Girls Varsity Softball - Millikan vs Lakewood

Its that time of the year - high school softball / baseball, but this post is dedicated to girls varsity softball. It's been about a year since covering my last softball game and each game gives me different obstacles to overcome. With this game I was really limited to where I could position myself, which was about 5-7 yds past the first and third lines. This gave me issues with other players getting in the way or the base coaches standing between me and the batters, but I've learned that there are never any guarantees and as a sports shooter you often have to be flexible with your positioning.

So in addition to the two spots I mentioned above I also shoot through the fence (behind and off to the side of the catcher) with my 300 f/2.8 to get some shots of the pitchers. Another spot I used was a hole in the fence just inside the dugout which gave me a direct view for thrid base and shortstop.

I will say I seriously need to work on my timing to get the ball in the shot more, but well see what happens as the season goes and I get out to a few more games.

So Cal Waves U14 Softball

After a very busy Saturday covering the CIF Track Finals I was asked to shoot a softball game in San Pedro on Sunday.

These hard charging girls are all part of the So. Cal Waves travel ball team out of San Pedro, which my niece is a part of.

They've been wanting me to come out and I've been waiting for them to have a local tournament on their home field so there wouldn't be any problems with be coming out shooting. So this Sunday was the day to do that. Although it was an overcast day, it was perfect for shooting and kept it cool, since I was quite burned from being out under the sun all day Saturday.

So. Cal Waves - Thanks for having me out and letting me capture you girls in action.

Artesia Punishers 16U

It has been over a year and a half since I've shot girls softball, which I really missed. This first young lady is a good friend of my niece and has become a friend of mine. She is now in high school and plays on a travel ball team called the Artesia Punishers. Since I haven't had the opportunity to shoot softball for such a long time I made arrangements with her to come out and cover a few of her games.

These shots are from a recent tournament they had in Fullerton. I didn't realize how much my timing was off until I started shooting and it took a bit before I was able to get the ball in the shot. I hope to get out more often and get those bob (ball on bat) shots, but we'll see. In either case enjoy the action.

Nerd Birds III

I went out today to shoot my third game of the Nerd Birds, which is my niece's team. I wanted one more game to get more variety of shots for the dvd slide show that I will be putting together for my sister who is coaching the team.

These first two shots will be the opening scene of the slide show and rotate as the first fades into the second. I've done this shot before with the whole team but always seem to cut someone out. So for this team I decided to divide the team into two groups and shoot them individually, that way no one is left out.

These are always fun shots to get prior to the game. When shooting any team sport you just never know what you'll end up with or how the team your shooting will do, so what I like to do is capture various action shots while the team is warming up. The next several shots were taken while the girls were taking pop flies. The first two I played with then a bit first.




Various action shots during the game.


Since I was using my 1.4x with the 300 I wanted to try some tight shots. I was positioned just past first base using my 300 f/2.8 and 1.4x attached, which gave me very tight shots. All of these have minimal crop to them.



I've seen this shot before and wanted to try it out. Since there's no fences in the outfield I positioned myself behind the center fielder to take the below shots. It was tough timing the ball from that distance. I had to watch for the batters swing.
Almost a bob (ball on bat).