Enewsletter
May 2009

Even though Hobbs had grown up in a baseball-oriented family, it had been nearly 20 years since he had attended a baseball game, let alone shot one. He knew he needed a versatile lens that would enable him to capture every moment from the stands. His MVPs: the Tamron 18-270mm VC and the Tamron 200-500mm. But while he was able to capture a few remarkable shots with the 200-500mm telephoto lens, it didn’t get as much of a spring-training workout as its 18-270 counterpart. “The 18-270 was just so outstanding that I used it practically the entire game,” says Hobbs. “It’s absolutely one of the best lenses I’ve ever used.”

Hobbs likes to position himself in the home team’s dugout to get the best pictures, but in this case, he was fortunate enough to have full access to both the home team’s dugout as well as the visiting team’s dugout. “Once you’re set in your position, you can’t really move around, so you need a variety of focal lengths to be ready to go,” he says. In other words, shooting this game was the perfect opportunity for Hobbs to test out the 18-270’s versatility.

This versatility was put to the test even before Beaufort’s first pitch was thrown, when Hobbs was hanging out in the dugout with the home team’s players. “The 18-270 was able to zoom in from showing the pre-game excitement and chaos in the dugout to a quick head shot of one of the players in an instant,” he says.

Which brings Hobbs to his first piece of advice: Check out your surroundings for “flavor shots” before the game even begins. “I was in the dugout before this first game, and I saw all the helmets lined up in the helmet rack—I thought that would make for a cool shot,” says Hobbs. “I actually turned the 18-270’s Vibration Compensation (VC) off for this one shot and put my camera on a tripod to get this image.” Even some bats perched in a pair of empty cleats were fair game for Hobbs’ viewfinder.

When the pitcher finally takes the mound (or, in this case, Dr. Jane Upshaw, chancellor of USCB, throwing out the first pitch), it doesn’t matter if you’re shooting a Little League tournament or a Major-League double-header: Keep your eye on the players and the action. “One of the things you always want to do is try to get the ball in the shot, whether it’s the pitcher throwing the ball at 95 miles per hour or the second baseman diving for that first out” says Hobbs.

You’ve got to know the game to be prepared to capture any curveballs that may come your way. “Baseball is a lot more intense than people would think,” says Hobbs. “It’s unpredictable—you can sit for inning after inning with nothing happening, and then suddenly the batter gets a home run. Is that guy running to first base going to make it in time? What may look like a routine out at first base sometimes turns into a helluva play, and you have to be ready for that. You’re on your toes constantly.”

You have to be a pro at anticipating the big plays as well. “Is there going to be a play at the plate?” says Hobbs. “You have to know the sport you’re shooting and go with your instinct. I used to be a big baseball fan, but it’s been almost 20 years since I went to a game. That was my biggest challenge: to try to get my head in the game as well as working with two new pieces of equipment, all while watching the game and making sure I didn’t get beaned with a foul ball!”

Even though he was nervous about being rusty on the field, the 18-270 lens was the magic number that got Hobbs right back into the game. “That’s the beauty of this lens,” he says. “There was a guy on second base when the batter got a hit, and the coach signaled him to come into home. I took my eye off the ball and looked toward the plate, because I knew that’s where the play was going to be. Having the 18-270’s quick autofocus and built-in vibration compensation enabled me to get a good, sharp picture of the guy sliding into home. I was able to get the whole sequence—the slide starting, the catcher up in the air catching the ball and coming down, the kid sliding across the plate, and the catcher missing the tag with the ball. I shot that at 270mm, the lens racked down as far as it could go.”

After capturing the action shot, Hobbs was able to use the 18-270 lens to immediately capture the reaction shot. “As soon as the runner jumped up, he made his way toward the rest of the team members, who were coming out of the dugout to high-five him,” he recalls. “They were all right there around me, so I zoomed the lens all the way in to 270mm to get that high-five shot. I did it with that one lens in the space of about 30 seconds—that fast autofocus and beautiful zoom length of 18-270 allowed me to capture the entire sequence with ease.”

Hobbs’ game instinct kicked in as well in terms of lighting the second part of this pictorial. “You can get weird shadows underneath the players’ helmets,” he explains. “When the batter jumped up after sliding into home plate, my instinct told me to turn the flash on my camera on. I was able to kick it on to light up his face with a little bit of nice fill to compensate for the shadows.”

The 18-270’s built-in Vibration Compensation (VC) is a necessity for the heart-pumping plays on the AstroTurf. “The person shooting sports who says he doesn’t get excited or get involved in the game is fooling himself and trying to fool you,” says Hobbs. “When you get into the game and you’re excited about a kid making the very first run for the school, you might get a chance to get a good shot but your adrenaline might be going full speed. If you’re shooting without VC, you’re going to be a little shakier than you would normally. I’m also at a certain age where I’m not as steady with my hands as I used to be! I look at it this way: Anything that will help me make a good image is a positive. The VC built into the 18-270 lens has certainly made me a better photographer.”

While there may have been errors on the Beaufort field that day, there was little chance for error off the field, thanks to the 18-270’s intuitive ergonomics. “For me, this was a very instinctive lens,” Hobbs says. “From the minute I put the lens on my D300, it just felt right. Of course, I read the directions and familiarized myself with it and took some test shots of my dogs and some birds on the beach to get used to it, but it was truly only a matter of minutes before I felt totally comfortable using the 18-270.”