• With a new full-time photographer on staff, the Braves media team looks to find more creative opportunities during the season.
• The Braves will feature new uniforms that need to be photographed during the year.
• The team will focus on keeping photos fresh, something that can be challenging during a 162-game season.

ATLANTA. — The Atlanta Braves began their 2023 season on April 30th, marking the start of a season that will feature many innovations from the team’s photographers to keep their content fresh.

One of the toughest parts about being part of a professional baseball team’s media department is making sure the content produced does not get repetitive. Kevin D. Liles knows this firsthand. As the team photographer since 2018, his main goal during each season is to ensure the images he and his team take are original.

“For goals this year, as always, it’s to capture the storylines of the season as best as possible,” Liles said. “Also, to try and stay creative through the entire season, which is a challenge!”

New staff

Matthew Grimes was officially hired on as an assistant team photographer coming into the 2023 season. He freelanced with the team during the past two seasons and will be looking to assist Kevin during every game this year.

“I really am excited to be around the team more shooting every game,” Grimes said. “There is no place to photograph like Trusit Park and I’m really excited for sold-out games and those summer sunsets that set the scene for the games.”

Grimes said he hopes to do more behind-the-scenes this season, as it can help him find new ideas with those who comment on his posts. He says he still has much to learn as a photographer and is looking forward to learning under Kevin Liles’ direction this season. He also hopes to continue to bring new ideas to the ballpark.

“Shooting so much baseball can be creatively exhausting, so it is always a challenge to keep fresh ideas going and keep that creative vision flowing,” Grimes said.

New goals

The biggest goal is always to produce fresh images, but there are some other goals the team says they hope to achieve. For starters, Kevin is excited to try new things since he knows Matthew can help him ensure nothing goes wrong

“With having Matthew at every game, it frees me up to try creative things,” Liles said. “Things like shooting the entire game with a 50mm or a wide-angle lens, or focusing on a central theme.”

Liles also hopes that he and Matthew can improve when it comes to organizing their archives. There were some struggles with that last year, which caused issues with finding images when they were needed.

“I want us to be better with keyword consistency, so things are easier to find in the archive,” Liles said.

New uniforms

With any new season in professional baseball, there are new players on every team. Beyond that, however, the Atlanta Braves introduced their “City Connect” uniforms on March 27th. These will be worn during every home game that falls on a Saturday during the 2023 season.

Evan Pharr has been a season ticket holder for three years and has been a fan of the Braves for as long as he can remember. He follows the team intently on their various social media accounts and says he is excited about the photos that will come during the season.

“I would love to see photos of the players wearing the new uniforms,” Pharr said. “Like pictures of Michael Harris II, Spencer Strider and Sean Murphy in the ‘City Connect’ jerseys.”

Pharr will get his wish soon, as the Braves are set to debut the uniforms Saturday, April 8th when they play the San Diego Padres.