A lot changes in a year | Baseball photography

This past Saturday, I had the privilege to photograph my College baseball team's doubleheader. As I was saving my photos and meandering through some of my old ones, I found baseball photos I'd taken approximately a year a go. Just from looking through the photos, I'm so grateful for what I've learned since then and sort of peered through my fingers (since by now I've covered my eyes) because of how photographed those photos.

They aren't necessarily bad, I just could have done a lot more to make them better. To show you what I mean, to this day I haven't been able to duplicate the fourth photo, which is one of my all time favorites. The only thing that would have made it better (in my mind) is some technical changes.

One of the best things about photography is the never ending cycle of learning about it and making photos better. That's why as much as some of my old photos make me cringe, I love seeing the growing process.

Here's a couple examples. (The first four are from 4/27/2011, the second four are from 4/21/2012.)

ISO: 100 | 1/250 exposure | f/10

ISO: 100 | 1/250 exposure | f/10

ISO: 100 | 1/250 exposure | f/9

ISO: 100 | 1/200 exposure | f/8

ISO: 400 | 1/3200 exposure | f/5

ISO: 400 | 1/1600 exposure | f/5

ISO: 400 | 1/3200 exposure | f/4.5

ISO: 400 | 1/3200 exposure | f/5

Regarding sports photography--and speaking about baseball in particular--a higher ISO makes a huge difference. A higher ISO = less exposure time = better chances of capturing better action shots. (1/200 of a second to 1/3200 of a second is a big jump!) A big part about baseball photography is making sure to capture the moment. Time is of the essence in sports photography.

It's considerably easier to do that when my camera snaps a photo in as small of a fraction of a second as possible. Of course, there are a lot of other factors that are involved in taking a photo, but one thing at a time.