You have no idea how much I love this season. The spring may mean almost nothing to most people but when I think of spring? SPRING. TRAINING. Just around the corner from baseball’s regular season – and it’s extremely exciting.
Anyways, can you believe I’ve never been to a spring training game? I know, crazy. But! I can’t say that anymore! I was finally able to come around to a spring training game, and what better than my favorite team (Rays) ever and my third favorite team (Tigers) just about an hour away from me? Can’t turn that down! So my family and I made a trip to Lakeland, Florida to Joker Marchant Stadium – the Florida home of the Detroit Tigers’ spring training. It was the last Friday of my Spring Break (March 28th, 2014) and only 3 days until Opening Day!(!!!!!!!!!) I have been dying to finally get some sports shots with my new lens (which is why I wanted it so quickly) to be able to use at the game. This was really my last good chance I had to get good close shots of my favorite MLB players before the regular season started (because who knew when I’d get decent enough seats to get great pictures?). So ultimately, it was a win-win.
So here we go! It was a pretty awesome-packed afternoon. I met the one and only, Joe Nathan, got his autograph and a picture with him; saw my favorite player of all time, Matt Joyce; and my close-second favorite player of all time, Wil Myers. So yes, I had an incredible day. And now the pictures!!! I am very pleased with all of these, a few could have turned out better, but I was fangirling too hard to even focus.
Feel free to click on the pictures to get the full wonderful beauty of these marvelous ball players!
First up, Mr. Joe Nathan! It was pretty amazing to get awesome close-up shots of a 6x All-Star. Jackpot!!!
Camera: Canon EOS Rebel t2i
Lens: Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 USM
ISO: 100
Focal length: 155 mm
Aperture: f/5
Exposure time: 1/250 sec
Camera: Canon EOS Rebel t2i
Lens: Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 USM
ISO: 320
Focal length: 300 mm
Aperture: f/8
Exposure time: 1/500 sec
I had gotten the Batting Practice tickets to get in early and see the Tigers practice, which worked out great because I got some pretty cool shots of Rajai Davis playing in the left outfield.
Camera: Canon EOS Rebel t2i
Lens: Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 USM
ISO: 320
Focal length: 300 mm
Aperture: f/8
Exposure time: 1/500 sec
Camera: Canon EOS Rebel t2i
Lens: Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 USM
ISO: 200
Focal length: 240 mm
Aperture: f/6.3
Exposure time: 1/400 sec
And the babe Wil! ❤ I was pretty disappointed he didn’t come closer, none of the players really did. I was more towards the left outfield foul line right on the gate and all the players were mostly down by the third baseline (boo!).
Camera: Canon EOS Rebel t2i
Lens: Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 USM
ISO: 320
Focal length: 300 mm
Aperture: f/8
Exposure time: 1/500 sec
Camera: Canon EOS Rebel t2i
Lens: Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 USM
ISO: 320
Focal length: 300 mm
Aperture: f/8
Exposure time: 1/500 sec
And then MATT JOYCE ( ❤ ❤ ❤ ) came out and was chatting with Wil and oh my gosh, both of them in one picture, that I took?! I cannot contain myself.
Camera: Canon EOS Rebel t2i
Lens: Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 USM
ISO: 400
Focal length: 300 mm
Aperture: f/8
Exposure time: 1/500 sec
I really enjoy this picture of some of the boys lined up together. I’ve always been a sucker for angle-shots-of-lined-up-baseball-players. 😉
Camera: Canon EOS Rebel t2i
Lens: Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 USM
ISO: 160
Focal length: 220 mm
Aperture: f/6.3
Exposure time: 1/400 sec
I really enjoyed being on the left field foul side so much. Matt played left field that day up until the sixth inning, so about through the second inning I was able to get great shots of him before I went up to my seat. It was very exciting when he turned towards the camera – my dream shot! If only he was a few feet closer so I could have gotten an even closer shot! After these photos, I tried calling him over towards me to get a quick picture or an autograph, but I don’t remember what he shouted back to me, which is unfortunate. 😦 But I know it was somewhere along the lines of “I can’t right now” or something like that because he didn’t end up getting the chance to come over (I don’t think they’re allowed to between innings anyways.) Okay, enough rambling! Here’s my favorite pictures of Matt!!
Camera: Canon EOS Rebel t2i
Lens: Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 USM
ISO: 400
Focal length: 300 mm
Aperture: f/8
Exposure time: 1/500 sec
Camera: Canon EOS Rebel t2i
Lens: Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 USM
ISO: 400
Focal length: 300 mm
Aperture: f/8
Exposure time: 1/500 sec
Camera: Canon EOS Rebel t2i
Lens: Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 USM
ISO: 400
Focal length: 300 mm
Aperture: f/8
Exposure time: 1/500 sec
My other favorite Matt was on the mound – Matt Moore! 🙂
Camera: Canon EOS Rebel t2i
Lens: Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 USM
ISO: 320
Focal length: 300 mm
Aperture: f/8
Exposure time: 1/500 sec
And what’s a baseball game without getting shots of the crowd or a baseball?! I love how these ones turned out!
Camera: Canon EOS Rebel t2i
Lens: Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 USM
ISO: 320
Focal length: 300 mm
Aperture: f/8
Exposure time: 1/500 sec
Camera: Canon EOS Rebel t2i
Lens: Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 USM
ISO: 200
Focal length: 300 mm
Aperture: f/8
Exposure time: 1/500 sec
Well, those are the ones I felt the need to share! I took over 500 photos that day (200 of Matt Joyce), and I would share them all, but I had to narrow them down some how. I had a great time finally getting sports shots. I will definitely go to more baseball games and get more pictures. I didn’t take my camera to Opening Day because my seats were in the outfield, so not necessarily the ideal location to get good shots.
Be sure to expect more posts about baseball – I am so competitive about baseball and NOT afraid to speak my mind about a situation. I hope you like what I had to share and I look forward to sharing more with you!
Stay awesome and Let’s Go Rays!!!!
Lexi*
Misadventures of Lexi 