I’ve never really been interested in Sports Photography, mainly because I’ve not been interested enough in any particular sport. However, while out walking the dog one day, I noticed that one of our local village hall football pitches (there were two) had been altered to include some high netting and the start of a mound in the middle. The next time we walked there, we saw some people working on the mound. We asked what they were doing and they explained that they were turning it into a baseball pitch – for the Worcester Sorcerers baseball team. Over the next few visits, we saw the pitch transformed and the guys seemed friendly. We asked them if girls could play (as our daughter Ruth was looking for a sport to get into). They told us to send her down one evening when they were practicing. To cut a long story short, she went, and so did we (and so did our other daughter’s boyfriend Jacob). We also went to the first game of the season a few weeks later, which was against Wolverhampton Baseball Club. I had taken my camera and took a few shots. I wandered round behind the netting and took some through it and got some dramatic shots of the pitcher bowling towards the batter. I also noticed that as the batters run round the diamond between the bases, they kick up dust – and that looks pretty dramatic too. In fact, there are lots of things to love about this sport… the outfits are colourful, the action is exciting, the people playing it are really nice, there’s a friendly rivalry between the Midlands clubs, the spirt is new so the teams are pleased and grateful for decent images as they can be used to help promote the sport etc. etc.
So, I’ve now been to two games and taken photos and the teams involved seem to really like them. It’s nice to feel appreciated!
