Photographers Blog

Bradenton, Florida

By Steve Nesius

As a photographer you often don’t know what to expect when covering MLB spring training baseball games – especially covering the Yankees.

After several games of being crammed into ridiculously tight photo wells at other stadiums with still photographers, TV crews and team interns shooting videos of batters and pitchers, it was nice to be assigned to a game at McKechnie Field in Bradenton, Florida. Most photographers choose to shoot on the walkway behind the seats with clean fields of view. I wanted to shoot in the third base well, which is low to ground level, during the first inning to get the starting right-handed pitchers before heading up to the walkway.

It turned out to be a good decision. The Yankees batted first. Lead-off batter Eduardo Nunez singled, then stole second base. Brennan Boesch, in his second game since joining the Yankees after his release by the Tigers, was batting second. Boesch broke his bat on an infield single. Nunez advanced to third and scored on a throwing error. Kevin Youkilis batted third and hit a two-run homer, scoring Boesch. Yankees were up 3-0. Good action to start the game.

I felt I had some decent frames but couldn’t see the back of my camera very well to “chimp” (edit images in camera) in the bright sunshine. It wasn’t until later in the game, as I was editing, I could see I made some good images. In particular, the frame of the barrel of the broken bat smacking the face of Boesch. In the six-frame sequence, Boesch’s bat cracked as he struck the ball. On the follow-through of the swing, the bat brook in two pieces, smacked into his face, knocked his helmet ajar and flew out of the frame as Boesch raced to first base with an infield single.

By Mike Segar

Firstly, let me say I am most definitely NOT a New York Yankees fan. I grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and have been a devoted Boston Red Sox fan my entire life. The Yankees are our sworn enemies as Red Sox fans and that never changes.

However, in my job as a photographer for Reuters I have covered the Yankees in the MLB playoffs since 1996, when I covered my first New York Yankees World Series championship.

That season a young rookie shortstop named Derek Jeter made his postseason debut as the Yankees went on to win the first of five World Series titles through 2009 (losing two more World Series in 2001 and 2003 along the way). I have seen a lot of playoff baseball games and experienced countless exciting and memorable moments as the Yankees and Jeter proved their greatness time and again.

By Darryl Webb

“I was really glad I saw it coming.”

I know that statement above sounds a little confusing so allow me to explain.

I don’t know how many professional sporting events I’ve covered in the last 20 years. Let’s just say it’s been a lot and in all that time I’ve never been hurt. There have been a couple of close calls here and there, but nothing serious until earlier this week.

Had I not seen this sphere coming toward me at a blistering speed, the end result could have been a lot worse. I’m not saying it would have been as bad as Sports Illustrated’s photographer John Iacono, who was hit by an overthrown ball in 1999, shattering his jaw which resulted in two titanium plates, some wire mess and something like 20 screws. But it definitely would have been worse than a headache, a bump on the head and two hours spent at Urgent Care.

As I stood in the first base photo well between innings, trying to figure another angle to shoot the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim’s Albert Pujols, I saw Angels’ third baseman Mark Trumbo make a throw to first – a throw he’s made a million times I’m sure. But this time the trajectory was off, it had some extra height to it, and unless Pujols was suddenly 10 feet-tall that ball was headed in my direction.

Photographing the pitcher is the bread and butter of baseball coverage, especially in the playoffs. But photographs of the pitchers are important when two of the teams’ aces face each other.

Generally, the moment you are looking for is when the ball has just left the tips of the pitcher’s fingers. But in a game where the pitchers are likely to be a big part of the story (and therefore there will likely be demand for more images of them), you need to look for other moments in their delivery that look interesting. A pitcher’s motion slowed down to a series of still images can look very strange indeed. Their limbs can look as though they have been disjointed and strange looking pieces of skin can seem to poke out. Remember too that the pitcher’s motion will look completely different from my angle as opposed to another photographer’s view farther out the baseline or closer to home plate.

Watching the delivery of the San Francisco Giant’s Tim Lincecum, I noticed a moment early in his windup where, from my perspective, his face was framed by his arm. All that was left was to time my shutter to capture that point in his delivery.

I came to New York in 1971 to work for the Associated Press and I covered the weekend shift at both Yankee Stadium and Shea Stadium, where the Mets played. I’ve spent a good part of my life covering baseball in New York, the last 21 years for Reuters.

The Yankees ballpark had the air of a grand old lady, slightly down on her luck. At first sight it was an impressive structure with the historic field and that magnificent original copper frieze that lined the stadium’s roof above the upper deck. But a close look revealed a stadium deteriorating almost everywhere.

For a working photographer it was no fun, one had to kneel in an aisle to shoot pictures or work in a “crows nest” box hung over the upper deck wall behind the Yankees dugout. But there was a palatable sense of history present, for me, every day I worked there.