A Subway Series on film

An American pastime captured the way it would have been decades ago

Earlier this month, I wrapped up my second year of law school.

For those who may not know, your grades in law school are almost entirely the result of one final examination at the end of the semester. As you can imagine, it’s rather stressful and takes a lot of work to prepare.

Give this, I essentially put away my camera back in April as I knew I could not afford to be distracted by photography or other hobbies. But — the good news is — I’m now done with finals and have a bit of a break before I begin working at a firm this summer.

So, with a chance to breathe, I figured what a better way to spend a day off than at a ball game?

It just so happened that there was a Subway Series going on between the New York Yankees and New York Mets, so I caught a train to the Bronx with my camera in tow.

Here are some of my favorite shots from Yankee Stadium:

Arrival:

Arriving at Yankees Stadium & the Star-Spangled Banner

Gettting to Yankee Stadium from Manhattan is quite easy. For me, it was a train to the Bronx, then one stop on the 4 train to the above-ground stop outside the stadium.

It was a beautiful sunny day. I grabbed a hot dog, a beer, and some peanuts before taking my seat in the left-field bleachers.

Game underway!

Yankees’ Aaron Judge at bat

I brought along my Konica IIIA and a few different roles of film.

The black-and-white photos were shot on Kentmere Pan 400, which I hand-rolled from a bulk roll. If you’d like to see more about rolling your own film to save money, read more about that here!

I’m really happy with how the B&W photos turned out, especially for a cheap film stock like Pan 400.

I chose to push the film +1 to 800 speed, which gave the shots a bit more punch. Additionally, even though Pan 400 is not the finest film, pushing it did not noticably increase the grain to my eyes.

Not bad for a roughly ~$4 roll of film!

Two home runs and a play at the plate

In addition to my Pan 400, I brought along some color film.

I don’t normally spring for the professional grade stuff, but $15 for a roll of Porta 400 felt worth it this time. I shot through the roll over the course of game and was very happy with the contrast range of the Porta and its color tones.

Yankees’ Aaron Judge at bat. I think this is my favorite shot from the series. There’s a very old-timey feel to this one, and I love that you can see the ball approaching the plate.

A 3rd-inning home run by Yankees’ DJ LeMahieu kicked off the scoring (you can see LeMahieu on his way to second base)

Mets’ Fransisco Lindor at the plate

Yankees’ Cody Bellinger hit a home run on this pitch in the 6th-inning to deep right-center to tie the game.

Mets’ outfielder Brandon Nimmo watches as Yankees’ Aaron Judge swings

Mets’ Brett Baty called out at home after a perfect cut-off throw from Yankees’ Anthony Volpe

A few extras worth including

A sell-out crowd watches the 1-run game closely in the bottom of the 9th.

In the end, the Mets won the game 3-2 after shortstop Francisco Lindor made a sacrific fly in the 9th inning to bring in the go-ahead run.

Hope you enjoyed the photos as much as I enjoyed making them! Thanks for reading.