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Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Rain delay


So, you're in the middle innings of a tight Super Regional baseball game when, suddenly--boom! Game delayed because of weather.

What do you do? What DO you DO?

(If you said "shoot the hostage," 10 points for your encyclopedic knowledge of the trivial -- but I think you might be reading the wrong blog.)

Why, you go hang out in the dugout and make pictures of the crazy things baseball players do. And believe me, they do indeed do crazy things. Unfortunately, I can only share some of them with you, because (a) this is a [mostly] family-friendly blog, and (b) I had the wrong lens out to shoot the guy who put on his uniform upside down -- complete with socks and cleats on his hands -- and I wasn't about to go charging off into a lightning storm to make that picture, no sirree.

I did make three nice pictures, two lightning shots and a really funny Howie Mandel impression.

How do you make a lightning picture?

Find a good scene--I worked the scoreboard until I had a frame I liked, then I moved into the dugout. Both times I exposed for the ambient light (the scoreboard for one, the field for the other) Then, I gently half-pressed the shutter, and waited...

...and waited...


...and waited some more...

Every time I saw a flash, I fired. I was using a relatively slow shutter speed, around 1/30th, to get more of the bolt in the frame. Obviously, it's a pretty hit-and-miss thing, and I shot A LOT of frames to get these two. (Fortunately, pixels are still free.) There were lots of bombs, a few sortas, one or two near-misses, and the two you see here. Stellar? No, but I'm pleased with them.

Of course, by this point the players given up harassing me, so they paid no attention to me as I wandered over to the glove-inflating contest. The fact that they couldn't see me from inside of the gloves probably didn't hurt, either.

Remember, an event NOT happening, or being interrupted, can be every bit as important as if it ended with a team winning or losing. Your editors, who have reserved a chunk of valuable space to fill with YOUR photos, will expect you to come back with SOMETHING to fill that space.

[RULE #1 of deadline photography: Always come back with a picture. An overall of the scene. A puddle of water at home plate. An expty stadium, to prove that you got sent on the wrong night. SOMETHING. ANYTHING. Because coming back empty-handed is unacceptable.]

And if they fill it with bowling scores instead? Well, it was good experience, probably a good story, and possibly a frame that will impress your future editor at your next job...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You hand-held lightening shots... I'm impressed.