I love shooting overhead. Volume 146

Posted on August 7, 2013

Chris Young #25 of the Oakland Athletics runs to first base against the Texas Rangers during the game at O.co Coliseum on Sunday, August 4, 2013 in Oakland, California. (Photo by Brad Mangin)

 

I really enjoy shooting baseball from fun elevated positions. I have written about this many times, most recently last week. This past Sunday afternoon the Texas Rangers were in town to play the Oakland A’s on a typical sunny afternoon at the Coliseum. I shot some normal stock stuff from ground level on Saturday, so Sunday was a great time to go upstairs to section 313 at the house that Al Davis ruined and try my luck from the top row of the ballpark.

My mind was made up to shoot the game from upstairs, but before the first pitch I still went down to the Rangers dugout to shoot a few details (with both my iPhone and regular cameras) of the bats and the bat bag (see below) and the batting gloves sitting on the padded green bench (see above). I get a kick out of shooting this stuff, especially if there are fun colors and logos adorning the gear.

When the game began I went upstairs and shot a bunch of wide stadium overalls in the first inning (see below). One of the reasons I needed to shoot this stuff on Sunday was it was the final game of the home stand for the A’s. As soon as the game ended stadium workers would start tearing the place up and turning it into a football stadium for the Oakland Raider’s exhibition game on Friday night. This would be the last time all baseball season that head grounds keeper Clay Wood’s gorgeous field would look this good. Next time the A’s play the grass in center field will be dead and painted green and there will be the reminder of football yard markers all over the field. Wood and his crew do a fabulous job keeping the field looking great and making the infield one of the best to play on in all of baseball. I wanted to document their fine work one last time in 2013. It always saddens me when it starts to look like Hell every August.

I climbed up the stadium stairs to my perch in the second inning and settled in for what I hoped would be an action-packed ballgame. When I am high above the playing field everything looks so clean and pretty. My dream is always to get a nice play at the plate or something happening with the patterns of cut grass in the background. That is the great thing about shooting from high up. The ground becomes your background and everything looks so nice.

Unfortunately nothing much happened in this game action wise, but I was still left with a few frames I liked. The great thing about shooting from up in 313 is I never know what I am going to get. Simple images like the one of A.J. Pierzynski ripping his mask off as he chases a foul ball make me happy (see above). I know it might not seem like much but it is a nice and clean baseball picture with great light. I will take stuff like this every day.

By the time the game ended and the A’s had dropped a rather dull 4-0 decision to the Rangers I was sad that nothing great had happened, but happy I had the chance to enjoy a nice day at the park and soak up the beauty of the emerald-green grass before it gets ruined in a few days. Next up? I got Brewers and Giants in San Francisco tomorrow.