James Venes

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.