First time shooting for money. How'd I do?

[brian_bahn]

<p>This was the first weekend where I went to an event with the plan to shoot, hand out cards and see how it goes. Was my wife's nephew's baseball tourney. Four games total. Friday and Saturday I spent most of the time getting the kids at bat and at least throwing. Sunday I had two games to work on capturing action in the field, which is much more exciting as most of you know.</p>

<p>It was a good learning experience. To this point I have shot my wife's nephew's team and last season handed each a framed 5x7 at season's end. This time though I handed them a business card with my SmugMug site on it and asked them to have a look. I also handed cards to the opposing coaches and asked they hand them out to the parents of their team.</p>

<p>As for shooting I had to shoot through a chain link fence for some stuff but not for others. I had my D300 and Friday and Saturday used the 80-200 2.8 with Kenko 1.4 Tele wide open. Sunday was overcast and I wanted to use the 80-200 alone anyhow so that's what I did. I felt I did good with the standard batting and throwing shots. Tried to be creative on in game emotion shots with seriously tight framing. One thing I kept doing and seriously need to stop is cutting off feet. LOL. I tend to aim for the chest, well, that gets me no feet as tight as I was trying to get on the action shots anyhow. As for capturing in game action I am thinking I should have dropped to f4 instead of 2.8(w/o tele). There were some shots where focus was just off due to me trying to quickly compose and shoot. But I really like the subject isolation of the 2.8.</p>

<p>Got the pics posted each night. Made my first sale on Sunday morning from an opposing team. Two digital downloads. I am hoping for a little more but hey, the experience was worth it. I just love capturing the action and emotion and being able to share it with their parents and family.</p>

<p>Anyhow, here is a link to one of the galleries. Please feel free to check it out and give me any opinions you may have. Also feel more than free to check out the other games galleries as well.<br>

<a href="http://dynamicsportsimages.com/gallery/7941188_4gcR3/1/515357273_FbuyT">http://dynamicsportsimages.com/gallery/7941188_4gcR3/1/515357273_FbuyT</a><br>

Thank You<br>

Brian Bahn<br>

</p>

[nathan_meador]

<p>Looks pretty good, you might benefit from using a polarizer to cut some of the glare when shooting daytime. I like getting right behind the batter for a few head-on shots of the pitcher as they throw. I did not go thru all the pages of the gallery, if you didn't get any, might get some of the dugout as the kids are cheering teammates. The real question is how much traffic/sales do you get. Good luck.</p>

[rayt]

<p>The only comment that I would make is that you need more faces in the image. Parents like to see the faces. For example DSC_5346 is just the back of the player.</p>

[all-star sports photograph]

<p>The one suggestion I would make and it is totally a personal choice; but, shoot more vertical shots. Many of the shots that you see in baseball lend them selves to a vertical shot, in my opinion.</p>

[brian_bahn]

<p>Thanks for the replies.</p>

<p>Nathan - I did get some of the kids on the bench but probably not as many as I could have.</p>

<p>Raymond - I did get a lot of faces. But I took a lot of shots and I read from a few people to throw in some of just the number and some kids/parents like that. So I threw some in.</p>

<p>David - You are so right. That is probably the biggest thing I need to work on the next time out. I was concentrating on watching the batter and trying to anticipate where the play would be then getting it framed and shoot. Next time I will try vertical more.</p>

<p>Thanks All</p>

[all-star sports photograph]

<p>Something that may help you in shooting.<br>

Between innings:<br>

*1st base side- shoot the other base men (not 1st) fielding the ball for the warm-up, right field and center<br>

*get behind the catcher and get series of the pitcher throwing.<br>

*3rd base side- shoot 1st base and fielding and then shoot left field and center again if possible.<br>

*If you can get on the field during the warm-up for a min stand behind the pitcher and shoot the catcher.</p>

<p>Spread that over 3-4 innings and you are going to get some good fielding shots guaranteed.<br>

Then choose a few innings and focus say just on batters. Don't try and worry so much about the rest of the game.<br>

And then vis versa on the fielding. Depending on the level of play you have a number of innings in front of you. You are bound to get a few good plays and bound to miss a few. That is just the way it is when you only have one photographer working the field, in my opinion.</p>

<p>Also, when I freelance for a local sports photography company here locally probably 75% of the shots we sell to the parents are taken between innings using the method I outlined above. Food for though hope that it helps.</p>

<p> </p>

[rayt]

<blockquote>

<p>Raymond - I did get a lot of faces. But I took a lot of shots and I read from a few people to throw in some of just the number and some kids/parents like that. So I threw some in.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>OK. Matter of opinion and needs. I do a lot of pictures for newspapers and I need faces so perhaps I am just overly critical. Other than that I think you did a good job.</p>