[aslyfox]

Thank you for your post, both camera setting-wise, and game-wise!

I am a long-time White Sox fan going back to the 1960s (but while I was in grad school and shortly after I drove a tour bus out of Dubuque and attended Cub games about every weekend the Cubs were in town - drivers got in free - standing room only pass); . . .

I have a Tokina 70-200mm f/2.8 lens, but it hunts a lot with my K-5. I am keeping the lens in case I upgrade my camera body, but seldom use it. I have a Tamron 18-250mm f/3.5. So I am conflicted over which lens to take. After all it is baseball and if one focuses on the batter, it is a static focus. Hunting shouldn't be a factor. We are in club seating (I would call it mezzanine level) just about where the outfield grass starts on the first base side. The game is a near sell-out which is not the norm on the South Side. This team is young and becoming interesting. They beat those damned Yankees, tonight after being in a hole 4-0.

some thoughts:

I have found some comments in these articles to be helpful:

https://www.pentaxforums.com/articles/photo-articles/dslr-sports-autofocus-settings-guide.html

https://www.pentaxforums.com/articles/photo-articles/sports-shooting-focusin...se-racing.html

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focusing on home plate you may have to deal with the safety netting.

it can either be mildly distracting or a major pain for photographers.

I tend to focus on plays on the bases if I can, very dependent on game action of course, attempts to advance, stretching singles to doubles etc. or photos of the pitcher as he delivers his pitch.

If I can, I prefocus on the base and let the action come to me, if you understand what I am trying to say

shutter burst can help but drains the batteries of course so make sure you have extra with you

the worse thing about photography at a ball game is that you lose the game concentrating on the photography so be aware of that.

" what happened ??? " when you are looking the wrong way

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take both lenses and make a decision at the game, perhaps switch on and off

good luck from a " pre69 cub fan " who grew up in Le Roy, IL before moving to Iowa and then Kansas

have fun

[ Yu Darvish , crop and pp, selected from a series taken with shutter burst of his delivery ( darn cable holding up safety net ) ]

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Last edited by aslyfox; 06-14-2019 at 05:01 AM.

[str8talk83]

[c][/c]

[c][/c]

---------- Post added 06-14-2019 at 03:45 PM ----------

I watched the heron go for this turtle for about 20 minutes before giving up. I hope he ended up ok after being attacked for that long...

[stihlmania]

SMC A ☆ 400 F2.8 ED[IF] with Pentax F 1.7 AF adaptor

[mroeder75]

good luck from a " pre69 cub fan " who grew up in Le Roy, IL before moving to Iowa and then Kansas

have fun

Thank you! But I must confess to this.

Chub fans in Dubuque in 1969 were so bombastic from June through August they didn't realize it, but they were difficult to tolerate. September was a relief from the bombastic-ism when the inevitable Cub collapse arrived past its usual schedule.

---------- Post added 06-14-19 at 10:40 PM ----------

SMC A ☆ 400 F2.8 ED[IF] with Pentax F 1.7 AF adaptor

The airboat, the heron vs. turtle, the humming bird. How do you do this? These are stunning photos.

[WPRESTO]

The heron with turtle (last image) is a great incident-in-Nature shot, but the skimmer in flight is startling, a real eye-stopper!

[str8talk83]

The heron with turtle (last image) is a great incident-in-Nature shot, but the skimmer in flight is startling, a real eye-stopper!

Thanks for the kind words.

[stihlmania]

mroeder75, I can speak only of my images but lots of practice, location and some luck is usually involved. Here is my other squirrel guard yesterday....

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[WPRESTO]

Lilac-breasted roller, substantial crop from a Bigma image.

[kengoh]

Blue Eared Kingfisher

shot with K5 + Sigma 500 F4.5

[mroeder75]

mroeder75, I can speak only of my images but lots of practice, location and some luck is usually involved. Here is my other squirrel guard yesterday....

Is this a coyote in a tree? I did not know they could climb. How did you happen to pose / photoshop this photo?

[stihlmania]

Is this a coyote in a tree? I did not know they could climb. How did you happen to pose / photoshop this photo?

It is a gray fox, an excellent tree climber. No photoshop involved....I was looking out my back deck when the male fox was looking for a meal.

[WPRESTO]

It is a gray fox, an excellent tree climber. No photoshop involved....I was looking out my back deck when the male fox was looking for a meal.

A local wildlife magazine to which I subscribed for a while had an article about fox pointing out that greys were good tree climbers, and went up regularly, but reds were anchored to the Earth. The next issue had multiple reports of red fox up trees, including several images.

[swip]

A mallard duckling may be only a day old.

[stihlmania]

A local wildlife magazine to which I subscribed for a while had an article about fox pointing out that greys were good tree climbers, and went up regularly, but reds were anchored to the Earth. The next issue had multiple reports of red fox up trees, including several images.

The gray fox, an omnivore, also loves peaches, apples, pears and wild grapes and will scale many things to get at them. We now have many new wine tasting places in the Texas hill country that grow some grapes vines and they fuss about the fox eating their grapes... I have wild grape vines in my back yard, some 40 feet tall and the fox can get to almost any of the grapes on these huge vines...

[str8talk83]

A few recent shots

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