James Venes

I’ve been keeping busy but the lack of posts here probably suggests otherwise. Just in case anyone does follow this (you should see all the comments: spam, spam, spam), here’s what I’ve been up to with my photography since August:

8/7/09: Oklahoma City RedHawks at Sacramento River Cats

From Raley Field in Sacramento. The River Cats won, 4-3 in 12 innings. A throwing error on a stolen base allowed Eric Patterson to score the winning run a few innings after the RedHawks tied it in the ninth. Earlier, Patterson hit a home run to become the second River Cat (Mark Bellhorn, 2000) with at least 10 homers, 10 doubles, 10 triples and 10 stolen bases in one season. Gregorio Petit had three hits for Sacramento and Travis Buck added a pair. Four RedHawks had two hits apiece and Chris Davis walked four times.

8/27/09: Fresno Grizzlies at Sacramento River Cats

From Raley Field in Sacramento. The Grizzlies won, 6-3. Four Fresno hitters had two hits apiece, including two doubles by Joe Borchard. Buster Posey had 2 RBI for the Grizzlies, who scored four runs in the seventh to take the lead and make a winner out of Waldis Joaquin in relief of Matt Kinney. Dana Eveland worked six-plus innings but failed to get an out in the seventh, taking the loss. He allowed 9 hits and struck out 9. Matt Carson and Travis Buck hit solo homers for the River Cats, who struck out 17 times compared to 13 for the Grizzlies.

8/29/09: Fresno Grizzlies at Sacramento River Cats

From Raley Field in Sacramento. The River Cats won, 9-5. First Sacramento honored the Oakland A’s World Series win in 1989, then they scored 7 runs in the 2nd inning to break it open early. Brett Wallace collected 3 hits and drove in a pair, Chris Carter, Adrian Cardenas (both doubles) and Gregorio Petit had 2 hits apiece, and Eric Munson knocked in 3. Clayton Mortensen made it through 7 innings though he allowed 11 hits and 5 runs (3 earned). Fresno’s Kevin Pucetas was hit hard to the tune of 9 runs on 8 hits, 2 walks and 2 hit batters while recording just 5 outs. Kevin Frandsen had 4 hits for the Grizzlies and Matt Downs had 3 RBI.

8/31/09: Sacramento River Cats at Reno Aces

From Aces Ballpark in Reno. The River Cats won, 17-6. Chris Carter’s first 3 homers with Sacramento, along with 7 RBI, led a 20-hit attack as 7 River Cats had multiple hits, including 4 by Matt Carson and 3 each by Carter, Chris Denorfia and Brett Wallace. Carson and Tommy Everidge also hit home runs, Everidge’s hitting the top of the scoreboard. Josh Whitesell and Luke Carlin had 3 hits apiece for the Aces and Cole Gillespie homered. Reno’s Seth Etherton gave up 10 runs on 12 hits in 5 innings along with 4 homers, and Scott Dohmann allowed 7 more in the 9th. Chad Reineke pitched into the 6th for Sacramento, allowing 6 runs on 9 hits with 3 walks and 3 strikeouts.

9/1/09: Sacramento River Cats at Reno Aces

From Aces Ballpark in Reno. The Aces won, 8-6. Reno took an early 7-1 lead against James Simmons, who gave up 5 runs while getting only 5 outs, and held on for the win. Eric Byrnes, Cole Gillespie, Ed Rogers and Abraham Nunez each had a pair of hits for the Aces while Rogers and Agustin Murillo drove in 2 apiece to help Tony Barnette (6 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 1 BB, 9 SO) to the win. Tommy Everidge hit two solo homers and drove in 3 runs for Sacramento and Daniel Haigwood pitched well in relief of Simmons, allowing 2 earned runs in 5 1/3 IP.

9/11/09: Tacoma Rainiers at Sacramento River Cats

From Raley Field in Sacramento. The River Cats won, 13-2. In Game 3 of their best-of-five Pacific Coast League playoff series with the Rainiers, Sacramento poured it on early and late and rode a strong performance by Jerome Williams (7 IP, 7 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 8 SO) to coast to the victory and a 2-1 series lead. Chris Carter, Matt Carson and Brett Wallace all went deep for the River Cats and Wallace had 4 RBI. Chris Denorfia and Adrian Cardenas both pitched in with 3 hits each and Cardenas also had 3 RBI. Tacoma’s Andrew Baldwin didn’t make it out of the 3rd, giving up 6 ER on 8 H before the River Cats added on in the 8th with 5 more runs against Robert Manuel, capped off by Wallace’s 3-run homer.

9/12/09: Tacoma Rainiers at Sacramento River Cats

From Raley Field in Sacramento. The River Cats won, 13-8. In Game 4 of their Pacific Coast League playoff series Sacramento scored 6 times in the 1st and after Tacoma closed to within 7-5 the River Cats opened it back up with 6 more in the 7th, advancing to play Memphis for the PCL title. Tommy Everidge drove in 3 runs with a pair of hits, Chris Carter homered for the fifth straight game (1 regular season, 4 playoffs), Brett Wallace tripled in 2 in the big 1st inning and Aaron Cunningham had an important 2-run double in the 7th. Shawn Chacon lasted 5+ innings and allowed 4 runs for the win while Gaby Hernandez of the Rainers was lit up for 6 runs in just 2/3 innings and Justin Thomas later allowed 4 of his own in 1/3 innings. Chris Shelton and Matt Tuiasosopo both homered for Tacoma and drove in 3 runs apiece.

I’ll probably be covering at least one or two of the Sacramento/Memphis games at the end of the week then that might be it for me for the year unless I get out to any of the Arizona Fall League games, which would be fun.

Baseball isn’t all I’ve shot, though it does wind up being the majority of it during the season. While I was in Reno I came back through Virginia City so I took the chance to basically redo some photos I took a few years ago and get a few more of things I didn’t the first time around.  Those can be seen here.

I also enjoyed having my brother visit not too long ago and he and some friends invited me out to see them do some power kiting on a sod farm in Lodi. That’s some pretty cool stuff but you definitely have to know what you’re doing. You can see a couple galleries here and I’m sure it won’t be the last time I take pictures of them doing it. It’s fun to shoot different things and play around with it.

This is going up a little later than I planned but a few things (house, work, some laziness) have led to me being a bit slow in putting things up.

I was in Portland from July 13-15 to cap off the trio of Minor League All-Star Games I covered. For the Triple-A game, they do it similarly to the Major League version by having a multi-day event of it.  After a weekend fanfest, they held a Home Run Derby on Monday, a media/workout day Tuesday and the game Wednesday.

PGE Park has quite a long history. Originally opening in 1926, it went through a number of renovations in 2001 but it’s still very easy to tell how unique it is, what with its irregular shape that makes it easy to host football and soccer games. Down the first base side foul territory is fairly normal and they’ve got a seating area that ends within a couple feet of the foul line. Down the third base side it rivals the Oakland Coliseum for open space. It’s deep enough below the surface streets that a high wall runs from left to center, cutting the distance to a mere 317 feet down the line. However, the wall is not in play like Fenway’s Green Monster. Anything hit off of it or the large, completely hand-operated scoreboard is a home run. The ballpark also has a roof that extends out to cover the entire seating area.

For photographers, it’s not that easy a place to shoot in unless you have a longer zoom. Mine only goes to 200mm so there were a number of shots where I couldn’t get as close as I’d like before having to crop out things I didn’t need later on, which shows a bit in the overall quality of the action shots from the game itself. It also has no traditional photo wells so finding room to shoot among other photographers was a challenge at times. Still, nice place to see a game, nice place to work in. Let’s just say I’m glad I don’t cover games there all the time.

Monday’s Home Run Derby: Portland’s Chad Huffman hit a combined total of 15 homers, topping Scranton/Wilkes-Barre’s Shelley Duncan who finished with 10. Huffman belted 5 in the final round to Duncan’s 1. The ability to shoot from closer spots on the field made this easier to get good close-ups and I took the chance to wander around the ballpark for a few different perspectives during the middle round.

Tuesday’s Media/Workout Day: A good opportunity to work on shots around the batting cage. Listening to the crack of the bat is one of those things we’re all familiar with from batting practice but being within a foot or two of the netting taking pictures of it makes it just a little different. It’s also important to be very aware of what’s going on around you as just a few feet away a coach is hitting grounders to the infielders.

Wednesday’s All-Star Game: The International League won, 6-5. Erik Kratz of Indianapolis went 2-for-2 with a homer, double, 2 runs, 2 RBI and a walk. Drew Stubbs of Louisville also homered and drove in a pair with Andrew Carpenter of Lehigh Valley getting credit for the win after a scoreless 2nd in which he struck out the side on 9 pitches. The IL struck out 14 hitters on the night. Esteban German of Oklahoma City went 3-for-4 with a homer, double and 4 RBI. Yorman Bazardo of Round Rock took the loss, giving up 3 runs in 2/3 of an inning.

One highlight was seeing and meeting the San Diego Chicken, who was brought in for the game. You can read up on his history as a mascot since the 1970s elsewhere, but it’s safe to say Ted Giannoulas revolutionized the art of character mascots and helped lead to other famous ones like the Phillie Phanatic and the Phoenix Suns Gorilla. Now just about every professional team has a mascot of some kind.

As it happened I was down behind the backstop near the first base dugout at the same time he was so I had the opportunity to chat with him for half a minute or so. I just told him it was my first time seeing him in person and I wanted to let him know how much fun it was, which he sounded like he really appreciated. I’m sure he’s heard it a lot but he still goes at it with so much energy and dedication. I also mentioned how perfect the timing was on the “Employee of the Month” sign that came after a homer by one of the PCL hitters during the first half-inning he was out there and he said it couldn’t have worked out any better for using it. Specific photos I took of him performing are here.

The past couple months have been mostly taken up by finalizing a home purchase and moving and I’m getting settled in enough that I can go back out and do some games. Shooting a lot of stuff in Sacramento and Stockton is nice when I’m only about 20 minutes from Sacramento and 40 minutes from Stockton compared to about two hours and one hour respectively, depending on traffic.

I got back out to Sacramento on the 11th then did a game in Stockton on the 17th followed by another in Sacramento the next night as I work on getting more used to night games. After covering the first game I started thinking more about getting a little extra zoom. Before I got the new camera and lens for it, I’d been using one that went up to 300mm but the problem was its aperture settings were nowhere near good enough to shoot at night (about f5.6 when at full zoom). Now I have one that’s f2.8 but it’s only 200mm and I’ve been noticing it’s not quite enough for me when it comes to cropping to a larger part of the image for a better-looking result.

I started looking at 300-400mm lenses with f2.8 but they’re definitely expensive. Rather than plunking down a few thousand on one (I’ve been spending more than enough lately getting necessary items for the house) I decided to try a 1.4x teleconverter Nikon puts out. So far I’m pretty happy with it, though having to go down a full stop to f4.0 does make for some differences in how I can shoot once night sets in. It’s a fair tradeoff, though.

Before getting into the next bit of news, three galleries:

6/11/09: Tacoma Rainiers at Sacramento River Cats:  From Raley Field in Sacramento. The Rainiers won, 6-4. Brad Nelson tied the game with a 3-run homer in the 8th inning and two-out singles in the 9th by Mike Carp and Mike Morse was enough to overcome an early 4-1 deficit. Travis Buck hit a solo homer and had a sacrifice fly and Danny Putnam had a 2-run homer to account for Sacramento’s runs. Andrew Baldwin went 7 innings for Tacoma and pitched well aside from the homers while James Simmons worked 5 for the River Cats before leaving with tightness in his back.

6/17/09: Modesto Nuts at Stockton Ports:  From Banner Island Ballpark in Stockton. The Nuts won, 6-2. Connor Graham pitched 6 2/3 shutout innings for the win, allowing just 4 hits while walking 4 and striking out 7. Tyson Ross was undone by a 5-run 6th, giving up 6 runs on 9 hits with a walk and 4 strikeouts in 5 1/3. Home runs were hit by Modesto’s Jay Cox and Stockton’s Jemile Weeks, who has at least one hit in all 18 games so far this season. Brian Rike drove in 3 of Modesto’s 6 runs.

6/18/09: Salt Lake Bees at Sacramento River Cats:  From Raley Field in Sacramento. The River Cats won, 9-0. Cliff Pennington’s 3-run triple in the 7th broke open a 1-0 game and the River Cats scored a total of 8 runs in the last 2 innings to turn it into a blowout. Gio Gonzalez worked 5 1/3 innings, allowing just 4 hits and a walk while striking out 10. Dan Denham pitched 6+ for the Bees but left with the bases loaded before the bullpen failed to limit the damage. Eric Munson’s solo homer was the only run until late in the game. Pennington finished with 4 RBI while Travis Buck, Munson and Aaron Cunningham had 2 hits apiece for Sacramento. Brandon Wood was the only Salt Lake batter with multiple hits, also getting a pair.

Something else I’ve started playing around with are animated gifs. Of course they’re nothing like video with 30-60 frames per second, but with a camera that lets me shoot about 10 fps it can be fun messing around with throwing a sequence together and seeing how it comes out to get a better look at someone’s pitching motion or a stolen base.  Here are a few examples:

* Salt Lake’s Howie Kendrick tags out Sacramento’s Cliff Pennington
* Sacramento’s Gio Gonzalez from the first base side
* Sacramento’s Gio Gonzalez from behind the plate
* Salt Lake’s Dan Denham from the third base side
* Stockton’s Tyson Ross from the third base side

Some talk has surfaced among A’s fans about the delivery Ross has ever since he was drafted last year and just looking at one or two still shots doesn’t tell the story the same as a video or animation like this does. With the camera what it is, I can play around with things like this a lot more and turn it into another part of what I do.

As for the actual news, I’ve got credentials lined up for three minor league All-Star Games in the next month:

* June 23: High-A All-Star Game in Lake Elsinore, CA (California League vs. Carolina League)
* July 1: Double-A All-Star Game in Frisco, TX (Texas League North vs. Texas League South)
* July 15: Triple-A All-Star Game in Portland, OR (Pacific Coast League vs. International League)

The opportunity to cover a few of these is a good one, especially with the chance for some of the photos to see further exposure online and in print. It’s also just a lot of fun to be around things like this. I’ve been to both ballparks in Lake Elsinore and Portland but the one in Frisco will be a first and from everything I’ve seen it’s a beautiful ballpark. You’ll see what I mean. I’ll also be close enough to go watch a game or two in Arlington and knock one more MLB ballpark off my list. Midland (the Oakland affiliate in the Texas League) is too far to go to this time around but about 10 players from the team will be in the All-Star Game anyway.

The next month will be pretty busy but that’s just fine with me.

For Scout.com I mostly cover affiliates of the Oakland A’s, but the nice thing about it is I can get out to cover more than just their teams. Last week I was in Reno for two games during the first homestand at brand new Aces Ballpark (no corporate sponsorship for it yet) and I’d recommend it to anyone who may be curious to check out a new place that’s not too hard to get to depending on your location.

Reno is the Triple-A affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks and they relocated from Tucson in the offseason, opening play on April 17 in a downtown ballpark that’s literally blocks from the main casinos.  There’s going to be a “new shiny” feel to anything like this, but if Wednesday afternoon’s crowd of about 4,500 is a sign then the Aces are going to enjoy good crowds for a while.

The ballpark itself is quite nice, though there are certain things they could stand to do to improve it.  I like the open concourses and multiple areas to stand behind the seats and the high left field wall (you can walk around the entire place), and their right field bullpen/berm area makes it nice for fans to kick back and relax on the grass.

They need to utilize their graphics board more for stats and things like that, and they could use a board or two in the seating areas that at least give R-H-E along with the inning and score.  It’s interesting in that the press box is located down the first base line instead of behind the plate.  This is undoubtedly done to capitalize on being able to sell luxury suites behind the plate instead.

From a photography standpoint, I had no real problems and I enjoyed wandering around the place before the gates opened for the fans.  I always like checking out new places to see just what kinds of design elements go into it.  It’ll be interesting to see how the ballpark plays as the weather warms up.  The wall is like a mini Green Monster in left and if the ball carries well it’ll keep some hits in the yard.  The two games I was at, the wind blew out pretty strongly to right field and one ball was absolutely crushed to right center only to see Carlos Gonzalez run it down close to (probably) 425 feet from the plate.

As for the games themselves?

April 21: Colorado Springs 3, Reno 2

Matt Murton’s 2-run homer in the 5th inning gave Colorado Springs the lead for good and Josh Fogg worked 6 solid innings (4 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 SO) for the win. Murton had a pair of hits, as did Dan Ortmeier, Christian Colonel and Matt Miller, who hit a solo homer. Seth Etherton threw 7 innings for the Aces, pitching well except for the two homers (7 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 2 SO). Josh Whitesell tripled and drove in a run for Reno.

April 22: Colorado Springs 16, Reno 8

Carlos Gonzalez led the way with 6 RBI on a double and a triple while Mike McCoy had had 4 hits and 4 runs and Matt Murton picked up 3 hits and 3 runs as Colorado Springs collected 20 hits. Jason Hirsh rebounded from an early 5-0 deficit to keep Reno scoreless over his last 5 innings, working 6 total. Chris Roberson homered, doubled and drove in a pair for the Aces and Brandon Watson also had a pair of hits, but Travis Blackley and the rest of the pitching staff had a rough day.

With the Nikon D3 and a 70-200mm, f2.8 lens, I’m reaching the point where I’ll be able to do a lot more than just day games thanks to having equipment that can really handle it and the kind of lighting that’s common at minor league facilities. Still, I enjoy an afternoon at the ballpark and will continue shooting as many of those as I can because it’s much easier to freeze the action and get some nice, crisp shots.

Take Wednesday’s game between the Portland Beavers and Sacramento River Cats. Conditions were nice and sunny and for most of the game I was shooting at a shutter speed of 1/6400 or 1/8000 at f2.8 while the ISO ranged between about 500 to 1000 depending on how bright the background was or which direction the sun was coming from. What this let me do is something I’ve been wanting to be able to get since I began shooting baseball: really freeze the bat and ball, especially from one side of the infield or the other.

Behind the plate, when the ball is coming toward you it’s not really moving anywhere but on a mostly straight line. From the first or third base areas, it naturally goes side-to-side so there’s going to be blurring if the camera’s not fast enough to really stop it. With the D3 and the lens I’m using, it’s a piece of cake to get it to the point of being able to see the stitches. Maybe it’s a small thing but it’s something I like.

So, about the game. The Portland Beavers were in Sacramento for a series with the River Cats and this one wasn’t close at all. Behind four home runs, thirteen hits and twelve walks, the Beavers cruised to an 11-1 victory that saw not one but TWO position players (outfielder Matt Carson and catcher Raul Padron) pitch for the River Cats. Every once in a while you’ll see a position player get an inning in a blowout - just the other day Nick Swisher did it for the Yankees - but I’ve never heard of two doing it in the same game. Maybe it’s a little more likely in the minors and I’m guessing Sacramento wanted to save one or two of their pitchers, but it’s still got to be pretty rare.

Portland also wore a vintage-style uniform that consisted of a dark blue top and pants with white piping. In checking the Pacific Coast League’s media guide I found the top is their alternate jersey, but they’d worn it with the traditional white or gray pants before. This was the first time they broke out blue pants as well. It reminded me of things I’d seen from the 70s in particular when teams like the Indians wore all red uniforms. I actually like taking pictures of stuff like that once in a while because it’s a little different, but I can’t really call it a good look. See what I mean:

4/15/09: Portland Beavers at Sacramento River Cats

One of the things I’m working on doing is getting more non-action shots that show players in the dugout or reacting to what’s happening on the field. It takes paying a little more attention to it but it can add to the overall effect of what I do and it’s something I’ve seen others pull off very well.

Next week is going to be pretty exciting for me as I head to the new ballpark in Reno for the first time. During the offseason Arizona’s Triple-A affiliate moved there from Tucson, and tonight was the first game in their new downtown ballpark. I really like getting to places I haven’t been before, especially when they’re as new as this. Look for pictures from two games there over the next couple weeks. There may be a bit of a delay depending on how quickly I move into my new home.

Of the seven games on my week and a half trip to the southern part of the state, this was the only Triple-A game I covered. While it was another hot day, it wasn’t quite at the level it was in Lake Elsinore, Rancho Cucamonga or Visalia. Mid-90s, decent breeze, lots of water.

It was my second time in Fresno this month and also the second time Nick Pereira threw for the Grizzlies. While he wasn’t quite as good as he was the first time against Omaha he pitched more than well enough for another win, working into the 7th inning and allowing two runs. Justin Leone went deep for Fresno, Brett Harper and Scott McClain had 2 hits apiece, and so did Brandon Wood for the Bees. 6-2 final.

This was another one of those games where I ended up with fewer action shots in the field than I was hoping for but that’s the way it goes sometimes. I hadn’t shot a game featuring Salt Lake before so I spent a little more time trying to make sure I got their hitters accounted for. Occasionally, that left me without enough room to switch over to the infield to set up in time for a shot. Still, I’m mostly pleased with the results. The stuff I tried in Visalia with the ISO settings did work a bit better here but I don’t think I’m going to play around with that as much down the line.

5/20/08: Salt Lake Bees at Fresno Grizzlies

My longest photo trip of the year so far, Fresno is as much as three hours from the Bay Area depending on where I start from. I’ll be passing that next week but it won’t be a one day thing. In this case, it was 15 hours from the time I left home until I got back but that’s just the way it is for something like this.

Chukchansi Park is a little over five years old and one of the nicer minor league ballparks around in my opinion. It’s a nice place to shoot in, though given the hot weather in Fresno they don’t have much other than night games once the summer really gets going so it’s good to get down there while it’s still pleasant. To help some fans stay cooler, they also have some misting machines mainly located under the overhang above the seats between the dugouts.

There are some pretty nice angles to shoot from on the field between the dugouts as well. The way a row of seats are set up right behind the backstop net, you literally get to watch the game at field level. A few feet above that, the regular seating sections begin so it’s no real trouble to work down there without worrying about blocking someone’s view.

In this one, Fresno used a combination of excellent pitching on the part of Nick Pereira (8 IP, 5 H, 0 BB, 11 K) and home runs from Scott McClain (two) and Clay Timpner to take home an 8-0 victory over Omaha. San Francisco SS Omar Vizquel played four innings in the first of a few injury rehab starts. I was pretty pleased with the majority of what I got at this game. There were a couple things I missed but I got some good results on a stolen base, double, error and double play, along with the usual pitcher/batter shots. I’ll be back down in Fresno again this season and I look forward to working there some more.

5/4/08: Omaha Royals at Fresno Grizzlies

I’m starting to develop a general philosophy about doing photography at the minor league level. I see people like me and the players themselves as being in similar places. We all want to do well enough to be noticed and move up to a higher level. There are some things I’m good at getting and doing when it comes to composition and editing later on the computer, but there are a number of others I can definitely get better at. I’ve talked about experimentation before and that remains a big part of improving in a profession like photography.

Anyhow.

Another Wednesday, another game worked. That’s four in a row and more due in May. I’m going to be wasted by the time this month is over but that’s a good thing.

Here, the Sacramento River Cats beat the Omaha Royals 4-1. In his first game with Sacramento, Joe Gaetti (who was recently signed and called up from Double-A Midland with the Sacramento outfield a little short-staffed) homered his first time up before adding a double and a single to his credit. Nick Blasi singled three times, Lenny DiNardo worked 6 scoreless innings for the win and Brad Ziegler picked up the save. Ryan Shealy homered for the Royals.

This was an interesting game to shoot. I got a nice shot of a dive in left field by Danny Putnam and pretty good timing on Gaetti’s homer, but aside from that I missed a lot of stuff I’d have liked to get: a couple comebackers to the mound (which are pretty tough to predict anyway) and my timing/positioning was off for a couple double plays. Oh well. That’s why you keep working. I did play around with some faster shutter speeds than normal, getting up to 1/3200 for a few shots, trying to freeze the ball even more. It’s no problem when you’re behind the plate because it’s moving straight toward you but from side-to-side it blurs easily.

4/30/08: Omaha Royals at Sacramento River Cats

I get to see Omaha again in a few days down in Fresno.

Triple-A action here. Sacramento, behind 6 innings of no-hit ball from Dan Meyer, shut Tucson out 3-0. After the second game of their four game series, Tucson had managed a grand total of no runs on just 6 hits and 3 walks en route to a 2-12 record. Then again, it may be little surprise with some of the prospects Arizona sent to Oakland in the Dan Haren trade.

One of them, Carlos Gonzalez, went 3-for-4 and turned in a spectacular leaping catch in the right-center field gap for Meyer’s final out of the day in the 6th inning. Todd Linden and Brooks Conrad added a pair of hits for the River Cats, one of Conrad’s coming on a solo home run in the 1st. Ryan Wing and Brad Ziegler combined to allow 2 hits over the final 3 innings, with Ziegler picking up the save. Evan MacLane started for Tucson, allowing 3 runs on 9 hits over 5 innings. Trot Nixon, who accepted a minor league assignment when Arizona chose Alex Romero over him coming out of Spring Training, had the day off with the late morning start after a night game.

I worked with a slightly faster shutter speed than I did the week before in Stockton (mostly 1/2000th of a second) and in many cases the differences were clear, especially catching the release of the ball during pitches. As long as there’s enough light, it’s easier to get away with it and just do some editing later if I need to add a little more brightness.

4/16/08: Tucson at Sacramento

In West Sacramento, Raley Field is probably one of the nicest minor league ballparks you could find. Unless you’ve been to a number of them (and there are a few great websites out there with a ton of photos by people who have) it’s hard to compare one to another, but the layout’s nice and it’s situated in an area that’s pretty easy to get to. That it’s about 100 miles from home means I only go there once in a while, and I had my first chance to shoot a game there on August 8, a morning start (11:35 AM) between the Sacramento River Cats and visiting Oklahoma RedHawks.

This one was a pitching duel between Oklahoma’s Edinson Volquez and Sacramento’s Colby Lewis. They entered the game with a combined 11-1 record in Triple-A this season and both were dominant in Oklahoma’s 2-0 victory. Lewis went 8 innings, allowed just a run on 4 hits and struck out 10 without walking anyone, yet he took the loss as Volquez pitched 7 strong, giving up 2 hits and 2 walks to go with 9 strikeouts. Oklahoma’s only runs? In the 7th, the first came as the result of a sacrifice fly in which the third out was recorded at second base a split second after the run scored. In the 9th, the other one crossed the plate due to a fielding error. The game was played in a swift 2:15 and the hot summer temperatures took a break with the high topping out in the mid-80s.

I mention the temperature because my preference tends to be shooting day games. While I know it makes some things tougher to shoot because of different shadowing effects and the position of the sun relative to the direction I’m facing, I get better overall results than I would at night because I’m not yet to the point of being able to afford better glass to work with in lower light. I live in a very comfortable area so most of the year is pretty nice but during the summer months there are places that definitely get hot, including Sacramento and pretty much anywhere along Hwy 99 (Stockton, Modesto, Fresno, Visalia, Bakersfield) and much of the Southern part of the state that features other California League teams. It’s just one of those tradeoffs. I can live with a bit of heat in exchange for better shots and we don’t really have to deal with all the humidity the Midwest and East Coast gets.

The gallery: 8/8/07: Oklahoma RedHawks at Sacramento River Cats

There’s a greater focus on Sacramento players mainly because I was shooting for the A’s part of scout.com. Usually I try to balance both sides out a little more. Among the shots I liked best were multiple ones of different pitchers taken behind the plate, plus a couple of River Cat Jeremy Brown - one diving for a base hit and another from a broken bat, one of the best I’ve taken yet of something like that.