Wednesday, August 26, 2009

That Brief Moment in Time





For my Scott's Shots section in the upcoming September issue of St. Louis Sports Magazine I chose this photo because it was a fun image to get. Here is the story:
How cool is this photo? When shooting baseball, photographers always try to get a ball on bat shot, and quite often we get one that is acceptable. But it is very rare to get one where the ball seems to be embedded in the bat. In 26 years of shooting Major League Baseball this is only the third time that I have truly captured this moment, and this is the coolest one so far. There are many things that make this a fun image for me.
First of all, when I shot this, the sun was in and out that day. Secondly, I was shooting in the outside first base photo pit, where I don't shoot that often. For some reason I really felt like I was relaxed and as they say "in the zone". I know I will get a lot of flak from my fellow photographers for saying that but it is true, I just felt that my timing was on that day. As the pitcher started his windup I took a deep breath and squeezed the shutter button when I saw Albert's shoulders move. By the time your brain tells your finger to press the button, & it does and the shutter lag in the camera it's easy to miss this shot.
I have always reacted to the hitters shoulders, not the actual swing. When the shoulders move, I react and this time I froze that special moment in time.

8 comments:

Kevin Nahm said...

That is an awesome shot!!!

Andy said...

great great shot!

Anonymous said...

Nice photograph -- can you post the EXIF data? I had a bet with a friend that shutter speed was 1/2000. Thanks

Nick Nixon said...

Is this for sale anywhere? Christmas is just around the corner and my dad would love a print of this!!!

Unknown said...

The photo was shot at 1/4000th of a second.

Unknown said...

Scott
AWESOME SHOT!
However one of my friends doesn't believe this is a real photo. He thinks the ball has been "photo-shopped"
Are there other pics or videos like this out there on the web?
Or do you know of some reference links to what happens to a 90 mph fast ball when it makes contact with Pujlos swung hardwood?

Thanks and keep on clicking!

Anonymous said...

Did you use a motor drive??

Anonymous said...

Would like to see some data on the camera/lens/aperture.

Also -- do you know what happened to the batted ball? Was it a single, double, homer, fly out, etc?