Access Denied

Bodley

[FONT=Geneva, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]In the past, I've shot numerous youth league baseball tournaments as the league photographer and was allowed on the field and was considered a "Live" or "Dead" ball area (sell to parents league gets a portion). Now I'm being told that the DY rules have changed and photographers would no longer be allowed inside the fence. They want me to get a ladder and shoot over the fence. Without field access, don't think I want to shoot my remaining 3 DY tournaments. Am I wrong? Suggestions? [/FONT]

[FONT=Geneva, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The regular season was no problem - the local league and umpires don't have a problem (they want me on the field since it's a fund raiser). Seems to be coming from the DY hierarchy for the year end DY Tournaments. I'm going to approach the DY officials and see if I can work something else out. Just wondering if anyone else was having this issue. Do other photog's have field access during the game?

Dugouts - not an option. Our dugouts are completely fenced except for the field opening where the coaches stand. So shooting from inside the dugout would not be much better than outside the fence. [/FONT]

xtnomad

I hate to say it but thier field thier rules. Try to work it out and go from there. There might be one parent that is saying you have a unfair advantage or some thing, don't know this but a little politics might get it resolved. Just my two cents. I shot motor sports and rules change from track to track.

Bodley

xtnomad wrote:

I hate to say it but thier field thier rules.

The local officials want me to shoot on the field it's the state level organization. I'm just trying to find out why or what is the reason they restrict field access. Then I can develop a plan to approach these officials to resolve this issue.

xtnomad wrote:

I shot motor sports and rules change from track to track.

Same field as I've shot for several years (including regular season)

xtnomad

I have showed up at a regular track that a local sactioning body is in control most of the time. But when a state wide chapionship in points is at the track the rules have changed, because the sactioning body provides it own officials for the event. Even thought the local track personel are still doing most of the work. And a lot of local racers are pertisapating, but with the state wide sactioning pertisapents also. I have learned this this past spring. my plan of attack is talking to the local officals and have got some names and organzation contacts, and a little before they come around next fall for the next races I plan to contact them. And sell my self as a local photog to them, and letting them know I can provide post promotion about the race and offer prints for sale ect. about thier event. I do not plan to ask why they don't do this or that but will ask what they require for coverage of that evnt. And go from there. This has worked for me at two tracks and now the owners will email me before the events just to ask if I plan to attend the event. And one track that is almost demanding I come back for a second shot. Politics, Politics, Politics.

KCAction

Bodley, I too suffered the same problem with the Spring Baseball tournament here in Tulsa. I shot action for two teams this season and was allowed to shoot from the field side near the first or third base coach's position. When the All City Tournament began I found out that only one photographer was granted on field access. So I was relegated to shooting extreme long range from near the outfield fience, or through the backstop side (rear backstop is reserved for officials). Nothing I could do about this, but it was frustrating as the hired photographer only covered about 10% of the games. He shot the teams I was shooting only once in 7 games. It seems that the photographer was mostly interested in making sure he had no competition at the field and because of this I did not see any other of the local shooters present. The third grade team I shot made the All City Championship for the third straight year and ended up playing two games for the title. He was present for about 3 innings of the first game and then left. I was the only shooter present for the rest of the first game and all of the final game, shooting through the fencing. Even the coaches asked if I could get access to the field as the guy hired was gone for the day already, but no relief.

I am an amateur compared to this guy, he makes a living shooting sports from youth to professional as well as major local events for the AP. He is very good at what he does. My D70s and Sigma 70-300 are very pedestrian comapred to his EOS1 Mk IIn and 300mm f2.0 Canon lens and his ability to produce 16 x 20s on site. I pose very little threat to his business with my hobby-business shooting youth sports. If he has paid to be a tournament photog then I have no gripe, but he did not and then it seems rather lame to make sure that basically no one is going to be able to get any shots of their kids winning the All City Championship.

ian408

Who's your contract with? Maybe a call to the DY folks will straighten
things out?

fire1035

The rules can change even with the field. Back in high school I was in marching band and we played at every home football and basketball game. We played pep band stuff in the stands throughout the regular season. When sectional time came (State tournament) we were not allowed to play at all while the ball was in play. The referees were very strict about htis and were instructed to hand out penalties to the host team if the situation occured. So this is a case of the same field but the rules changing depending on the sanctioning body. What it comes down to is the umpire has rules to follow. Whether you agree with them or not is irrelevant. He has a job to do and rules to follow. His responsibility is the safety of both the players and the spectators. If that is the way the rules are written then so be it.

That being said I hope you can work something out.

KCAction

The usual culprit on limitations is down to insurance and liability. That's understandable in our ridiculously litigious society (in the US). When this occurs no common sense will ever prevail.

winger

Bodley wrote:

[FONT=Geneva, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]In the past, I've shot numerous youth league baseball tournaments as the league photographer and was allowed on the field and was considered a "Live" or "Dead" ball area (sell to parents league gets a portion). Now I'm being told that the DY rules have changed and photographers would no longer be allowed inside the fence. They want me to get a ladder and shoot over the fence. Without field access, don't think I want to shoot my remaining 3 DY tournaments. Am I wrong? Suggestions? [/FONT]

[FONT=Geneva, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The regular season was no problem - the local league and umpires don't have a problem (they want me on the field since it's a fund raiser). Seems to be coming from the DY hierarchy for the year end DY Tournaments. I'm going to approach the DY officials and see if I can work something else out. Just wondering if anyone else was having this issue. Do other photog's have field access during the game?

Dugouts - not an option. Our dugouts are completely fenced except for the field opening where the coaches stand. So shooting from inside the dugout would not be much better than outside the fence. [/FONT]

Welcome to the world of sport photograhpy. Typically the post season play no matter what the level will have more restricted access. NCAA does it to. As the local photograhper for a college you can enjoy unfettered access until your team makes it to the NCAA tournment, then you have to give up your beloved spot to someone from the AP. College football typically doesnt have assigned photo spots, but pro football certainly does, and many college hoops have seating assigned to you on the floor and by rank.

Does it stink, yeah. But embrace it. Just think you have been shooting photos all season long from the same photo positions, and proably have alot of similar shots, here is your opportunity to shoot something different. I would think with a ladder shooting down on the action you would get nice clean backgrounds on your shots. And if nothing else, shots that are different from what you have shot the rest of the season.

But dont think you are getting singled out, its pretty typical that as post season play progresses the access for the media gets more restricted.