Softball photos

[ac12]

Tennis, I can usually count the parents on ONE hand. Maybe part of that is the lack of ability to view the kids playing.
There were home games in the gym, where the parents and students from the visiting team outnumbered our parents and students.

For football field and gym sports, I understand the first game (JV) at 3:30-4, where parents are still at work, or driving home in commute traffic (aka highway parking lot). But the 2nd game (Varsity) is usually about 6:30-7pm, and the parents should be home by then. Well, except for the heavy Silicon Valley types who are at work till 9 or 10pm.

Baseball, softball and tennis venues are not lit, so they have to start at 330-4, in order to finish when there is still adequate sunlight.

 

[SquarePeg]

It really varies by town and sport I guess. Typically for softball games here there are anywhere from 5 - 20 parents in attendance (the team has 15 players). Some parents are at almost every game - those of us with flexible schedules who are not afraid of a little cold weather! The only time there are any fans other than parents is when the JV team plays at their home field which is our local rec field and is part of a neighborhood park. If the weather is nice there will be lots of younger kids watching before their rec games and many families at the park who will walk over and watch for a while. The JV and Varsity games are always simultaneous at 4pm but the Varsity team plays at the "better" field which has a nicer field but is at a park that is on a busy street and doesn't have anything else there to draw people. Also, although there is plenty of room, there are no stands to sit in and no trees to provide any shade when it's hot. The schools are also terrible at keeping the online schedule updated and providing any type of directions to the away games - unlike for football where there is a bus fans can take to the away games for $5 that sells out every time.

Have to add that hockey is the worst. Not only do the parents have to pay for their kids to play but they have to pay to get in and watch the games!

 

[JonFZ300]

That second set is dynamite. Great job!

 

[CherylL]

The tennis matches were right after school so many parents didn't show up or came late. I was helping our 2 moms during that period and tried to schedule their needs or doctor appointments around the tennis schedule. For tournaments no spectators were allowed on the courts. My oldest played basketball too for a few years, but she was what was nicknamed the practice team. I had to pay to attend those games to watch her ride the pine.

 

[BillM]

Softball rained out again today

 

[ac12]

• Basketball game charges seem odd. The standard 2 game JV+Var is no charge (I think), but the quad (4 games) boys + girls, JV+Var is charged. And post season games are charged, as set by the league, not the school.
  
• I think football is charged.
• Some schools charge for wrestling.

I do not think that any of the other sports charges a fee.

I think the admission fee is to help cover the cost of the athletic program or the student body, depending on who is collecting the admission fee.
Example. The ASB advisor told me that he pays for the referees out of his budget. So any game with a referee and without an admission fee (soccer, lacrosse, baseball, softball, volleyball, some basketball), is money out. I don't know the numbers, so this is just a "for example" with arbitrary numbers.

• IF the refs were paid $100 each per game. x 2 refs per game = $200 per game. x 2 (for JV + Var games) = $400. x 10 home games = $4,000.
  
• And some games (soccer, some basketball) have 3 refs, so that would be $300 per game. I don't know what the rules/logic are for 2 vs. 3.
• So if you do the math for all the sports, the referee bill adds up.

With as many courts at they have active (6 for tennis and 7 for badminton), it starts to makes sense why some sports (tennis and badminton) are self refereeing.

The other problem is a shortage of local referees in some/many of the sports. One baseball ref told me he dove 2-1/2 hours on a Sat from home to the game. That's 5 hours total driving to ref a JV+Var game. Weekday, would be WORSE. In fact one ref told me that he would NOT accept a job to ref a game in San Francisco, as the drive into SF would be a KILLER.

 

[ac12]

Softball rained out again today

Been there many times.
Last year was bad, this year was worse.

I keep telling the kids, shoot the first game that you can, you don't know if the later games will get rained out.
But being kids, they don't listen, miss the sunny game, then cancellation after cancellation, and deadline is approaching.

I am amazed at how well the baseball and softball fields are constructed, to drain in a day or two after a big rain. The outfield might be a bit soggy, but there is no standing water in the field. Outside the foul line, different story, standing water and MUD.

 

[SquarePeg]

The other problem is a shortage of local referees in some/many of the sports. One baseball ref told me he dove 2-1/2 hours on a Sat from home to the game. That's 5 hours total driving to ref a JV+Var game. Weekday, would be WORSE. In fact one ref told me that he would NOT accept a job to ref a game in San Francisco, as the drive into SF would be a KILLER.

We have an ump shortage here. In fact my daughter and several of her friends signed up to ump rec league games for the younger divisions. $48 per game for roughly 2 hours work. Easy money. I might have to ump a few games myself...

 

[ac12]

The other problem is a shortage of local referees in some/many of the sports. One baseball ref told me he dove 2-1/2 hours on a Sat from home to the game. That's 5 hours total driving to ref a JV+Var game. Weekday, would be WORSE. In fact one ref told me that he would NOT accept a job to ref a game in San Francisco, as the drive into SF would be a KILLER.

We have an ump shortage here. In fact my daughter and several of her friends signed up to ump rec league games for the younger divisions. $48 per game for roughly 2 hours work. Easy money. I might have to ump a few games myself...

Watch out for the uniforms, hidden cost.

• One soccer ref told me that they had to change uniforms this year, by someone's decision in the league. They needed to get a new set of 4 different color shirts, $$$. WHY? He did not understand why they could not just leave their uniforms alone, instead of making them spend $$$ on new uniforms that the league was not going to pay for.
  
• Baseball/softball refs wear different color shirts for JV and Varsity games. I don't know why nor how many different colors they use.
  
• At least the black and white shirts seem to have stayed the same.

The half crouching position of the home plate umpire can be hard on the legs.

 

[SquarePeg]

The other problem is a shortage of local referees in some/many of the sports. One baseball ref told me he dove 2-1/2 hours on a Sat from home to the game. That's 5 hours total driving to ref a JV+Var game. Weekday, would be WORSE. In fact one ref told me that he would NOT accept a job to ref a game in San Francisco, as the drive into SF would be a KILLER.

We have an ump shortage here. In fact my daughter and several of her friends signed up to ump rec league games for the younger divisions. $48 per game for roughly 2 hours work. Easy money. I might have to ump a few games myself...

Watch out for the uniforms, hidden cost.

• One soccer ref told me that they had to change uniforms this year, by someone's decision in the league. They needed to get a new set of 4 different color shirts, $$$. WHY? He did not understand why they could not just leave their uniforms alone, instead of making them spend $$$ on new uniforms that the league was not going to pay for.
  
• Baseball/softball refs wear different color shirts for JV and Varsity games. I don't know why nor how many different colors they use.
  
• At least the black and white shirts seem to have stayed the same.

The half crouching position of the home plate umpire can be hard on the legs.

The only standard for the “jr” umpires is a $30 dry fit shirt and a face mask and chest protector. They don’t have to buy the full uni.

 

[vintagesnaps]

Looks like the ball fields where you go are close to the street; in my area the ones I've been to are off the street and a ways from the parking lot (which maybe was a help for me back in the day with finding good vantage points and having decent backgrounds).

Try taking a step or two to adjust the vantage point when you can to frame differently and keep visual distractions out of the frame as much as possible. In tight places you can only do so much and I've sometimes leaned, scrunched down, etc. and you do the best you can with what you have to work with.

There was one of the batter and catcher that was really a nice photo of the players; I'd suggest being aware of framing to prevent having something like the knee of another spectator (I think) in the lower left corner. Watch the catcher being barely in the frame. I'd watch the backgrounds too especially with vertical shots that there isn't so much sky and trees in the photo since that's not part of the game/action. The cars being so close aren't that noticable if they're neutral but the tail lights are noticeable and I'd try to frame to keep those out of the picture. Spectators right up against the fence end up basically being part of the picture since they're close to the subjects, so keep them in mind when framing so heads are in the frame and people don't have a post directly in front of them, etc.

You seem to have good timing in getting the action and are getting nice sharp images of the players. I found it took a lot of practice to get good at shooting sports. I'd often go early to my nephews' games years ago and watch the end of games with other teams playing. I didn't necessarily take pictures but would just practice watching thru the viewfinder to think about framing,etc. If I'd go early I could look for good (or halfway decent) vantage points and try to figure out where to shoot that I'd get decent backgrounds. I learned about shooting hockey going to practices, training camps, etc. When I took a sports photography workshop at the NCAA headquarters in Indy I learned how important preparation can be, and how much it can help to go early, watch and notice.

 

[SquarePeg]

Looks like the ball fields where you go are close to the street; in my area the ones I've been to are off the street and a ways from the parking lot (which maybe was a help for me back in the day with finding good vantage points and having decent backgrounds).

Try taking a step or two to adjust the vantage point when you can to frame differently and keep visual distractions out of the frame as much as possible. In tight places you can only do so much and I've sometimes leaned, scrunched down, etc. and you do the best you can with what you have to work with.

There was one of the batter and catcher that was really a nice photo of the players; I'd suggest being aware of framing to prevent having something like the knee of another spectator (I think) in the lower left corner. Watch the catcher being barely in the frame. I'd watch the backgrounds too especially with vertical shots that there isn't so much sky and trees in the photo since that's not part of the game/action. The cars being so close aren't that noticable if they're neutral but the tail lights are noticeable and I'd try to frame to keep those out of the picture. Spectators right up against the fence end up basically being part of the picture since they're close to the subjects, so keep them in mind when framing so heads are in the frame and people don't have a post directly in front of them, etc.

You seem to have good timing in getting the action and are getting nice sharp images of the players. I found it took a lot of practice to get good at shooting sports. I'd often go early to my nephews' games years ago and watch the end of games with other teams playing. I didn't necessarily take pictures but would just practice watching thru the viewfinder to think about framing,etc. If I'd go early I could look for good (or halfway decent) vantage points and try to figure out where to shoot that I'd get decent backgrounds. I learned about shooting hockey going to practices, training camps, etc. When I took a sports photography workshop at the NCAA headquarters in Indy I learned how important preparation can be, and how much it can help to go early, watch and notice.

Thanks for the detailed tips. Nothing I can do about the field with the cars. It’s right in a neighborhood and parking is on the street only and cars are visible from most angles. One of the vertical photos where I left in the sky was on purpose to leave the top of the fence diamond in the frame.