Stayin' Alive

Batters hitting baseballs are often difficult photos to get, but with persistence and a little luck, you will get your picture.

Colby's Brady O'Brien fouls off tough pitch to keep his at-bat alive vs. Thomas College.

The Photo
It's far from easy to photograph a batter hitting a baseball. A pitched ball is traveling 70-100 miles per hour, and then much faster after making contact with a bat, so you have to time the photo perfectly.  Hitters are wearing helmets and often crouch down in their stances, so you need to stay low, perpendicular to the hitter, and slightly forward, in order to see the batters' faces. And to avoid being hit by baseballs, you have to stand back, using a long lens to get a clear enough photo of the action.

Colby College was playing its 2024 home opener against crosstown rival Thomas College, with Thomas taking a 5-4 lead in the 3rd inning, but Colby rallying with the next 7 runs to win the game 11-5.  While I photographed fielding plays and outs at the bases, I concentrated on taking as many photos as I could of batters making contact.  Using a 300MM lens and 1/1000 shutter speed to freeze the fast action, I stood directly perpendicular to the hitter, crouched down low so I had the best view of batters' faces, and shot repeatedly. Some pictures had the bat making contact with the ball but the player's face wasn't clearly visible, while others had great views of the player's face but the timing of contact between ball and bat wasn't quite right.  In this at-bat, the Colby hitter was making contact, handling difficult pitches, and when he lunged to foul the pitch off, I had an unusual photo of his face, swing, body language, and the ball ricocheting off the dirt.

Please remember to also try photographing softball, where the ball is bigger, the speed is a bit slower, and you are closer to the action.

3 Tips

1. Frame the photo as either the batter's full body or waist up, perpendicular from the side and slightly forward, crouching down low to see as much of the batter's face as possible, and using a long lens with a fast shutter speed of around 1/100.

2. Start shooting your photos as the batter begins to swing, and take lots of shots of many hitters, because you'll miss on the majority of your picture attempts.

3. Try to capture the batter's face with the bat making contact with the ball, but because the action happens so fast, you'll also get many unexpected variations of unusual batting stances, swings, bat and ball locations, facial expressions, and body language, any of which might make for a great picture.