
Canon EOS 1D Mark IIN, 300mm, 250 ISO, 1/4000 sec, f/2.8
And finally be batted in to score the first run for the East Team in the first inning.
Canon EOS 1D Mark IIN, 300mm, 250 ISO, 1/4000 sec, f/2.8
Below, West Team's third baseman Jordan LaBue fields a ball and attempts to throw to first base.
Canon EOS 1D Mark IIN, 300mm, 250 ISO, 1/2500 sec, f/2.8
Now it was on to the bottom of the first inning. I noticed early in the game that a large amount of the hits were the left side to either the third baseman or the shortstop, so I focused more on these players since I didn't have anybody I needed to focus on for the West Team while they were at bat. While doing this, I noticed that Metro Bank Park has a large amount of advertisements on the outfield wall and billboards above the wall. So, I adjusted my aperture to shoot wide open (f/2.8) to separate the players from the distracting outfield wall.
East Team shortstop Matthew Bahnick would go on to make another great play to tag out the West Team's Conor Frazier (25) to end the 1st inning.
Canon EOS 1D Mark IIN, 300mm with 1.4 teleconverter (420mm), 250 ISO, 1/2500 sec, f/4
As the second inning started, the sun started to play peak-a-boo through the clouds, so I had to constantly be on top of my settings and adjusting my ISO and shutter speed, but continued to shoot wide open with an f-stop of f/2.8.
For the top of the 2nd inning, the East Team was up to bat and was in the middle of their lineup, so I didn't need to focus on any particular players, since my players bat 1-2-3.
Below are a few shots from the 2nd inning from both the East Team and West Team.
Canon EOS 1D Mark IIN, 300mm with 1.4 teleconverter (420mm), 250 ISO, 1/1250 sec, f/4
Canon EOS 1D Mark IIN, 300mm with 1.4 teleconverter (420mm), 250 ISO, 1/1250 sec, f/4
Canon EOS 1D Mark IIN, 300mm with 1.4 teleconverter (420mm), 400 ISO, 1/1250 sec, f/4
Canon EOS 1D Mark IIN, 300mm with 1.4 teleconverter (420mm), 400 ISO, 1/2000 sec, f/4
Canon EOS 1D Mark IIN, 300mm with 1.4 teleconverter (420mm), 640 ISO, 1/2500 sec, f/4
After I felt I got a good combination of photos from the first base dugout, I ventured over to the away team (East Team) dugout on the third base side for a different perspective. I started out by getting a simple shot of the West Teams relief pitcher Robert Gummo as he threw a pitch to the plate.
Canon EOS 1D Mark IIN, 300mm with 1.4 teleconverter (420mm), 640 ISO, 1/1000 sec, f/4
Once getting a shot with a decent expression, I waited for a base runner. After saying this, the West Team's Cody Dolan (34) got a base hit and now I just had to wait for him to get a good lead to distract the pitcher, making him throw to first base for the possible pick-off.
Below, Cody Dolan slides safely back into first base avoiding the tag by East Team's first baseman Kenneth Rosencrance (13).
Canon EOS 1D Mark IIN, 300mm with 1.4 teleconverter (420mm), 800 ISO, 1/1250 sec, f/4
Top of the fourth inning came and due up to bat was the top of the order for the East Team, so I wanted to get some isolated shots of the first three batters, since these were the players I needed.
I happened to see Dillburg's Joe Tuschak with a helmet while in the dugout chatting with his teammates.
Below, East Team's Joshua Eshleman swings the bat while on the on-deck circle prior to batting.
Canon EOS 1D Mark IIN, 300mm, 800 ISO, 1/1250 sec, f/2.8
Below, East Team's Joe Tuscha steps up to the plate to bat.
Canon EOS 1D Mark IIN, 300mm with 1.4 teleconverter (420mm), 1000 ISO, 1/800 sec, f/4
At the end of the inning, it was time to move from the dugout and to a different location. Like I had mentioned before, Metro Bank Park has a lot of advertisement billboards in the outfield, that I found very distracting which would not help the background of my images. I ventured up and onto the walkway on top of the first base dugout so I could shoot down on the players.
During this time, I noticed the East Team had a new relief pitch on the mound. I know these shots of the pitcher in his wind up are a dime a dozen, but I wanted something different. I was looking for a shot of the pitcher releasing the ball, but I found out that this pitcher drops his head and arm when going through the motions after releasing the ball. It took a few pitches until I nailed the shot with the ball just out of the pitchers fingers and the facial expression made it even better.
Below, East Team's relief pitcher Tyler Reed (19) fires a pitch to the plate.
Canon EOS 1D Mark IIN, 300mm with 1.4 teleconverter (420mm), 1000 ISO, 1/1250 sec, f/4
Moving on, the East Team came up to bat and Max Miller (3) would get on base with a base hit. Though he wouldn't stay at first for long.
Below, Max Miller (3) steals and slides safely into second base.
Canon EOS 1D Mark IIN, 300mm, 640 ISO, 1/1600 sec, f/2.8
Max Miller would then go on to score another run for the East Team.
Canon EOS 1D Mark II, 70-200mm, 640 ISO, 1/1600 sec, f/4
Later in the inning, East Team's Cory Spangenberg (8) gets caught in a pick between West Team's second baseman Ryan Fitzmaurice (33) and first baseman James Healy (35).
Canon EOS 1D Mark II, 70-200mm, 1250 ISO, 1/800 sec, f/4
As I mentioned earlier, in the second inning, the sun was playing peak-a-boo through the clouds, but after the second inning, the sun went behind the clouds for about an hour. Though just before sunset, the sun made one last appearance and cast a nice warm color onto the field. Below, East Team's Mathew Bahnick steals third base. The light and the shadows help to make this image interesting; otherwise it would just be just another dime a dozen shot.
Canon EOS 1D Mark IIN, 300mm with 1.4 teleconverter (420mm), 1250 ISO, 1/4000 sec, f/4
A few minutes later, I knew my night was almost over because it was starting to get dark and yet the stadium lights had not come on. It kept getting darker and darker by the minute and finally, the stadium lights were turned on (I thought they were trying to save money by not turning them on). I was holding out from leaving because I wanted to use my star filter to add an effect to an overall shot I wanted of the stadium with the players on it.
Canon EOS 1D Mark IIN, 16-35mm, 3200 ISO, 1/640 sec, f/6.3
After that, I headed out due to deadline for the newspaper. Though when I left up until the end of the game, the score never changed. The East Team would go on to defeat the West Team 8-2. Well, that’s all from my night at the ballpark!
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