Colorado Rockies vs. Arizona Diamondbacks

September 10th, 2005

Coors Field - Denver, CO

 

Sheila, myself, Harry and Jan attended a Colorado Rockies game following dinner out in downtown Denver. The stadium is located in a revitalized area of lower downtown, so its possible to soak some downtown atmosphere and then walk to the stadium. As with the CU game, it was a good game to watch as it came down to the last pitch with the Rockies unable to rally in the bottom of the ninth.

 

Anyway, here is another photo essay. Originally I had intended to shoot with both the 100mm 2.8 macro and the 100-300mm f4-5.6 zoom and compare the results. Unfortunately, being a night game, the lighting was not sufficient for low ISO settings. Even at ISO 400 I had to be careful not to induce camera shake. Therefore, I decided not to try to take images with the 100mm and then try to do 50% or more cropping as I did with the CU football pictures.

 

Most of the images were shot with the 100-300mm zoom at about 200mm (it gets fairly soft over 200mm) with shutter speeds as low as 1/60 and not much more than 1/160 to 1/200 (but at 200mm that barely satisfies the camera shake rule). Also I had to intentionally underexpose by about 2/3 stop to get a bit more shutter speed. I then tried correcting the exposures in Photoshop.

 

Coors Field with the Rockies Mountains in the background just after sunset. Shot with 18-55mm at 24mm (isn't digital great, it records the exact focal length used)

 

 

Arizona Pitcher in motion... Shot with 100-300mm at 210mm with very slow shutter speed of 1/30 (before I increased ISO). Obviously lots of camera shake, but I felt the resulting image was still kind of cool looking.

 

 

Taking a cut... This one was taken with the 100mm 2.8 macro at 1/160 and then cropped significantly.

 

Royce Clayton puts on the tag to finish a strikeout/thrown-out double play.... 100-300mm at 270mm, only 1/60.

 

 

The Pitch.... 100-300mm at 240mm, again only 1/60 (and remember thats with intentional underexposure)

 

 

Luis Gonzalez chases one down in low.... 100-300mm at 240mm, 1/125

 

Luis Gonzales leads off while Helton looks into the plate... 100mm f2.8 macro at 1/125 (close to seats, slight cropping)

 

 

Swing and a ground ball.... 100-300mm at 185mm, 1/125

 

 

Todd Helton awaits the Pitch... 100-300mm at 270mm, 1/200 (about a stop underexposed originally)

 

 

Rounding first, the Rockies attempt a late rally... 100-300mm at 110mm, 1/200

 

Swinging for the fences.... 100-300mm at 185mm, 1/160

 

Game Over.... but enjoyed.