Baseball. is. BACK!

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*

Testing out the Canon 75-300mm lens – photoshoot of my dog!

So I was beyond excited when I was FINALLY able to get a new camera lens! After having the Canon 18-55mm lens for over a year and a half, it was time to upgrade. I started out with the 18-55mm which is fantastic to start out with, so when I got more interested in pursuing photography, my family bought me the 75-300mm lens and let me tell you it was worth it! I really wanted the lens quick as Spring Break was just coming around the corner so I would have a lot of time to play with it.

I got the lens off of Amazon.com through the bulk packaging option. Ultimately, the lens was about $40 cheaper buying it that way which was perfect – I didn’t want to pay the extra $40 to get the unnecessary manufactured packaging. The lens arrived on time in two days (free two day shipping!) and as soon as I got it Friday afternoon, I couldn’t put it down! I immediately started taking pictures. I was so amazed at how huge of an upgrade this lens was! The 18-55mm lens never really got me anywhere as far as far-distance pictures goes, and now that I have this, it will be a breeze!

Anyways, enough babbling! Here are a few of my favorite pictures I took of my Boston Terrier, Muffin, on Friday and Saturday. She’s such a cutie! Feel free to click on the images to see a larger version.

I love when she puts one of her legs up – it shows how bubbly her personality is!

Camera: Canon EOS Rebel t2i
Lens: Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 USM
ISO: 800
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: 100 mm
Aperture: f/4.5
Exposure time: 1/125 sec

By far my favorite shot!

Camera: Canon EOS Rebel t2i
Lens: Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 USM
ISO: 1000
Focal length: 140 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: 2500
Focal length: 240 mm
Aperture: f/6.3
Exposure time: 1/320 sec

Camera: Canon EOS Rebel t2i
Lens: Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 USM
ISO: 640
Focal length: 130 mm
Aperture: f/4.5
Exposure time: 1/200 sec

When I had my 18-55mm lens, it was so hard for me to get a good picture of Muffin without her shying away from the camera or turning away too quickly. She didn’t like how I would have a giant box-looking-thing right in front of her face! But now that I have this new lens, it’s so much easier for me to take amazing quality pictures of Muffin from far away, but have it look like I was right in front of her!

Now I will share some of my pros and cons with the lens!

Pros: 

• Auto-focus is INCREDIBLY quick. As compared to the 18-55mm lens, the auto-focus is much quicker and smoother.
• The distance range. I am always going to sporting events, so having a greater distance to shoot from will come in handy!
• The focus. I am amazed at how well images are focused, I absolutely love bokeh and blurred backgrounds, and with this lens, you will get just that!

Cons:

• The lens is (obviously) a bit heavy, but who cares?! It’s totally worth it after a while as the quality of the pictures are amazing. Plus, it doesn’t feel heavy after a while of taking so many pictures. 😀 (A good way to build up muscle, no?)
• The distance range is also a con. Don’t expect to use this lens if you’re trying to capture something just 2 feet in front of you, because the lens won’t register it. From my experience with this photoshoot, when Muffin was walking up to me or right in front of me, the camera wouldn’t focus at 75mm because she was too close to me. If I would have to guess, the best distance from you to your subject would be around 4 or 4.5 ft from your subject for the 75mm range.

Well that’s about it for my thoughts/review on the Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 USM lens. I will definitely be sharing much more of my shots with this lens. I cannot wait to see what else I can get out of this!

Let me know what you think about the lens if you have it, or if you’re still trying to decide if it’s worth it or not! I would also love to know what you think about these few test shots.

Until next time,

Lexi*