I’ve waited for this photo for several weeks. The scene has happened a number of times but usually too cluttered in the background or lacking the touch of a hand on the shoulder. As luck would have it, this was the last father-son duo to leave the fields. They stayed for throwing practice past the end of four coach pitch games on four fields.
Although this was my original idea, father and son leaving after a game, it wasn’t what might have happened.
About half the parent-child groups were mothers and sons. From a sociological view, it appears to reflect the number of changes in the dynamics of modern families.
Next on the list is to get that photo, mother and son leaving at the end of a game.
From a technical standpoint this was a difficult photo. The EXIF data shows high ISO with a relatively slow shutter speed dictated by heavy cloud cover a few minutes before sunset.
The best angle on their path was as they just stepped out of the shadows of several small trees that lined the path near the fields. This photo is as they just stepped into the open area near the outfield where I had enough light to shoot at 1/200th. I underexposed by 1/3rd stop move the shutter speed higher. Wasn’t too worried about the shadows going too dark in this situation. They already were dark and I needed a higher shutter speed.
Preferred to have shot it with the D300 and the 70-200 2.8 instead of the D5000 and a kit lens but I was traveling on my bike with the lightweight camera kit so I could quickly and easily switch fields and locations.
Still needs a little work to make it a better photo. There are two paths leading from the fields. This path has the restrooms building in the background that is difficult to keep out of the frame. The other path is clear at the end which would clean up the background.
I’m going back for that photo, with mother and son.
