I actually don't do much sports photography usually but it's fun to see my skills transfer to any type of photography task so I hope you enjoy seeing me try my hand at Baseball all week long.

I've added numbers to the pictures if you want to tell me which are your favorites... I'll for sure upvote those types of comments.

MANNY MACHADO

It may have been that it was a Saturday but the people making the trip over from San Diego to Arizona this weekend was much much higher and the number of press grew exponentially compared to the last game.

The buzz was because $300 million dollar man Manny Machado played his first couple innings of exhibition / spring training baseball.

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3 I got to the Peoria Sports Complex early to watch and take a few pictures of practice

4 After last visit I was a little bit more confident that the 105mm f1.4 would do just fine shooting through the chain link fence

5 But also there were plenty more opportunities to get other types of shots like this

6 And of course at the stadium as well

7 He signed for fans after practice at the practice fields and then I see he signed again before the game started.

FAN SHOTS

8 Grabbed a couple shots during the two games I went to over the weekend including this epic GWYNN shot... which is a beautiful thing because Tony was a beautiful soul and I love the tribute.

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10 One of my favorite moments of all weekend was watching them practice at the fence fly balls with the crowd of kids mostly hoping the at the fence drills would turn into an over the fence souvenir grab.

AJ PRELLER

A name almost as well known to Padres fans as the players themselves is the guy in charge of wheelin' and deelin' ... AJ Preller. He was around quite a bit on saturday watching the simulation game they put together on the practice field and then at the stadium as well.

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13 He hung out behind home. Would be interesting what goes through his head while watching the players. Actually I wonder how much he watches versus talks with scouts and employees around him.

TREVOR HOFFMAN

The new hall of fame member took a pretty solid break to sign photographs for what seems like a hundred or more fans... seems like it was Trevor, Manny and Tatis as the big autograph gets.

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MORE SIGNINGS

I love photographing the interactions between players and fans... and one of the most obvious experiences is during the time they sign stuff.

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CANDIDS AT THE PRACTICE FIELDS

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ANDY GREEN

I think I said this before in another post but I really appreciate the manager Andy Green... and i'm no baseball expert so I couldn't tell you if he's really good at his job or not... I'm just saying he seems like a solid human. He's been friendly and kind and personable every time I've seen him. And in my book that means even more... So i took a few pictures.

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THE GAMES

I went to a night game at the dodgers park and then did the morning/mid day in peoria on saturday

28 I believe above is Ty France hitting a homerun on friday night... you can see the blur of the ball as it starts it's journey out of the field.

29 All the players watching the game is fun to watch

30 And of course the bullpen shots are always a pleasure to photograph for those unique angles

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32 Even grabbed the catcher this time.

33 They're sitting there watching the game as well.

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36 Day games vs night games are a totally different experience for photography... maybe when I go visit San Diego this year for some actual games I should try to find a week where i can hit up a day game. Certainly is a lot easier to photograph...Though the night stuff does have a certain appeal as well.

37 The candid portraits like this are still just as great... p.s. this kid is FAST and photogenic... always smiling... looking forward to seeing if and when he makes the big leagues. I think with his speed he's almost a lock to make it some day. Remains to be seen just how big a role he'll play on a ball club beyond runner.

38 Postgame coach conversation.

39 Machado only had two plate appearances in his first game as a SD Padre a popup and a walk... but we'll take it. At least I was able to grab a nice swing

ENJOY THE SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHY?

I'm not sure how many more games I'll go to while i'm down here... but I did enjoy going to probably more padres game this last week than I have in the last decade. I certainly wouldn't mind going to more. Maybe the organization would like having my colorful personality filled style present at some games... who knows. It would be nice to see the pictures used and seen more instead of just hitting the blog and fading away after time. I love when the pictures serve a bigger purpose and are seen by more people.