One of the things about being the Dad with a camera in Little League is you have to learn to be an observer...and nothing more.

See if you capture the critical play and know the umpire got it wrong..you'd better stay quiet. It is the umpire's field, he called it the way he saw it, and he's the authority not you. To kick, shout or throw a tantrum is to dishonor your team and status as a photographer. It will also get you asked to leave and not come back! Anyway the umpires called a good game, excellent strike zone and kept it all moving. Besides if you focus on your craft, you capture a moment and show how to be a good relaxed Dad.

My son did well. Pulled in a fly out in right, grounded into an infielders choice, and caught for an inning. He got settled down and did well behind the plate. He had a great play guarding the plate...but I will refer back to the lesson in silence and not tell you the call! See whether he got credit for the out or not it did not matter for the purposes of me getting to stay on the field! He hauled the ball in, got a tag on the runner, and improved during his second tour behind the plate this season. I got to see all this without a fence in front of me, and with a 60-250mm (90-375mm with a 1.5 crop factor) telephoto lens! HEHE!

So that takes me to today...first game I was able to shoot all season from start to finish. I vowed today to make sure I did as little as I could in post production. So I shot RAW + JPEG, set the camera to vibrant, worked the exposure settings between shots to get the best one, played with highlight and shadow controls in camera...and worked it as well as I could. Big thing in post is cropping, and then some extra highlight controls (it was very bright!). By working hard, and getting the JPEGs right I got the work done quickly today. If something needed extra work it would only take a few seconds to switch to the RAW and try to recover a few more highlights of shadows to enhance the shot. Today I did not have to do that at all.

So in a few minutes I'll share the photos with both teams (the other team's coach was my son's coach last fall)...and head off to bed...job all done!

Now all I need to to get paid for this sometime!

-ehw

P.S. Mr Pentax K-5 with 60-250F4 all day long