Sunday, August 2, 2009

Baseball anyone?

I recently had the pleasure of photographing and up and coming baseball team.

The team was called "Storm". oh yea, not "the storm" just "storm"! They are just that awesome. The team is comprised of a multitude of 10-12 year olds. I could almost say it was the most fun I have ever had on a shoot.

I love working with kids and this group of boys were just full of life. They were all so excited to be there, but when it came to be game time they were totally in to it. And really, for children, they were pretty damn good at the sport, heh.

It was amazing cause they all had very distinct personalities. I got there early for the practice before the game to take their cliche head shots and some candid photos of the practice. By the time the game was over I felt like I knew all of their names and a general outline of their personalities.

I've taken a lot of senior pictures but this is one of the most formal projects I have ever worked on.

Even when working with more "formal" projects like senior pictures, team sports or weddings, I really like to make it as casual as possible. I feel that you should act more like you were attending the event yourself. Acting as if I was just going to the game for sports/entertainments sake. With that mind set I'm a lot more comfortable with the people there, and they are more comfortable with me. It's less of a situation of me intruding into their space and getting in their face for a photo and more about me being a part of the event and capturing my experiences. The images seem to come out looking more natural. It becomes more about capturing the moment and personalities of each individual, which is what people really want [or should want, in my opinion] not some cheesy posed shot where every child looks exactly the same and every mom in America has an identical snap shot stuck up on their fridge. [as demonstrated below]

In this project I just tried to capture all the really exciting game moments. The outfield catch, the steal of 3rd base, the slide into home, the perfect pitch and the home run. The moments where when they look back on the picture they might actually be able to remember that specific moment because it was more significant to them.
This is a picture of Pauly sliding into home after hitting a home run! He was so excited. I think I actually started cheering pretty loudly at this point. But I think it is good to let yourself get into it, makes everything more honest. :)

I had so much fun :)

0 details: