Shooting Through A Fence

Last week I shot Houston County softball coach Angela Crawford and her husband Ryan with their new baby Cole. The fact that Ryan is a football coach at Northside made this a neat story. Angela's having practice daily so I caught up with them at the HOCO softball field after practice.

I wanted something more than just a portrait of the coaches with their team caps and stuff, although the team logos would have to be in the picture. I shot the safe shot inside the dugout looking over their shoulders to the softball field. Since they are both taller than me(baby Cole hasn't grown past me yet) I borrowed a ladder to see over them.



I set up one light to my right angled in to them from about 45 degrees, and balanced my exposure to capture the clouds, but be a little less than my exposure on the Crawfords.

I moved them outside and shot through the chain link fence. I felt like that added a touch of drama to my images. I wanted some light on the wire so it would not blend into the background, so I kept the flash inside the dugout. The first image was pretty loose, with lots of fence. Also had a screaming baby. OOPS.

I repositioned them, got a happy baby Cole, and moved in close to the wire. The image below is the result. Just what I wanted. Nice light on them, a happy baby, and the fence makes a really nice frame. The angled light hitting the wire just highlights it without washing it out even though it was much closer than my main subjects.