Nathaniel Lowe has a good eye at the plate -- and behind the camera

Nathaniel Lowe has a good eye. That's important when you're a baseball player, needing to determine if it's a fastball or slider, ball or strike, in roughly 250 milliseconds -- roughly the time of a sixteenth-note in a 60 BPM song. He's put that to good use: His .371 OBP is second-best on the Rangers -- behind only AL MVP candidate Corey Seager -- and his 37 doubles are best in the American League.

But Lowe doesn't just use those discerning peepers on the field. When the 2022 Silver Slugger Award-winner isn't at the park, you're likely to find him peering at the world through his camera's viewfinder. You see, Lowe has become quite the photographer over the years -- ever since his mother gave him a camera when he was just 20 years old.

"My grandmother had a nice camera when I was a kid," Lowe said at the MLB Studios last week, one morning after knocking in the game-winning run against the Mets. "And then my mom got me a camera. That was my starter kit. It just kind of worked from there. Photography makes you pay attention to where you're at and take it all in and be pretty present. It's a nice reminder: That's what's most important."

With Lowe feeling the good vibes from the night before, the two of us got up to talking about his photography, what he looks for when he's sizing up a shot, and we even broke down a few of my favorite pics he's uploaded to Instagram. Here is our conversation below, edited slightly for length and readability.

MLB: So, the first camera came from your mom. Have you upgraded over the years?

Nathaniel Lowe: Yeah, once or twice. It's a not a great thing, but anybody that takes pictures will tell you that the gear is a dark hole. You fall down the rabbit hole and spend too much money in a hurry. So yeah, my cameras are way smarter than me. They're nicer than any camera I ever need, but they work for me.

MLB: So, 2 a.m., you're in bed and can't take photos, you're out there looking at lenses?

Lowe: Unfortunately! My targeted ads on Instagram are just ruining me. Like, all the lenses are too nice and the cameras are too nice. I find a way to leave the cap on and pull the trigger a couple of times. I guess that's photography.

MLB: Part of your job is travelling and seeing the world. Now you try and distill that in an image. What is it that that you look for in a photo? What is it that you're trying to capture?

Lowe: This year has been a lot out the window of the airplane. I haven't really published anything -- I guess that's a word for it. But yeah, we've had some pretty cool times where we're getting out after a day game and getting around a thunderstorm or travelling on the West Coast while the sun is setting. The flight from anywhere in Southern California up to Seattle while the sun setting is one of my favorite flights. I think we've done that twice now.

MLB: You mentioned that photography helps keep you in the present. Now, baseball is a really stressful job. Is this something that also allows you to relax if away from the field?

Lowe: Yeah, absolutely. If you start looking ahead too far on the baseball field -- you look two or three games out and are trying to do too much, the game piles up in a hurry. Being present, being simple and doing one thing at a time is very important.

MLB: How do your teammates react? Are they into it? Are they asking you to be the wedding photographer for them?

Lowe: I try not to step on anybody's toes and stick it in their faces. But we've got some we got some pretty fun characters in the clubhouse, so I'll probably bust it out. I'd like to make sure that it's waterproof coming down the stretch. We'll see how that goes.

MLB: One thing I noticed in a lot of your photos, you have a really great eye for geometry, lines and patterns. Is that something you're thinking about when setting up a shot? Is it in editing that you really find what you wanted to capture?

Lowe: I think that photos invoke feelings of where you're at and what you're doing at the time. It's a reminder that you want things -- ideally -- to be clean and organized. Inevitably, it goes awry, but's important to have it all lined up how I want it be lined up. I just know if the subject comes out how I want it to come out, then I think it's a good picture.

MLB: That's a good transition. I wanted to discuss a few of your photos specifically. I'd love to know what you were thinking or what caught your eye at the time. So this one was from 15 weeks ago, I think in Chicago.

Lowe: Yes, that's Chicago. So, Chicago's sunset is beautiful, right? Like, the cotton candy sky and the pink and all that stuff. That's not something you get many other places. So yeah, the darker street and then a big building reflecting a sunset in the background -- I really enjoyed how the colors looked and I felt like it turned out pretty nice.

MLB: This one of four fighter jets is one of my favorites. It's so crisp and clean.

Lowe: Spring training is a treat because the Air Force Base is a couple miles south of the stadium. So when these F-35s are flying in there, it hits home because my dad was a military pilot. And then there's something about -- same thing -- the sunset and the rocks and then sometimes the symmetry of when they're up there doing their thing. That'd be a pretty close second to my job, that seems like a lot of fun.

MLB: That's right, your Dad was in the real Top Gun fighter school. So, have to know: Is the movie real?

Lowe: I mean, he memorized the whole thing. He was a Top Gun encyclopedia for a while there when it was all the craze. That was his job and I can't let it go to his head, but it's kind of cool.

MLB: Back to photography again. This one is very different from the other two we've looked at.

Lowe: Yeah, this is in the Pike Place Market down in Seattle. I thought the bustle was pretty cool. This is before I really paid any attention to neon signs. It makes it easy for the autofocus of the camera to just to wrap it all in and get all the light in there. I'd love to set up a tripod and do a real slow exposure, so the people are all blurred. I just haven't committed to it. But yeah, I like walking through there. It's just so different from what I grew up in.

MLB: Now, last one. This one is from the ballpark, but it's certainly not your standard ballpark photo.

Lowe: Oh yeah, the catwalk! I love going up on the catwalk and Globe Life Field is so nice, like, they really just went all out with it. I think we threw a couple baseballs down there to see how long it would take them to fall. We took the cameras up there and saw where the the pyro stuff is for the fireworks. Not everybody really gets that view, so getting up there and getting on the catwalk was a treat.

I love the symmetry of all the seats and how it's all regimented and then, ideally, things go a little haywire in between the foul lines. It's funny how the stadium is symmetrical and organized and then on the field can sometimes be such a mess.

MLB: Do you have a dream of something you'd love to shoot one day?

Lowe: I'd love to shoot baseball. I think shooting baseball would be great, especially after being on the field and feeling the emotions and seeing the game flow and being able to capture the whole picture. Like, sometimes you see those sunset pictures on the prairie in Kansas City or in Denver, like, that's super cool. I'd love to [do something similar with a baseball game.]

MLB: So, you don't necessarily want to do game photography.

Lowe: Shooting game stuff would be great, but at the same time, most of the stadiums are really great and a work of art. Anytime you can take that in and just be appreciative of where you get to go to work, it's super cool.