Between Innings
Here is the first shot that I’m sharing from a short shoot I had at the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville during a Suns game on June 4th, 2011. I called ahead and gained access to the camera wells with a media pass. A colleague of mine, Devin Faulkner was kind enough to let me borrow his telephoto outfit, highlighted by his new Nikkor 70-200 f/2.8 lens with a 1.4x teleconverter on a Nikon D90 body. The main advantage to this was the use of the 1.4x teleconverter which made that 70-200 lens a ~100-280; it was then multiplied again by the ASP-C sized sensor the D90, adding another 1.6x magnification (if I’m correct about that body), making it ~150-450mm outfit. And that’s stellar for the price of the gear, as compared to buying a full-frame camera with a 400mm lens.
Gear aside, I was able to photograph my favorite sport on a professional level. Since the Suns are a minor league team, though, it was easy enough to get access to the camera wells and shoot the field. After all, minor league baseball players ARE professionals, working their way towards The Bigs.
So, here’s a still life image as the Suns wait during the bottom half of the inning. They store their hats, gloves, and sunglasses (and balls if they’re in charge of warm-ups) right by the stairs for easy access at the end of the inning. Frankly, only playing little league and softball, I didn’t know they did this. Since the camera wells were right next to the dugouts, it gave me a brief view of the players in-between their moments on the field.
Tags: baseball, d90, jacksonville, marlins, minor league, mlb, Nikon, sports, suns
Devin Faulkner, you’re world famous now!
NICE!