Sacrifice Bunt Photo

Photographer’s Note

Moving the base runner into scoring position is critical in a close ball game. With a runner on first base and no outs yet in the inning this batter was called upon to sacrifice bunt the base runner to second base, which he did successfully. The runner eventually scored, the strategy worked, and they won the game.

There comes a time after all the typical coverage of a team is done that I can experiment and/or go for the low-percentage shots. This is one of those. I used a 2x converter with the 400mm 2.8 lens for this photo. The situation called for a sacrifice bunt as strategy so when the batter dropped his bat into position it came as no surprise, but it's always a bonus when the ball is in such a great spot in the final shot. This is cropped in a bit from the original but not much.

thea0211, kittyhawk has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

trinko (2940) 2007-04-02 23:22

great action capture. love his expression.

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danielswalsh (13324) 2007-04-03 1:37

Great action shot Gregory. You really captured the expression well... I wonder if the player knows that he makes those faces when batting? Hahahaha
A bit of noise- but I imagine you were probably shooting with a high ISO to manage 1/1000 on a 400mm.
Perfect timing with the ball frozen just before the bunt.

Cheers!
- Dan

cbrman (19049) 2007-04-03 1:39

Hello Gregory,

Excellent timing dans cette belle image sportive !
Le léger flou crée une très bonne dynamique dans cette photographie. La balle est parfaitement plaçée et on imagine le choc avec la bat qui ne vas tarder !
Bravo !

A+

Dominique

SteveH (3995) 2007-04-03 2:57

Hi Greg, As others have said, great shot. Placement of the ball is fantastic, I can only imagine how fast it was travelling and how difficult to catch in a "good" position. BTW - what is the black around his eyes? cheers, Steve

thea0211 (1355) 2007-04-03 4:17

hi gregory,
perfectly captured moment, love how time seems to have stopped in your image, love the look on his face and the way he slightly bites his lip while concentrating!
perfect dynamics in a still photograph - very well seen and crafted image!
tfs,
dora

kittyhawk (1687) 2007-05-03 4:39

Hi Gregory,

Great expression on the batters face, you can really see that he is consentrated. The moving ball is a great bonus in a shot like this, and I think that the ball is key in this one. Great work. Hope to see more soon.

Friendly,
- Halgeir