Sports photographers strive to catch that moment when the bat strikes the ball. It’s the peak action so important to creating a story.
The batter’s arms are extended, their eyes focused on the ball. The ball is compressed against the bat as its direction is reversed by a stronger force. The short backlight separates the batter and ball from the background. It’s all in stop motion, perfectly framed and focused.
Except where the bat meets the ball. Or just before.
The bat is traveling about 70 mph depending upon the batter and her batting prowess. The ball may be traveling close to 100 mph, if it’s the majors. Settle for about half that at high school softball level.
No matter, 1/800th of a second shutter speed should be good enough, right? Not so as you can see in today’s photo.
Even at 1/1000th shutter speed the ball would be blurred. blurring of the bat, in this case, was because she was bunting. The bat is barely moving.
The ball is spinning, hopefully, for the pitcher. It’s velocity is about 88 feet per second. It’s moving laterally to the camera. I’m not a physics major but I play one in the photographer’s box.
The ball’s speed and trajectory is nearly impossible to stop without a very high speed shutter, more than 1/1000th of a second.
What’s important is that the blurred doesn’t distract from telling the story. The batter’s eyes are on it, intent to make a perfect blow. The blurring of the ball may contribute to showing the complexity of a batter’s performance.
Would a sharply focused and unblurred ball made a better photo?
