It’s been several years since I’ve played softball, and I was excited to try my luck in the Princeton University staff league this year. I got into one game last week, then went to the disabled list for three weeks on the admonition of the oral surgeon who did some work on me last Friday.
Not able to play, I switched to team photographer mode this week. The transition from shooting the faced-paced action of collegiate baseball earlier this year to Division C slow-pitch softball was a challenge.
The Princeton softball league plays its games on grass fields in the new Meadows development across Lake Carnegie from the traditional part of campus. I happily adjusted to being much closer to the action on the shorter field, often having to back up several steps to get the action fully framed in my long zoom lens.
I also switched to my shorter telephoto lens for a portion of the two games I shot this week. I even go a few shots using my 50mm pancake lens for pre-game assembly.
As with any new photographic experience, I need to learn what angles and positions produce the best photos. Softball makes it much easier to freeze pitches in flight, and I tried to take advantage of that as best I could.
I also dealt with vastly different lighting from Tuesday’s game to Wednesday’s game this week. Overall, I was happier with the images I shot the first day.
I have some Major League games to attend next week (sans camera and long lens) and I look forward to shooting my Research Renegades team again when I get back the week after next. 🧢
The Ball Caps Blog 
Great work Dan. What an amazing hobby – shooting photographs of birds and baseball. During my visit back home, in Milwaukee, I spotted a cardinal and a blue jay, on the same tree, one branch above the other.
Two species on one branch? And two so colorful!