Fun baseball weekend in San Francisco

Posted on April 30, 2012

Grounds crew members of the San Francisco Giants work on the area at home plate before the game against the San Diego Padres at AT&T Park on Saturday, April 28, 2012 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Brad Mangin)

 

During the baseball season I always like to look back on Mondays and remember the fun times I had at the ballpark the previous few days. As I sit here in my office with my cats Mike and Willie this afternoon I can look back at this past weekend of San Francisco Giants baseball games played in the glorious park by McCovey Cove and remember the great times I had both as a fan and as a photographer.

I had tickets for the Friday night game against the San Diego Padres in my cool season ticket seats and went to the game with my sister Paula and her husband Randy. Over the past few years the three of us have attended many Giants games together and we always have a great time. The play was sloppy and the Giants couldn’t hit in the Padres 5-3 win, but we all had a great time. As I get older I try not to let the outcome of the game effect me too much. Instead of getting super bitter and pissed off when the Giants lose I try and enjoy the time I get to spend in my seats with family and friends. I was pretty well-behaved Friday night as I did not let the outcome ruin my night.

Since I shoot every day game I enjoy being a fan for a dozen or so night games during the year, doing my pest to pick all the Friday night games when we have our ticket draft each February. I have had my season tickets with a group of friends since the new park opened in 2000 and I still enjoy going to the yard and sitting in my seats as much as I did back then.

Saturday’s game was a 6:05pm start, so I decided to head out and shoot the first few innings so I could get out of the house and see some friends. As usual I had my iPhone 4s with me and was on the lookout to shoot a few new Instagrams for my collection of baseball images. My goal was to leave the game before it ended when the sky got dark blue so I could shoot some stock images with my Canon Mark IV of the park in the pretty light, as well as a few frames with my phone. I was really happy to get one image I really liked with my favorite new camera (see above) as I heard the crowd cheering inside the park during the Giants two-run rally in the 7th inning. I listened to the final few innings of the Giants on my car radio win as I drove home and was already looking forward to photographing Sunday’s 1:05 start in the series finale.

Sunday morning started bright and sunny and only got better as I walked onto the reddish-brown dirt on the field at 10:15am eager to get to work. Alas, it was Little League Day (again) so there was no batting practice to shoot. Luckily my good friend Robert Leiter was in town from his awesome home in Santa Barbara to shoot the game. Rob and I settled into the Padres dugout and talked baseball as we waited to go upstairs and crush the media lunch.

By the time the game started I was ready to give my cameras a workout and had a blast shooting a rather boring game. I filled up several 16 gig memory cards with pictures of the really awful Padres for my client, Major league Baseball Photos. The Giants came out on top 4-1. I drove home across the Bay Bridge with some great memories of spending time with family and friends, and a few good pictures to keep as souvenirs from a great weekend at the yard.