Tips to Photographing Action with Kids

One of the great ways to go out and have some action, is to have fun with it of course. Right? So we've got Henry and Isabelle out here today, they're gonna be taking some swings for us. Not at baseballs, not at softballs, not at golf balls, not at walnuts. Water balloons. Water balloons explode, they make great pictures. So we're gonna come out here, get some quick shots. I initially thought a 300 would be good for this because I thought a 300 would really compress the scene. I've got a nice, even background, so when they hit this and the water explodes we'll see it. Shallow depth of field, so my focus stays only on Henry and Isabelle. Now, that's what I want. I want the fall off to be immediate. But I did find that the 8200 shot at 200 is working just perfect. So we've got the sun out, we've got the water balloons filled up, now we're gonna let Henry take some cuts, we're gonna get some fun pictures here in the park. All right, Henry. You all set, big guy? All right. Jason, you just let me know when you're ready to fly and I will just shoot. Yeah, baby. That's what I'm talking about. Good swing. It's all right. Whoa! That one kinda stuck to the bat a little bit. Excellent. There we go. That was a good one. That was a good one, Henry. One of the cool things about coming out to parks like this is that we've got the advantage of a nice, sunny day, and the options with enough water balloons to be able to shoot both back lit and front lit. Now, the back light really will pop out. And what's helps me is I've chosen a background that's in shadow, so she's in shade so when she swings the bat and explodes the balloon, the water droplets are gonna be back lit. It's gonna be wonderful. Couple things you gotta worry about here. Now, I'm doing the same thing, I'm shooting wide open 2.8 to minimize my depth of field. I'm shooting fast to be able to capture the action, I've got a lens shade on, always have your lens shade on. But I'm shooting almost directly into the sun so I'm still getting a little bit of flare. So I've got Lisa here, that's got a notepad from the car, and she's gonna be able to stand in front of me and help me block that. Because if you don't do that, you're gonna get a little bit of lens flare, and gonna get this, kind of, what looks like dust. Kind of this, this flare that goes across your lens which is gonna diminish the quality of your shot. We want it to be clean on this. And so that's what we're gonna do. So she's gonna be just in the right spot, I'll direct her to where I need to be to get the lens flare off the lens, and then we're gonna let Isabelle-- Look at her, she's ready. She's ready to take some cuts over there, so, we're gonna get into some action right away. All right, Isabelle, you all set? All right, honey. Turn your legs so you're more towards me. There you go. Hold on. Okay, Lisa, bring yours in. Perfect, right there. All right, just take some cuts. Yeah! Yeah! Excellent! Jason, try to throw them more to her left for me, okay? 'Cause right now when she's swinging they're coming right across the chest. Yeah! Perfect. That was a good pitch, though. Perfect. Everybody's ready. Excellent. All set. Perfect. That worked just fine. Good work. Way to swing. Way to swing. I love it. Here Isabelle, you wanna see what it looks like?