Thursday, March 6, 2008
This afternoon the Terps played a double header against James Madison at 4pm and 6pm. Fortunately my day job affords me the flexibility to adapt my schedule to accommodate the athletic events I enjoy photographing and reporting on. But unfortunately this often comes at the cost of reduced take home pay. Such is life I suppose...
I planned to leave the office around 5pm today to catch the trailing end of Game 1 and get some decent shots with some of the golden sunlight, but those plans didn't pan out. I stayed at the office until around 6:10 before heading out and didn't make it down to Maryland until around 6:45. At that point the sun had completely set and there wasn't any twilight to be had.
None the less I pulled out both the D2H and D200, loaded up my 400mm and 70-200mm and got to work. I've somehow managed to misplace my photography gloves and as a result I was bare-handed this evening. It was particularly nippy tonight with a brisk wind and temperature in the 40s. My hands were numb by the time I was finished with the first half of an inning and I knew that wasn't a good sign at all.
It was nice being back in the Softball field. Last Spring I discovered Softball after shooting a spattering of lacrosse games in low light conditions at Ludwig and Byrd and after a brief stint shooting women's hoops inside Comcast. The games at Shipley were ideal for me. A smaller field offered me sufficient reach with my 70-200mm, and day time games offered good light. I never attended a night game last Spring.
The stadium is a very new addition to the Maryland campus and is quite nice. The lighting is fairly decent and you can get about 20 feet away from the batter. If all you have are short lenses you can actually do quite well in this environment.
The shoot didn't turn out too well tonight but I attribute that to the cold as well as it being my first game of the season for Softball and a night game at that. I'm sure the next game will be better.
Sarah Dooley struck out 11 people and led the Terps to a 2 game sweep of James Madison. Please go view my photos on the DC Sports Box.
