Baseball Photography & Grassroots Stories: Jean Fruth on Changing the Game

On this episode of the ZoomPod, we hit for the cycle with All-Star Photographer guest, #Sony Ambassador, Baseball Photographer, Grass Roots Baseball Co-Founder, and Baseball Documentary Director, Jean Fruth. 

Fruth talks about her Photography journey, working with Baseball Hall of Famers, starting a nonprofit, and how photography makes her feel!

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Jean's bonafides:
IG: @jeanfruthimages
Web: https://www.jeanfruthimages.com/index

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Transcript

TMac 0:11

Hello and welcome to another edition of the Zoom with our feet podcast, the pod about learning photography. With me, your host, T Mack, a professional photographer, videographer, and teacher. We hit for the cycle on this episode of the Zoom Pod. Sony Ambassador, baseball photographer, grassroots baseball co-founder, and documentary director Jean Fruth joins me to talk about her journey and the art of storytelling. Our guest speaker is in the photo lab. Let's talk to a pro. Gene Fruth, welcome to the Zoom with Our Feet Podcast.

SPEAKER_02 1:01

Thank you. Excited to be here. Finally, we arrived.

TMac 1:05

I'm excited to have you. So I always start at the very, very beginning. So how did your photography journey start?

SPEAKER_02 1:18

Well, my uh my photography journey started where I thought I wanted to work in a dark room, which is, I guess, shows you how smart I am. Um, I uh worked with these two women that were doing all black and white portrait photography, and they were printing on beautiful paper, and it was all on location that we added a studio a bit later, and um I learned printing, like the beginning of dark room work in high school, and I was just fascinated with it. And so I offered to do their printing um in exchange for going on shoots with them and learning more. And at the same time, I was taking classes and trying to figure out what path I wanted to take. And I didn't set out to be a portrait photographer, but it was where the opportunity lent itself to become a professional photographer, and I learned so much from these two women and printed a lot of their work, and then eventually started going on shoots with them and then having my own shoots. And um, it was a great start to the journey because you know, as you know, portrait photography is probably one of the most difficult uh things to do, is taking a portrait, connecting with a person, and um that early start has served me well, like right up until today, you know, even though I knew that wasn't really the path. And I did all kinds of other things too. I worked with food photographers, wedding photographers, landscape photographers. I was trying to figure it out, and then when sports presented itself as an option, I never looked back. Like that feeling that I got shooting like my first game for a local newspaper, I'll never forget it. And I actually was horrible at it, but um, but I loved it. I was shooting baseball, and that I understood and knew how. And I thought I could shoot football, and uh that definitely took me a little longer to learn and figure out, but um absolutely loved sports photography from the very beginning.

TMac 3:20

So, and this always this always dates people. Very first camera, how did you get it, and what did you shoot with it?

SPEAKER_02 3:29

Uh well, um I worked uh very first camera. I didn't really have aspirations for being a professional photographer, but my dad um would get cameras in all kinds of ways that didn't involve really much of his money, whether it was finding or um getting hand-me-downs or all kinds of ways that he got cameras. Um, and uh I was interested, he was doing underwater photography and he built his own housing. So I got a chance to play around a little bit with that. So I don't have like a memory of a first camera in my hand and could tell you a brand. Um, but um, but the early cameras was more of a fascination and a hobby and an interest, you know, than uh it being a profession.

TMac 4:19

And then the follow-up is how did you uh I I feel like most photographers are self-taught. How did you how did you learn the exposure triangle, the basics, aperture, shutter speed, ISO?

SPEAKER_02 4:35

Yeah, I was a combination of self-taught, um, but also a lot of classes too. Like the technical part of photography has, you know, is never like was, I wasn't a naturally technical person. And so in my early days of being mentored, I wasn't around the most technical people either. Like uh probably one of the most influential photographers in my career was Michael Zagueris. And anytime I had a question about camera settings, he'd say, go ask somebody else about that. That's yeah, it's not my you know, and that was kind of it, you know, from him. So um, but everybody along the way, uh, you know, I had a lot of helpful people like in my life, even when I was on a big stage early on and still needed help with those kind of things. I had, you know, good photographers or very giving photographers around me that helped me figure it all out.

TMac 5:33

Do you have a favorite camera lens combination? What is it and why?

SPEAKER_02 5:44

Yeah, I'd say uh it's actually pretty easy. It's um the Sony A1 and the 70 to 200. And that combination for me um is just the workhorse. And it's because the 70 to 200 with that focal range, I mean, it's just gives you so many options, right? So it's a 70 to 200, 2.8, of course, because I'm a 2-8 junkie. Um, and the A1, you know, what that that does is it also allows you to go beyond your range with the 70 to 200 because the files are so big that you can crop in significantly and still have a file big enough for really all your uses. And that's uh that's a big deal for me, especially if I have to have one camera, one lens on a chute for some reason. It's that lens. And I can take portraits with it. I could go wide and show a sense of place, or I can go tight on the action, all with one camera, one lens.

TMac 6:41

So yeah, that's so started in portrait, learned not I I'm sure not only portrait work, but also the photography business, right? You learned they were running a business, correct?

SPEAKER_02 6:55

Yeah, you know, that's true. I I don't even think about that. And but that was a lot of what I learned. I mean, just even, you know, scheduling the shoots and pricing, and we were also doing framing and you know, just paper choices and inventory. There was a lot that went into that. We even worked with some like high-end boutique-y schools and did things with that. And yeah, so there was a yeah, I don't even think about it that way, but you're absolutely right. So you're like you're learning the business of photography as well. And and that all served me well. And um, and the woman who her name was Jean as well. And yeah, Jean, um, she she she was a good businesswoman, you know, she she she did well and and she was beloved by so many. So she had a big clientele that she built up over many years.

TMac 7:45

How did the baseball work? So then you kind of find sports or it finds you. Um, how did that come about?

SPEAKER_02 7:56

I was coaching my son in rookie ball, and not because I wanted to be a coach. There was just nobody who I don't know, they lost their coach, or basically me and this other mom just said, okay, we'll do it. And rookie ball is before a little league, you know, it's like T-ball kind of wrapped up with it's the goal is to do no harm and to make sure everybody gets a snack. So um I started doing that, it was a lot of fun, and then Little League called me and they asked if I'd be interested in coaching Little League. And I said, Oh, my son still would still be too young next year to go to Little League, and you don't want me as a coach. Um, but they did because they didn't have women or they wanted more women coaches, so they asked if they could train me, they put me with great coaches, and um so I said yes, and I thought, okay, I'll give it a try. I moved my son into little league, and they took him young. Um, and they put me with great coaches, and it was a great experience. And um, I found a place in Little League. It wasn't because of my incredible coaching, but the organization skills and other things and the recruiter of coaches. Once little league gets you, they don't let you go. So I was in there for seven years coaching my son, but I was also just taking photographs and I submitted um photographs to a local newspaper, not of my son's team, but of one of the older little league teams for All-Stars. And they said, Oh, you're obviously a professional photographer. We we need somebody to shoot sports, high school and youth and college. And I was like, Well, sure, I'll do that. And I went to my first Friday night lights game that Friday and started shooting high school football, and um, I was terrible at it. Uh, my first game, I had the wrong gear, and it was really dark, and you understand this, you know. And at the time, um, I didn't have all the nice gear that I have now, and um, low light was an issue. Um, but I learned quickly and reached out to a friend who, after he stopped laughing, said, I've got someone to connect you with. And he connected me with Michael Zagueras, who was the 40 is the 49ers photographer and the Oakland A's photographer. And so I started working with him. So I learned how to shoot high school football on the 49ers field. So it's pretty fortunate for me.

TMac 10:21

Yeah, much better lighting.

SPEAKER_02 10:23

Yeah, yeah, there was a little bit better lighting. But uh now, I mean, gosh, the cameras now and what what they can do, the dark the dark end zone is not a problem, right? It's just such a pleasure.

TMac 10:35

How would you define your style or or your aesthetic? What's a what's a what's a gene photo that everybody goes, that's that's Ruth.

SPEAKER_02 10:54

I'd like to say it's telling stories that you look at a photo and it's more than just action, and um you look at it and it has a story to tell without a caption. Like you can look at it and say, Oh, okay, this is here, you know, that sense of place. And um, I tend to shoot a little wider and want to, you know, tell that story. So um I like to think, or that's what I aspire to be, or is is you know, my photographs telling a story.

TMac 11:25

It's it's what I saw if from you know, a million miles away. I felt like or feel like that that that's part of teaching is the storytelling part. You can get lost in the weeds of technology, but what story are you trying to tell in the image?

SPEAKER_02 11:48

Yeah, that's it is for me too. And you know, I think great photos, right, don't need captions. It tells the story. Man, look at what came out of the Olympics. Some of my friends who were shooting there, and it was so fun to follow along on social media and see what they were shooting, and you see Steph Curry going up with his USA jersey on, and you see the Serbia player laying on the ground, despondent, and him cheering, and it's like that photo. I wish I took that photo. That's a story terrific. Yeah.

TMac 12:21

So, so how did you go from do no harm to um shooting regularly and professionally? Where was that break? Is that a big break that, or was it a series of small breaks?

SPEAKER_02 12:40

Oh, as soon as I started shooting for local papers, I was shooting all the time. I just take took every single assignment. And it's interesting because I was just talking to somebody about this, and uh, it's like the same as the athletes, the guy who sits on the bench all the time and only has to come in. That's really hard to do, right? Like you have to be ready and you don't get any playing time, and then you're expected to perform and like you know, get out there and and get on base, and it's the players that play every day that get swings all the time, right? That that that you know, they're honing their skills, they're getting better, they're ready. I think it's so much the same for photographers is that you're out there shooting, shooting, shooting, and whatever it is, like kids that are trying to make it out, like get out there and keep shooting. There's nothing like shooting every day to hone your skills. So, and I wasn't even thinking about it at the time, I just wanted to do it because I loved it so much. So I was shooting everything in every sport, sports that I didn't know a lot about, and sports that I did know a lot about. And of course, there's a big difference when you're shooting a sport that you know about versus one that you have no idea what you're looking at. And I did both, and those were good lessons. I had to walk into high school wrestling and I didn't have a clue. I mean, I was sending photos to the editor, and it was, I think this is a good picture. And it was that that was the hardest one for me was wrestling because I was so afraid of the city.

TMac 14:04

They throw the towel in, literally.

SPEAKER_02 14:06

It was, and then you know, you're researching like what should it be? If I was gonna take a good picture, what would it look like? You don't even know what it's supposed to be. Never mind trying to make it. So those are those are good lessons, you know, to know is that the more you know the sport, the more you shoot it, the better you're gonna be, the more consistent you're gonna get the shots, right?

TMac 14:27

All that time in really badly lit gyms teaches you how to how to make pictures, how to tell stories.

SPEAKER_02 14:36

It's true. My only move was I'd sit next to the coach on that mat that woo that mat smelled, but I went, I knew to go down low and make my picture. So I was down on that mat, and the kids would look up at the coach for guidance. So I was like, well, the the local newspapers they like to have faces, right? Faces are important, so at least I'd get a face if I wasn't getting much of anything else.

TMac 14:59

So once you started working as a photographer, you were often offing running.

SPEAKER_01 15:06

Yeah, it's all I wanted to do. That's all I still want to do, yeah.

TMac 15:11

But at some point you've you've you've done the big events, you've done uh the teams. Um I can speak as an Ohio and some of your Cleveland Indian stuff is because that's my era, actually, when I was still working in television, we may have done games together. We probably did. Because I being a local regional guy did all of the playoffs in World Series in those three runs that that they had. So if you were there for that, I was in one of those camera pits at some point.

SPEAKER_02 15:51

Oh, right, had to be. And then when yeah, Cleveland was playing Toronto, I was going back and forth and doing that drive, but it's not that far, that drive from from Cleveland to Toronto, those playoffs were just terrific. And of course, the 2016 World Series was insane. Probably one of my favorite moments in baseball shooting that World Series. Yeah. I know it didn't go your way. It should have. They were both great stories, though, right? They were both great stories. If it didn't rain, if it didn't rain, you would have won.

TMac 16:27

You can't take the Cleveland, you can take the boy out of Cleveland. So when did when did you say, I want to do more though? When did a a a non-profit idea project how did it come about? When and and how did you say to yourself, probably first, uh I this this is what I want to do?

SPEAKER_02 16:55

When I was um working with the baseball hall of fame in Cooperstown, I was there traveling photographer, um, and I had a chance to meet a lot of Hall of Famers. So that, you know, lucky for me, right, to take portraits of them. And um, and then the projects became a little more far-reaching, and um shooting Dave Winfield all his you know, silver slugger awards and you know, and and fun projects like that. Um and then so getting to know them and getting to know their stories and and such interesting stories, and then the idea of um all these immature, amateur images, excuse me, um, that I've been taking because I love the grassroots game. So that never went out of style for me is like shooting, whether I'm in Japan shooting the world baseball classic or um shooting the Oakland A's. I love shooting Little League, I love shooting high school baseball. So I continued shooting, but it was really for personal, my own personal project and my own personal images. And I thought it'd be really cool to pair those images with these stories, with these Hall of Famers and where they grew up. I mean, I was shooting all over the world. Um, so that was the idea for Grassroots Baseball where Legends Begin, my first book. And uh the Hall of Famers were great. You know, they all said yes, that they would tell their story. So they, you know, these great essays, which made the book so special. Ricky Henderson talking about what it was like growing up in Oakland playing football and baseball, and his mother wanting him to play baseball, Hank Aaron and Mobile, Alabama starting in the Negro leagues and early days of um then going into Major League Baseball. I mean, just terrific stories. Um, and Ichiro Suzuki and you know what it was like playing in Japan in the early days. So um after that book came out, it was just I was at a point in my life, at a point in my career that giving back was something that I wanted to do and wanted to start teaching like you're doing, and giving back to the craft I love and giving back to the sport I love. And I really was at that point. So I was shooting other sports still, and I still do, but I love you know, baseball is there's so much cultural, you know, just connecting generations that you know, you just don't get that deep in other sports like you do in baseball. Or I know I'm biased, but um so then the idea for the not profit came after that book, and I reached out to Jeff Idlelson, who had just announced that he was retiring from the Baseball Hall of Fame as its president, and he was there for 26 years and said, What do you think of partnering with me? And he was in the same boat of like he wasn't sure what direction he was going and giving back to the sport that he loves because nobody loves baseball more than Jeff, um, was just a natural for him. So uh we said, Okay, let's get this started, and we decided along Route 66 would be a great place to start the not-for-profit, right? It doesn't get more Americana than baseball or Route 66, and we did clinics for kids and partnered with Boys and Girls Club, and it was just a great beginning to the not-for-profit, and um and just felt great. And it was uh three years along Route 66, and um now our new venture, as you know, is women in baseball, and and you know, giving them visibility, it's more about that. Where the first project was more of introducing the game and underprivileged communities, you know, and what that does for kids, you know, who play sports and better choices and better outcomes. This one is uh is about uh gender equality and about giving women a platform and giving them more visibility. I mean, so many people don't even know that women play baseball.

TMac 20:52

And in that, I don't want to say transition, but in that evolution in your career, you you started getting more involved in uh the video side of things. Yeah, now how did how did you how does a because I started in photography, found TV in college, graduated, worked never really put photography away, but I pursued television and then got tired of traveling, went to got a job teaching, and then kind of reintroduced myself back to still photography, which I'm doing now mostly. Um how does a how does a baseball photographer become the director of a of a baseball documentary?

SPEAKER_02 21:44

Well, first you have to lose all your marbles, I think, to get started. Uh it I mean it was a big undertaking. What I mean, how it came about was um the project, as we delved into it, it's such a big subject women in baseball, and you can go. In so many different directions, and it was like this project really needs video to tell the story, and it was just different, right? Than a book, um, which we are doing, but it needed to be video, and it needed to, it was a it was a bigger story to tell, and I'm really glad that we pursued it in that direction. And I started practicing because, of course, these are new things for me, so it was okay, I want to do all the interviews, a woman in baseball interviewing women in baseball. So that was new, and doing those interviews. So I was interviewing women from the AAG PBL, the All American Girls Professional Baseball League that are in their 90s now. That's some of these ladies left that played during World War II, interviewing executives, people off the field, on the field, and just learning how to do that, and then what that looks like as far as how to shoot it, you know, and how to light it, and what's the backgrounds and what's the look, you know. We didn't really have a look we were going for, but so it took a while to figure all of that out. And it's interesting as we cut the film now, there's still some of that early, I'd say, you know, tests that we were doing or practice that will make it into the film when I look at it and go, ooh, there's such a difference, but it's good. It makes me smile because I know how it progressed, you know, and what I learned along the way. And like, that's really what it's about. You know, I got into this project not because I was the expert, but because I was learning and now learning so much about women in baseball and learning how to do a project like this. And um, it's been very rewarding.

TMac 23:41

I always tell people that photography is good for the soul. How does photography make you feel?

SPEAKER_02 23:50

Oh, it it definitely just makes me, I don't want to sound so cliche, but it makes me feel alive, you know. I want to go out. There's something about we just did the last shoot for the documentary, and uh my cinematographer Martin, who who I know he's feeling this too, because I've been talking to him on the phone. I know we're all exhausted, first of all, because we've been on the road and shooting, shooting, shooting. But there's also something now we're editing, and that's amazing putting this together. But shooting and being out there, there's just nothing like that, especially shooting sports, because you can set up in shooting a documentary. You're not setting up the scene, you're not telling them, okay, do that again, slide into home, jump up, leap, do this. You have to let it all unfold. You have a plan, and then it presents, and then you have to be ready. It's that is exhilarating. That is, you know, just sports is is uh, you know, it's photojournalism. Yeah, storytelling moves very fast.

unknown 24:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:56

So uh and yeah, and so that feeling, that alive feeling, and what's gonna happen next, and the anticipation of that being ready, and the the downs when you miss it, and the ups when you get it and you nail it, you're right. All of that, I'll take all of it, the ups and the downs, you know. It's uh yeah.

TMac 25:16

I'm I'm sure um at this point you've been asked many times, but I'm gonna frame it from a teacher perspective. What you can do three things, you can you can do as many as you want, um, but what do you tell aspiring storytellers? Uh skills they need to know, experiences they need to have, um as they begin their journey.

SPEAKER_02 25:50

This project uh it made it me see very clearly like what I would do if I was 20, just starting out. Um and what I see, um uh I have an assistant editor who's just killer. Their name is M. And M's very young in their career. Um, and I say, Oh, you have Martin, our our um cinematographer, he is what I would say students should aspire to be because he can do it all. Like to me, that's what it takes now. Like you look at these positions like in every um sporting event, every every high level, whether it's the NFL, the NBA, the MLB, all of those, that they have these positions that you're not just taking still photos anymore. You're not taking, you're doing everything. You're taking video, you're taking stills, you have to upload it right away. It's gotta go to wherever it's gotta go seconds after it happens. The time matters, right? As soon as it happens, whoever gets it out first wins the race. It's just part of the game. Not that we maybe necessarily like that, but that's the world. And so, and being able to do it all and being able to edit your own work, like doing like learn it all. Like we lived now to be what, a hundred years old, right? If everything goes right, you have plenty of time. I'd say, and he the way Martin does it, he's not just a jack of all trades where he's just getting by, he's really good at it. He's good at the technical side, and he if he can be a one-man band, if he wants to go out and make a documentary on his own, he can do it and cut it. That's cool as heck to me. Like that's what I would give the advice of go do all that. Why not?

TMac 27:44

Related. Last question. What how do you think that social media, because you were you were just touching on those deadlines. Uh how has that changed photography, filmmaking, storytelling?

SPEAKER_02 28:06

Yeah, I mean I think the older generations get pretty down on social media, and you can play both sides, of course. There's ups and downs, there's good and bad to social media, right? And we know a lot of the bad, and but I also think there's a lot of good to social media, and I love seeing everybody's work. I think that's one great thing. I mean, the I the amount of ideas I get just from scrolling on my phone, like, oh, and and I follow the photographers that I admire and I see their work. Like I just looked at all this Olympics work and I say, oh, how can I do that in my way? That's a cool photo that could work in what I do. And I just think that it's so accessible now, and being able to see all of that is terrific. People say, Oh, well, everybody thinks they're a photographer. Well, maybe, you know, but why not like uh learn from so many? You don't have to follow all of them, follow the ones you know that that that speak to you. Um, so just being able to see all that work out there and and have all of this available to us is great. And then all the learning tools on social media, you know, whether it's YouTube and I mean students can besides you know learning in your classroom, like if they're if they have the motivation, they can get online and they can find almost anything. Like you go to BH and they teach you all this stuff for free, YouTube for free. Sony, they have all you gotta do is sign up for the you don't have to be a Sony user, and you can have all these classes. There's so much out there, it's pretty incredible.

TMac 29:49

It's it's gone by so quickly, Gene. I can't thank you enough for being a part of the project. I could, I swear I could hold you captive for another hour and a half, but I really appreciate your time. Um, I look forward to all your other endeavors. Can't wait to see them.

SPEAKER_02 30:11

Oh, so kind of you. Thank you. I gotta get back to Canton, Ohio. I haven't been there for a long time.

TMac 30:23

Many thanks to the extremely talented Jean Fruth. You could check out her work at grassrootsbaseball.org and on all of her social media channels. The Zoom with our feet podcast is a production of TV Commando Media. Zoom pod theme is by Novembers in their funky groove Cloud 10. Until next time, photographers, if you're not shooting, you're not learning.