Summer for a lot of parents mean a lot of time spent at the ballpark practicing and on the weekend All-Star tournaments.  Payton, one of my granddaughters fits into that category.  But this isn’t about her story.  As they used to say these are “Kodak Moments”.  If you spend all that time you need good memories.  And not just the team or posed photo.  So I’m going to share a couple tips to improve your chance to get good photos.

This is not the big leagues.  Every where you look there are fences you have to shoot through.  Most of the photos above were taken through fences.  If you have a dslr first put your shutter speed on a high setting, 1/320 or higher.  The longer your lens the faster your shutter should be to minimize vibration and movement in the photos.  Your aperture (f4.0, 5.6, 8.0) on the lens should be at the smallest setting.  The ASA should be set as low as possible to get a quality image.  But if you need go up to asa 400 or 640 to get the proper settings.  These combinations when shooting through the fence will start to give you good results. To improve on that go to the side of the fence where the sun is behind you or totally in the shade.  Move the lens as close to the fence as possible.  What you want to do is avoid the sun bouncing off the fence into your lens.  Remember your pictures that look foggy?  That’s what happened.  The light bounced into the lens creating flare (photo term).  This won’t work all the time but most.

What if you have a iPhone or Android?  Same concept.  Get close to the fence.  Make sure you know where the lens is and carefully place it in-between the wire so you have a clear shot.  And don’t forget to use the zoom.  As our editors always said, “fill the frame”.  Lastly, do you use one hand when holding your smartphone?  Unless you’re blessed with ultra steady hands don’t.  Two hands will make you steadier and your photos sharper.  Below are a couple tips that will give you your “Kodak Moment”.

•  Move around.  Don’t always shoot from the same place.

•  Don’t just shoot the action.  Look for reactions.  Sports is about emotion, the kids having fun.

•  If you have a long (large 200 or longer) lens go to the end of the fence to get different looks.  Even if they look small in              the frame you can crop in.  If your camera has a lot of megapixels use it.

•  Learn your camera.  Don’t wait till you get to the ballpark to figure out how to use it.  You don’t want to miss the action.

•  Have fun.  Capture the action but always remember, it about the kids.  They won’t always be young.