I spent the weekend photographing Under-16 and Under-18 All Star Baseball teams participating in the CNY Thunder Classic Tournament. I borrowed my friend’s Nikon D700 digital SLR camera and put on my Nikon 80-400VR f/4.5-5.6 lens to capture the action and talent of these Boys of Summer. With the D700’s ISO capability, I was able to shoot from 1/1000th to 1/5000th of a second shutter speed. I have almost 2,000 photos to process this week and here’s a small sample.
Looking for Photos from the Tournament?
CNY Thunder Classic Under-16 Games
CNY Thunder Classic Under-18 Games
A Boy of Summer who wanted to make sure I got a good photo of him.
Turning a Double Play.
A baseball tradition...Bubblegum!
A Pitcher hurls a fast ball at the plate.
From his knees, the second baseman throws the runner out at first base.
Swing and a miss. A batter strikes out.
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These are a lot of fun. Holy Wah, 2000 photos?!?!? You have your work cut out for you. I hope you find more gems in there like that first one–the little smart aleck got his good portrait all right!–and the one of the triumphant second baseman. Then there’s the pitcher, fully extended from fingertip to toe, demonstrating either that baseball is an art form or that dance is a sport, take your choice.
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Oh, yes, there is a lot of grace and discipline in sports. Lots of players study dance to help them compete.
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Did I ever tell you about my friend Yvonne, an Olympic-alternate figure skater, who did some workshops for the Detroit Red Wings? The Boys of Winter learned a thing or two about the stamina figure skaters need, and Yvonne learned a thing or two about toughness–all of them to good effect. We have so much to learn from each other when we stop posturing and start paying attention.
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Now I wish my son played baseball. I love these shots. I just wish they weren’t with the D700 because it simply fuels my lust for that body.
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Oh, man, BM. You do know how to coin a phrase. I hope to relieve my lust soon! It is getting harder to give it back each time I use it. (Don’t worry, Doug!)
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2000 photos! Whoa! I hope you’ll be able to edit a good sized fraction of them out. Love the stop-action shots here – very cool!
@Gerry – I believe both are true! My girls dance and baseball is my favorite sport and I can appreciate both as sport and art.
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If you get it right in the camera, it doesn’t take to long to process the photos. In fact, I learned a way to get 90% of my processing done when I import the photos in Aperture 3. For most photos after that it is just cropping and recovering highlights. Cuts my time at the computer by hours. Still takes time but not as long as it used to.
Wouldn’t you just love to have access like this to photograph a Sox game? 🙂
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More than I can say! That would be a dream.
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Awesome work here. Wow that is a lot of photos, how many batteries did you need?
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This is a wonderful series of The Boys of Summer ! Such expressions and movements you caught ! I so admire this kind of “alive” photography. I really have to work on this theme. Good luck with your 2000 pictures 😉
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Thank you, Isa! What kind of interesting things go on around your town? Sports, festivals with dancing or acrobatics and even things like bike riding, joggers or cars passing by on a road. All can be either stopped in there place with fast shutter speeds or shown to have movement like have done previously with panning the camera with slow shutter speeds.
All fun to learn about and photograph.
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Well, I’m sure as Scott knows, when you do action shots like these on a regular basis you can setup Lightroom to help. I take about 1000 per game using a Canon 40D and narrow it down to about 150 for posting and the only presets I have are for removing noise and adding clarity. The only other changes are when you have some weird days with sporadic clouds that mess with settings. The art in taking these photos is to master shooting in manual focus as the focus point changes too quickly. I would love access to a college or pro game, baseball or football.
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Hi, Brian! Can LR add your pre-sets when importing your images into it? That’s where I add my basic adjustments.
Most of my photos are sport portraits where the athlete is not moving at these tournaments. High hit rate with those type of photos. The action shots are mostly for the coaches and tournament directors.
I do have to disagree with you about manual focusing. I could never keep up with the action that way today. The Nikon 80-400VR did a good job for a non-AFS lens. When I use the Nikon 70-200VR f/2.8 AFS lens for ice hockey, it keeps up with very fast action on auto-focus. It might miss the first one but locks right in there after.
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This is a super series Scott. 2000 images! Thats a lot.
I like every one in its own way. The eye contact in #1 adds a little extra but then again it hasn’t the action you captured so well.
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Though this was a sporting event, it was an event with elements to photograph. All the photos…action, portrait and candids combine to tell the story of the tournament, Carsten.
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Wonderful! So much fun to look at, must have been even more fun to be there taking the photos!
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It was a lot of fun. As I am only a casual fan of baseball, I did miss some action I just wasn’t prepared for. Learned a lot about the game and got better with each game.
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These are great, Scott! It’s neat to see the concentration on their faces at the point of action!
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The faces of the players were great. I doubt many of them know how contorted their faces become when running, hitting or fielding.
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2000 images??! WOW. Now that is a daunting task!
I like how you’ve managed to capture all aspects of the sport. So many things go on off the field that make the game what it is.
Hubby uses the D700…personally, I’m not a fan and will stick with the D300. I have found the colors to be more true in the D300. Also, that FX/DX option is just annoying to me. I don’t like seeing more of what I will capture when in the DX mode. But that is just me. Have you tried the D300?
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When the D700 came out a few years ago, I created a plan to get the lenses I would need to use the camera. The ISO capability is just too good for me to pass up for most of the photography I do. My time with my friend’s D700 has me completely convinced it will be my next camera.
Now, I don’t want to give up a DX crop factor either so I will be keeping the D70 around with the idea of replacing it someday with a D300-class of body in the future. Of course, rumors indicate Nikon may be coming out with a DX body with the same ISO capabilities of a D700. Hoping to know more by the end of August.
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Sure is a lot of images. Moving through them rapidly. Should have the keepers all online by the end of the week.
After getting all the players covered either at bat or in the field, I tried to find other aspects of the tournament as well as some of the personalities. With all of them being teenagers, you can just imagine the kinds of personalities I had around me.
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These are great shots. I have often wondered if that should be my next camera a D700 but probably not for a while still like my D300
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If you are wondering, you don’t need one. 🙂 The D300 is doing you well. Your images are top flight in my book!
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Wow, 2000 is a lot of photos. I love how you captured and freeze frame. That’s a very nice zoom lens that you got there, definitely worth the investment.
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It certainly has been a stellar lens for me. First time using it for sports. It needed the power of a newer camera than my D70 to really make it work with this type of photography.
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Wow, awesome shots, Scott. If I could afford to go full frame it would be the D700. How did it feel, weight and bulk wise? Did you find it a tad heavy/bulky? If you post more shots, it would be great if you could include shutter/aperture/iso info so we can see how the camera performs. I hear the AF is also great on this rig.
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It is heavy but not bulky. I used the battery grip which gave a good balance to the camera/lens combination. I could easily carry it by the hand grip. It was late when I put this post together and did not bother with the Exif data. I’ll add it when I get time later this week.
As I have indicated, the 80-400VR is an older lens without the newer and faster silent wave engine (AF-S) of the newer lenses. It was good but I did miss some opportunities because the lens would not focus fast enough. Hoping Nikon will update this lens someday to AF-S as it would be a great alternative to the pricey prime lenses.
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Fantastic photos, got me wanting to get back into sports photography. My nephews played High School football and I photographed the team from the sidelines. They are in college now and I miss it.
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