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Good timing, maybe cropping out the grass below the feet at the bottom of the pic would have helped.

One might wait three or four baseball games before seeing an at-home collision like this. And it's over in less than a second. Excellent work. Can't help but snicker at all the nitpicking from those who don't shoot sports -- I do, and it's not particularly easy, plus it's frustrating as hades when the Play of The Day occurs while you're changing rolls... This is one hell of a shot, and a tremendous portfolio to boot.

 

About time we saw some sports in POW.

Certainly this photo would be adequate for the daily sports page of the local paper, but there are several things keeping it from being one the best sports photos. No ball, though not absolutely necessary, it sure helps in any ball oriented sport picture. More faces. The baserunner's face is shown and essentially makes the picture. If the catcher's was more promenent the photo would be better. Finally, the lighting. Besides being over exposed, which was explained above, flatter lighting would have made the photo better. The lack of shadow detail is not optimal. Even backlighting which would have brought out any atmospheric dust might have been better.

 

I have been shooting sports for the local paper now for about two years so I do appreciate the difficulty in attaining the perfect shot. This one is very good, just not perfect. If the photographer has been shooting for any length of time he should have something better than this.

Jeffrey,

 

While I agree with your comments, keep in mind the elves (who wish to remain anonymous) picked this photo as an example of a sports photographer doing the best he could under bad circumstances.

 

Michael has better sports photos than this in his photo.net folder. I suspect they weren't chosen because the lighting was _better_ in those photos, and the elves were trying to use this photo as an example to educate the photo.net community to the problems sports photographers face daily.

 

I particularly like Michael's basketball photo.

Appears to be printed backwards or is the runner coming in from first base?

Actually, if I read the action right... This is NOT the point of action. It is after the fact.

 

That's why it seems confusing I think.

Home plate is to the right of the photo and its importance is now forgotten. The intitial impact between runner and catcher has passed. This is the beginning of the aftermath.

 

The catcher has rolled over the body of the runner and is now coming down to earth for a nice thump in the dirt. Ouch. The catcher's body is rotating quickly which is how his left leg has ended up under the left arm of the runner.

 

The runner is likely to be standing back up (regaining his bipedal posture) after having slid into home base and gone under the catcher. (Note the tear in his pant on the right knee.) His plan was to slide into home and then stand up with what remaining momentum he had. This plan, combined with the runner-to-catcher impact lifted the catcher off his feet and started him spinning.

 

What interests me is the ball's direction of travel... I know its general position NOW because I see its shadow on the catcher's left leg, but did he have possesion of it and lost it in the impact, or is it still on its way in and soon to meet with these two?

 

Either way, contrary to what another reviewer stated... this picture DOES tell a story! Witness how long it took me to provide an extrememly abrieviated summarization (really really short) of that story.

 

I obviously showed my interest in the picture since I took the time to try and figure out the action.

 

-STEFAN

I've taken a fair amount of sports photos and to catch the moment, get it framed, have a decent exposure, crop out non-essential players, etc is a lot of work. The payoff is a shot like this. If it's one good shot out of 200 frames that doesn't diminish it's inherent appeal. Would it have been better if the catcher's face was clearer, if the background were less distracting, or the ball was in the photo? Perhaps, but if you were sent to cover the game by a local paper this photo would probably have satisfied the editor. Nice job!

I was sooo impressed with this photo that I had to sign up as a member just to comment on it. I am dead serious when I say that, at first glance, I thought this was a Rockwell-style painting. I didn't realize it was an actual photograph until I opened it up in the large frame. There is no doubt that you've captured a fleeting masterpiece! Congratulations on a rare find!

I was just looking over the ratings.....for lack of a better word....by these people who gave this photo a 1,1....- 2,2....or so.... They all have something in common....none of them have any sports pictures in their portfolios...(some don't have any photos uploaded).... nor do most of them have any photojournalism photos..... Many of the photos I saw in their portfolios that actually had images with people in them were posed...

 

I enjoy this photo....the exposure is a little off and of course it would have been nice if they were smiling at you......just kidding.... For real.....I read so many of these "ratings" which were done by jackasses who shoot travel snaps, flowers, and landscapes who give me ....and you bad ratings.....what gives?

 

I say, if you don't know anything about the type of photography you are looking at, nor have any pictures in your portfolio of that type.....since you don't know what you are looking at, by all means, don't rate it!

 

This shot is pretty good! For what you had to work with....the location,the people, the time of day, the equipment you used, I say you captured the moment very well and probably better than what they could have done!

 

6, 6. :-)

I gave it two sevens, just trying to compensate the other side.