Opening Day Baseball: Wayne State University v. Saginaw Valley State University

By: Sailor Mayes

March 28th, 2023

DETROIT -- If you sing while playing baseball you may not get a good pitch. Saginaw Valley State University blown out of the cage with. Warriors leading the cardinals 11-2.

I was able to attend this Baseball game due in part to this assignment in my Photojournalism class. I was able to attend one game in my four years of going here, and I would say it was well-worth the time. Wayne State was killing the competition and this was a great first season start for the Warriors.

The textbook, which we were asked to read for this assignment states, "a moment is a single point in time at which action may be stopped to tell the story in a single frame. It is the peak point of events, where images seem to make the most sense" (Gitner, 15). I tried to capture peak moments within the gameplay, but alas I am not a professional photographer. I struggled with blurry pictures and the fact that my lens of 75-300mm was not able to reach the length I was hoping for. The 70-200mm are so expensive unfortunately.

Throughout this course, we have been learning about exposure and shutter speed. This is something I am still working on, but have begun to master every time I use it. I start off by looking through the lens at a grey object. I then set the ISO, shutter speed, then aperture. I had to adjust the ISO multiple times due to the on and off cloud coverage. It was overall an extremely beautiful and sunny day during the opening day.

Shooting in these conditions actually gave me a perspective that I had not had prior. The crazy action shots you see from photographers within any setting are extremely hard to get. Mastering your camera-eye is incredibly difficult and one needs patience and practice in order to master the “perfect” shot. I grew a major respect for photographers, they can capture the raw still moment.

Having the opportunity to shoot this game and receive approval to do so was an honor. Although this was a requirement for class, I wanted to continue to shoot the game even after it was finished. Being able to get a perfect shot in my eyes was my goal, and I was saddened when my battery began to give out at the end of the game, as well as my SD card stating it was almost full. I began to turn the camera off in-between takes, and began deleting blurry pictures off of my camera in-between plays.

I grew a strange love of shooting sports, and I believe this stems from playing sports in the past. Trying to get the perfect shot of a pitch, home run fan reaction, and aggressive talk aimed at the other players was fantastic. There is so much that goes into taking the perfect picture. Right place, right moment, right angle, and right time. Realizing the importance of this, I will be able to go out in my future photographing endeavors and use these things I have learned in this class and in the field.

Image Descriptions:

1st Image: Wayne State Coach looking to the crowd (Coach Action Still Photo)

2nd Image: Wayne State Coach reacting to a play on the field (Coach Action Still Photo)

3rd Image: Wayne State Baseball Player catching a hit from a SVSU player

(Action Still Photo)

4th Image: Wayne State Baseball Player's talking before the game (Reaction Still Photo)

5th Image: Wayne State Baseball Player reacting to home run (Reaction Still Photo)

6th Image: Wayne State Baseball Fan reacting to a great play. (Fan Still Photo)