It’s Opening Day Weekend and I’m excited for the return of baseball. To commemorate, here is an ongoing portrait series that I started during the 2017 season:
During my internship at the Miami Herald, I photographed several Miami Marlins games. It was a lot of fun but also very repetitive, so I was constantly thinking of frames I could make throughout the season so that by the end, I could put together some sort of photo essay.
Earlier that year, I had worked on a story with Syracuse Chiefs (now the Syracuse Mets) Outfielder Rafael Bautista - The Major League Dream - where I had taken a portrait that I really liked. I thought about emulating it with visiting players - because access to Marlins players after practice was nearly impossible - and creating a series of portraits of players before the games.
Players were usually open to the idea once I explained it would take just a minute. It was fun, stress-free, and an awesome experience because I got to interact with some of my favorite favorite players.
I was able to take about one portrait per game and finished the season with seven portraits. I’m looking forward to continuing this project every time I photograph a game!
