American Legion Baseball (and my thoughts on sports)

American Legion 3, originally uploaded by Johnny Simon.

I was sent today to cover an American Legion baseball game that had a team from our area playing the state playoffs. I hadn't covered sports in a long time, let alone one as difficult to shoot as baseball.

It should be said, that I don't love to shoot sports. I've found that people who like to shoot sports just so happen like to watch sports too. And that is totally understandable. To me, football is all spectacle, basketball kinda gives me a headache (it just doesn't stop) and golf is...well its golf.

I've also found that my sentiments are shared within my group of friends. There's no personal interaction with your subjects. You just sit and watch a game, to me (and many others I know) its passive and devoid of what many enter the field of photojournalism to do.

But many people I know who do sports, do them very well. And they do it because they truly love it. And if thats the case, I'm all for it. It just isn't for me.

I've shot a good amount of basketball, and a little football, but very little baseball. Football and basketball have a good linear motion to them, a progression that you can follow and adjust too easily. Baseball, I've found...doesn't. Out of all sports its probably my favorite, and I like to watch it, but its terribly hard to shoot. Not to mention the lens I was using was a borrowed manual focus 300 2.8. Despite the heat, a little sunburn, technical setback and an overall lack of knowledge of how to shoot this game, I walked away with a few frames I liked.

This is after Mike Kerdock (#24) hit a home run and his team met him at home plate to congratulate him. The bat boy wanted a piece of the action too. This was the team I was not sent to cover. They beat the team from my area 18-4. Ouch.