What are the odds? These are two different photos and they were taken by two DIFFERENT photographers at our October 2016 Nick Kelsh Photography Weekend Workshop. Yup, they were standing next to each other and they pushed the button within milleseconds of each other. Amazing! Tara Mock shot the one on the left and Brenda Mitchell shot the one on the right. (Notice the shift in the backgrounds.) There were several workshop attendees shooting the same situation from different angles but Tara and Brenda just happened to be standing right next to each other. Honestly, if you look at the slightly different distance from the ball to the baseball glove in the two photographs you have to assume that these shutters went off maybe even thousandths of seconds apart.
I suppose I’ve taken thousands of pictures of my kids playing baseball but I’m not sure I’ve ever taken one that I like more than this one, I mean, these two. Willie Mays “The Catch” got nothing on this.
Teddy and Alexander tagged along and we used them to practice shooting action shots and how to keep them in focus; it’s a lot like photographing the squirmy kids at your house; same principles really. You need the correct auto-focus settings, you need to use your burst function, and you need to pray.
Both of the originals were taken as horizontals and shot extra wide to leave tons of room for cropping; Tara and Brenda both took my advice on this one. It took me years to figure out that the secret to consistent quality action shots required a willingness to do the composing and cropping later. Honestly, I really think it’s the only way. Don’t get fancy with your composition when you shooting action; shoot a little bit wide— or even a lot wide— and find your photograph within the photograph later. High-resolution digital cameras these days are amazingly forgiving when it comes to an extreme crop especially if you’re going to email it or posted on the Internet. Believe me, no one who saw the photographs on this page said anything like “nice picture but it’s a little bit noisier grainy.” No one. photo by Brenda Mitchell
I love the photograph so much that I put it on my iPhone home screen. but then I was faced with the dilemma of offending either Tara or Brenda. In the end, I just switch it out every other day to mix it up a little bit. I love looking at a new photograph on my home screen every day—keeps things fresh.
And for you baseball fans, here’s a photograph of one of the most famous plays in the history of baseball. It simply called “The Catch”. The Catch refers to a defensive baseball play made by New York Giants center fielder Willie Mays on a ball hit by Cleveland Indians batter Vic Wertz during Game 1 of the 1954 World Series between the Giants and the Indians at the Polo Grounds in Upper Manhattan, New York City on September 29, 1954. It’s worth noting how wide this shot is and yet, in the end it’s breathtaking in its own wonderful way. This picture has been cropped into hundreds or probably even thousands of times and no one is complaining. There’s a valuable sports photography lesson here for sure.
