Just before the start of my son's game on Saturday I was talking to a parent, who was very happy with my work for the team. I said thanks, but I really did not feel I've been at the top of my game so far this season. I had a few keepers, but I knew I could do better...and with that resolve I set out for the field. Armed with my K-5, 60-250, monopod, and knee pads I got myself to work.

I picked up the standard nice to have shots, but I was hungry for good shooting for the first time in a while. My head was clear, my fingers dialed in and I was shooting the best I could in bright 2PM daylight. Yep 2PM harsh shadow pain in the neck daylight.

Since I was hungry I started looking for the good shoot I looked where I had not looked yet this season. It is a fun season to watch. My son is 10, but playing with kids over 12. The difference in capabilities and skills these kids have is pretty fun to watch. They are now picking up the fun parts of the game. Distracting the pitcher while base running, getting base runners into pickles, and pitching hard right into the strike zone with some consistency. It is even more fun when you have a good set of coaches like ours...they know the great range of the kids in capabilities. They respect that each kid's dream is to play...and they make sure they all play and respect each other. They do not give up on any of the kids. I have not seen my son this happy playing ball in years, and that only made my desire to shoot well bigger than me. I wanted something to give back to those helping my son enjoy the game of baseball.

The final trick of the day was in post processing. Harsh sunlight really makes for ugly photos. However, my camera was consistently under exposing by over 2/3 a stop. So I fixed the exposure (yes I shoot RAW just because of that) and then went for a retro film look. I used the same preset for all the photos for consistency. It really did the trick, and I think the photos came out pretty well.

It was also nice that while I was processing these...my son and I had the National League Championship Series on in the background. What a baseball filled day!

-ehw

PS I told you all my tricks I can share for right now! I'm going into settings on the camera and will have them fixed up shortly. I'm sure it is something that I did when fiddling with presets on camera a few weeks ago!