Happy Opening Day to All Who Celebrate

Take me out to the ball game, and let me bring my camera!

Freddie Freeman (5) batting at Coors Field in a game against the Colorado Rockies (2023)

Spring is officially here! Whether you’re a fan or not, there’s something wonderful about Opening Day in Major League Baseball. Everything feels hopeful (at least a little). Sunshine. Hot dogs. Peanuts. Looking up at the scoreboard, the ERAs and batting averages are ridiculous. Guys batting 0.000 or 1.0000, and pitchers with ERAs of 0.00 or 27.00. It’s great. Hit a home run on opening day and your total projects out to 162 HRs in the season (aren’t statistics great?).

My first MLB baseball game… Dodger Stadium, circa 1986. I used my Nikon EL2 camera and 400 speed print film. That’s Orel Hershiser preparing to take the mound.

One truly nice thing about baseball is that most major league parks allow cameras inside, even larger ones. You’ll just have to make sure you pass through security. While you’ll need to check each park’s regulations, I have brought in lenses as large as a 70-200mm f/2.8 on DSLR bodies. Just don’t bring a tripod or monopod, and you’ll be fine. The opening photo was with my OM-1 and 100-400mm lens, a fairly compact way of getting 800mm equivalent!

Daytime games are the best for photography, but you can still get great photos at night games; just crank the ISO and go for it. The biggest challenge at baseball games is the protective screen, which now extends all the way down the baselines to protect fans from foul balls. If you’re *really close* to the screen, it typically isn’t an issue. But most of us don’t sit that close. In those circumstances, you’re going to find that your AF system always seems to prefer focusing on the screen and not the players behind it. That’s typical behavior for a lot of cameras; they prioritize the nearest object in the focusing area, even if it isn’t your intended subject.

Getting around the screen

Here are some tips for focusing on partially obscured subjects: