Shooting Baseball

I shot baseball twice last week:

o Mark J. Terrell (AP) told me last year that he never shoots the batter unless the batter is breaking a record or something significant like that. At the time, I was probably not listening. Now I am a believer. Tuesday night, I did not shoot a single shot of a batter; last night I had two shots of a batter unable to get down the bunt that would have moved the tying run to second in the bottom of the last inning. I am shooting less, getting better pictures and having more fun, especially at editing time. I have a folder of bat on ball shots; it really is not worth much these days. Now I am getting good shots of fielding, tags at bases, etc.

o I let a co-worker's son shoot with me last night. He is a high school student who had served as one of my assistants during the Fargo Marathon. Last night I turned him loose with a monopod, a Canon D60, and a 300mm f4IS. For a first time shooting, he did a good job. He had your normal framing issues and also had trouble getting the D60 autofocus to work and track. But his exposure was overall good (challenging here as the shadows constantly move across the infield). He was thinking about the shots he wanted, but had technical problems getting them consistently. But the technical problems can be overcome with practice and I think he has good potential.