Wags Loc: Mequon, WI

Youth Baseball has resumed. My grandson drove in the winning RBI with this hit. It's just great to be able to be out and getting photos of my grandkids again. It seems like it's been forever.

Nikon D500 w/Tamron 18-400 lens.

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tshift Loc: Overland Park, KS.

Nice shots Wags. Proud grandpa. I have a freshman grandson that is going out for football this year after being out of sports for two years. Hoping he makes it so I can shoot photos of him. I wasn't shooting when my youngest son played football, last year was 2008. I think we will have football they are having their summer programs right now. We were told they will have to wear mask starting Monday. ?? Don't know how that will work out. Talked to one of the assistant coaches and he said he wasn't really sure if we would actually have high school football this year. And like we talked about, are they going to come to sidelines every play after they touch each other or touch the football and use hand sanitizer.Wow don't know. Have fun shooting your grandson and keep posting photos. Thanks

Tom

raymondh Loc: Walker, MI

Nice to capture the moment!

Wags Loc: Mequon, WI

Thanks, Tom. Yes, today looks so much different. At my grandson’s game, only 2 people from the family are allowed at the game. To achieve social distancing, people are standing outside the outfield fence, which actually works well for photos (except when the umpire keeps getting in my way).

Wags Loc: Mequon, WI

Yes, great to be out there.

pnittoly Loc: Mountainside, New Jersey

Perfect timing ! Nice capture. Paul

Wags Loc: Mequon, WI

Thanks, Paul! Every year I do a calendar, and I include as many pictures of my grandkids as I can (6 grandkids). These are a couple that will definitely make the cut.

Thomas902 Loc: Washington DC

epic capture of this decisive pivotal moment Bill...
Your D500 certainly was putting forth it's best effort...
That said the Tamron 18-400mm f3.5-6.3 Di VC HLD B028N was back focused especially on the first of this series... Look at your grandson's cleats... they are several feet in front of critical plane of focus even at f/6.3

I had a similar issue with my AF-S 200-500mm f5.6E ED VR Nikkor... it just couldn't pull the optics into focus fast enough for action sports... gave it up for an AF 300 f/2.8 which locks focus instantly and increased my hit rate by several orders of magnitude... the Tamron's HLD autofocus motor is struggling here...

Also that Tamron is doing a fireworks thing with magenta/cyan fringing on high contrast edges... Have you considered shooting primes Bill?

Another issue is your shutter speed... That Tamron was cranked out to 330mm (495mm FX equivalent)
Tamron is claiming 2.5 stops of Optical Stabilization... did you have it turned on? Camera shake at 500mm is a HUGE problem... You were shooting at 1/400 while most sports shooters would be above 1/2000 at that focal length (minimum... Word!) The ball and bat are showing motion blur... you would likely need 1/8000 to fix that...

Bill I'm not trying to criticize your efforts here.... Your timing is stellar... your position is good.
It's just your choice of kit has limited the results and your technique (i.e. settings) needs some work...

Best advice? Avoid zoom optics if possible or at least no greater than 2X to 3X... There are compelling reasons working commercial shooters gravitate toward the 70-200mm f/2.8 glass

If you are thinking No Way can I afford to pony up for that kind of glass...
Think again I shoot several AF 80-200mm f/2.8D Nikkors and a Tokina AF 80-200mm f/2.8 AT-X Pro 828 lens (all of these optics cost less than $300 each (the Tokina in Mint Condition was only $260) while the vintage push/pull Nikkors were $290

While I love the first iteration (circa 1988) of the AF 80-200mm f/2.8 Nikkor since it's razor sharp but it has a painfully slow AF speed due to it's screwdriver gearing... stay with the 2.8D variants they lock VERY quickly... btw, you'll likely have to autofine tune all these vintage lenses for you D500.

Timeless Zen Wisdom
"Pretty words are not truthful
Truthful words are not pretty"

Hope this helps Bill, looking forward to more or your stellar efforts..