We are headed to Cooperstown New York next month and I am looking for tips or tricks from shooters who have been there. Is there any equipment that is a "must have" to shoot the games from outside the fences? I have a 1d with a 300 and a 1.4 extender, along with a 70-200, etc. I was told the fences are short enough past the dugouts that I will be able to shoot there?
This is a one time trip/tournament. Any help or thoughts would be appreciated.
Keep in mind there are two different complexes in Cooperstown that host youth baseball tournaments every week during the summer. Which one are you going to? I have shot at Cooperstown All-Star Village, but not at Dreams Park. They are very different. Shoot me a PM, and I'd be happy to chat with you this weekend about what to take and where to shoot. It will be a great trip. We still have a coffee table book that I made for our son that he absolutely loves....and I have to say, watching your son hit home runs in the birth of baseball is something no dad will ever forget.
Cooperstown is a wonderful village and has some great photography opportunities outside of the baseball at dreams park. It is the headwaters for the Susquehanna River and has several historic sites to capture as well. I recommend a trip to the Farmers Museum, Fenimore House. I would suggest a great morning hike from Chicken Farm to Star Field (it is easiest to use 2 cars and park one at each end.) Ask a local how to get to Chicken Farm.
the "pro" photographers at Dreams Park were TOOLS. I was a coach of our kids team and we have always used video to watch swings and mechanics and stuff and they were absolutely impossible about it. they were so obnoxious i brought my DSLR into the dugout and shot entire games while they weren't there or from under bat bags, and gave them to the other team just cause they were so obnoxious about it. not just " you are not allowed to do personal photography in the dugouts" but "we'll get you kicked out of the park and arrested and have your family removed" types. very obnoxious.
anyway, the fences in parents area are very short at Dreams Park. You will be in Left or Right field, starting about twenty feet past the dugouts.
I shot the games with an old canon 20D and a MkI 70-200 f2.8 which was not real sharp, but did a good job. here's one of the galleries from one of the games, you can poke through it and get a feel for the park and what you can and can't see. Somewhere in these cooperstown galleries, there are shots of the fences, parents areas etc.
you can shoot from the dugouts at night although you technically aren't allowed to. No staff photographer ever came to a night game. They tend to sort of wander in and out. Usually they would come before the games, they would shoot a bunch of "action" shots during warmups, shoot an inning, maybe two, and leave. all the shots they got of my boys were warm up shots, not game shots. I was unwilling to miss the real shots we wanted cause they weren't there so I'd shoot from the parents box when they were there, then move to the dugout when they'd leave and shoot the rest of the game.
if you aren't in the dugout, you can get decent shots from the parents gallery, but you'll be at the side the whole time. I had a 2x extender for my 70-200 but the speed was too slow. I'd have killed for my 400 I have now, or a 1.4 extender with faster AF. 200 will do fine if you are shooting enough MP to crop. My old 20D with 8MP wasn't great at cropping across the field, but it was OK.
pardon the crappy photography. I'd owned the camera about a week, was just learning, and was hiding the camera under bat backs and stuff and shooting no look half the time to hide from the stupid official photogs.
I wound up shooting outside the actual field a lot, and shooting through the cracks in the walls, the "official" guys wouldn't see you out there and with good positioning, you can isolate and see the whole field.
