James Venes

Well, sort of. No credentials yet of course, but I believe it will happen someday.

My first MLB game using the DSLR was close to one for the record books as Rich Harden flirted with perfection for just over half the game before a clean single by Philadelphia’s Shane Victorino ended the suspense. Victorino would get both hits against Harden, who walked a batter and struck out a career-high 11 over 8 innings. The A’s scored twice in the first then got a few insurance runs later, one of them courtesy of Carlos Gonzalez’s second home run in the bigs. Final: A’s 5, Phillies 0.

With me working so many minor league games in April and especially May, I just hadn’t gone out to an A’s game until now and to be honest part of the reason had to do with me not wanting to go back to using the old camera because I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to bring the DSLR in. I’m just so accustomed to taking photos at a game, it’s hard to consider leaving the camera home. Of course, cost is a big part of it as well. It’s quite a difference to pay $50 for a seat around the infield compared to free field access in the minors when I cover a game there. I’m also used to much tighter restrictions at Warriors games, where they once told me my Panasonic Lumix was a “professional” camera and I couldn’t bring it in. I never saw whoever said it again and didn’t have any other problems using that camera, but I’m sure the DSLR is a different story.

I was happy to run into no issues taking my camera to the game. The A’s seem to be a lot more lenient about it with the general rule being “no commercial use, no tripod, and don’t block the views of others.” I can easily work with that but I probably need to sit a little closer to the plate next time because I found that I had to use all 300mm of my lens just to have the pitcher/batter in most of the frame and it often left just enough of a focus issue that I wasn’t satisfied with some of the results. I’m picky like that. It also led to me cropping some shots not as closely as I normally would.

Things came out a bit better around the mound but I ran into it again shooting past that around second and first. That’s one thing about all that foul territory at McAfee Coliseum – you’re far away from the field and it really shows when I’m shooting probably a good 100 feet away compared to half that or closer in a minor league ballpark with credentials. Still, I got some good results and I can build on that partially just by sitting somewhere else. I can compare this to past games I shot with the Panasonic and the difference is clear.

6/26/08: Philadelphia Phillies at Oakland A’s