Always be aware of your surroundings...

Know where the players and the ball are at all times. This is why I always shoot with both eyes open....


http://www.kdlt.com …w&id=3948&Itemi​d=58#video

good thing it didn't hit the camera, that would've hurt

Awesome, you could hear it hit his noggin

If you shoot enough baseball/softball games, it's not a matter of "if" you're going to get hit by a ball, it's just a matter of "when", and how much it's going to hurt.

ouch

That will leave a mark.

RSB wrote in post #10580600
If you shoot enough baseball/softball games, it's not a matter of "if" you're going to get hit by a ball, it's just a matter of "when", and how much it's going to hurt.

I haven't been hit above the knee with a softball or baseball... yet. Luckily, soccer balls and basketballs don't hurt all that much.

Better buy a hardhat.

I took a line drive to my nose when I was 7 playing little league.

wow, its the sound that hurts most.

DDCSD wrote in post #10591471
I haven't been hit above the knee with a softball or baseball... yet. Luckily, soccer balls and basketballs don't hurt all that much.

A number of years ago, I took a foul ball to the groin from a 10 year olds bat while I was standing inside the fence close to first base. I had a beautiful series of his swing, with the ball coming off the bat directly at me. In the last image the ball was just a huge white blur, I was still focused on the player, who was by now looking directly at me with big wide eyes. I was shooting film on an EOS1 with a 300 f2.8 on a monopod, and I crumpled to the ground in agony. They stopped the game for about 3 minutes until I was able to right myself. Pretty humiliating. That's when I learned how to place my 'valuables' directly behind the monopod at all times. I've been hit a number of times since, both by batted and overthrown balls, but never again in that most personal of places.

I was shooting a few weeks back from the 3rd base side end of the dugout. Line drive foul ball came right at me. I had both eyes open and saw it coming. Ball missed me by about 6 inches. I really didn't flinch all that much. The shooter from the newspaper went running for cover. Having played baseball the better part of 30 years, I can kinda guess where the ball will end up. However, it's not an exact science.

I'm grateful I shoot rugby, not something with a small, hard ball like baseball or softball. I've only been hit once by a rugby ball so far. I had ducked just in time as it whizzed passed me but then bounced off the stands and hit me in the back! I was just so grateful I'd managed to dodge it so it didn't hit me/my camera right in the face.

I've been hit a few times with baseball, mostly ricochets but a couple times directly. Saw the worst one coming the whole way, just to slow to get out of the way of some of those MLB fouls. Luckily no serious injury other than sore and bruised ever though.

Generally I do try to shoot with both eyes open, that's why my pw annoys me, I can't see around it.

that must have hurt