Some softball pitching - 11 & 12 year old style

The final set from my shoot a week or so ago. These are the little kids trying to get there pitching skills about them.... For little squirts they do OK. Off to the senior games next week (yea)

#1

Very nice images. Especially like 3, 5 & 7, such concentration in these young ladies faces. Nice timing! Thanks for sharing.

I like 7 the best.

Randy - Nice work. Good job getting low. It gives a great perspective to the images.

The start of the wind-up can also be a good moment to capture - when the pitcher has the ball and her glove in front of her. I find this is a "high exertion" moment.

Dennis

Petes Prints wrote in post #5735181
=Pete's Prints;5735181]Very nice images. Especially like 3, 5 & 7, such concentration in these young ladies faces. Nice timing! Thanks for sharing.

For little ones they sure do get wound up....

packpe89 wrote in post #5736562
I like 7 the best.

Thanks...the parents were thrilled

dmwierz wrote in post #5736742
Randy - Nice work. Good job getting low. It gives a great perspective to the images.

The start of the wind-up can also be a good moment to capture - when the pitcher has the ball and her glove in front of her. I find this is a "high exertion" moment.

Dennis

Thanks Dennis...most people don't even notice the perspective. My knees were killing me after this session as it was an all day affair. I eventually surrendered and just sat down in the sand.

I'll try to grab some from the beginning of the pitch next time....good point. I seemed to be looking for the peak action at the top of the throw or release. Truth is there is more to the pitch then just that. I appreciate the guidance & suggestion.

Randy - I'm with you. I have kneepads (these, combined with shots, yield really strange tan lines this time of year, BTW ) but if I'm working more than a couple games, I just say "the heck with it" and sit down. The biggest issues with being this stationary, though, are base coaches who occupy somewhere around a half acre of space when they're coaching (nowhere near staying in the box) and who inevitably decide to stand right in front of you wherever you decide to sit (I've had them look right at me, and then stand directly in line with the plate...), and being mobile enough to move out of the way if a ball were to come your way.

Here's an example of what I mean. At some fields, my 400 is too long to get full body pitcher shots, and unless I have a wider lens and my second camera with me, shots like this are as good as I can fit in frame. The parents seems to really like these shots, by they way, and they sell pretty well. The instant caught here is right after the pitcher slaps her mitt against her thigh (many do this), right at the beginning of the wind-up, usually coincident with the front leg stepping forward. I'm normally shooting from the door in the dugout, or with younger kids, near the on-deck circle against the backstop (if there is no dugout door in this position).

Great shots, very sharp. Nice angle. Where were you shooting from? Obviously a low angle, through a fence?

Cool shots Randy!

Here is what those young ladies can become. Her name is Rachele Fico was a junior this year at Masuk High School in Monroe CT. This year she was 27-0 and won the State Championship. She is on 51 game winning streak lost thelast game of the season her freshman year, and has a career 0.05 era so far. Oh yeah and she is going to LSU all expenses paid thanks to that right arm. Throws a 68mph fastball, thats about the equilavent of 115 from a baseball pitcher. Also she has about 6 or 7 pitches all of them amazing.

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^ Nice knuckle ball shot.

Damn, some of these girls look like they are out to kill...I like it

Very nice series! Love the bokeh in these. 7 gets my vote for the best of the lot.