Vintage Base Ball at Garfield Park

It isn't often that I get a lot of pop from a short amount of time on a photo shoot.

I'm not sure it would be accurate to say that it happened Sunday afternoon when I strolled over to Garfield Park in Indianapolis to take pictures of the Vintage Base Ball Association game between the home Indianapolis Hoosiers and White River Base Ball Club. But I arrived late, took a couple dozen photographs in an inning and a half and walked home.

My objective was merely to see how well my versatile focal-length Tamron 18-270mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD lens would do in an action-sports shoot. If this were an indoor event, there'd be no question I'd turn to my Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS lens. And in the past, I've also turned to that lens outdoors, adding a a 1.4 extender to give me an effective focal length of 280mm on the long end times the 1.6 crop factor multiplier on my 7D or 30D bodies.

The 70-200 will always be my "go to" lens for important shoots of this sort, situations where I absolutely need quality shots. It delivers sweet images. But it has one drawback: It's heavy. So I wanted to see how the Tamron -- with a very similar long-end focal length -- would perform outdoors. It did OK; I wouldn't mind using it in future non-critical shoots.

This post shows you the best of my very short shoot at the Vintage Base Ball game Sunday, using that lens on the 7D, leading off (top) with the expression-intense shot of a Hoosiers' hitter in the follow through of a swing.

Above and below: This White River outfielder cleanly snagged the fly ball hit by the Indianapolis batter pictured at the top.

Above and below: This White River Base Ball club hitter had a curious expression during his swing as well.

Above: If you look closely, you can see the bat just about to meet ball, which is back-grounded by the white shirt of the spectator by the tree.

Above and below: An Indianapolis infielder -- gloveless, as per rules in the VBBA -- fields a grounder cleanly and makes the throw to first to retire a White River club batter.

 

Above: The Indianapolis first baseman is about to catch the throw from the infielder above.

Above: A White River batter keeps his eye on the incoming pitch while shifting back on his right leg to begin the swing. Below: The swing doesn't accomplish much more than foul hit off the instep of his right foot, which is where you'll find the ball.