I received a late night text from the coach. "The boys would be in uniform and ready to go at 6:45am." A little earlier than I was expecting, but that was fine. I adjusted my alarm clock and faded off to sleep. When the alarm sounded I was glad I'd prepacked the truck! We arrived early at the ball field the football players were already wandering onto the field (My wife was there with me to help out). It wasn't too long before we started the shoot. For the entire two teams I photographed the boys in the stadium using all natural light. Those two images were the reason for gathering early. Using the early light to illuminate the large group of boys was the best solution for the situation - not being able to light such a large group outdoors and in the stadium. 

When I was done with the large group shots we started out onto the field where I would photograph the special teams. For these smaller groupings I use an off camera flash to provide both fill and color corrected light on the boys. The Pleasant Grove football team was full of great boys, but they were boys and it took a lot of pushing and prodding to get them lined up. That of course took time. My setup was working well and I was working at a rapid pace. My Godox AD600 Pro lights were working well for me with zero misfires. The camera settings were ISO 400, 1/125th sec, f6.3.

I had two groups left to capture when it happened. The sun came up over the mountain and lit up the field changing everything. It took me a moment to adjust. My wife was giving me ideas but I was trying to concentrate on the solution so I wasn't paying a lot of attention to her and letting any outside noise pass in one ear and out the other. The first thing I did was change my ISO to the lowest possible sensitivity, 100. Next I changed the aperture to f/8 to bring my ambient exposure down to something I could use. Following that correction I raised the flash power to full, knowing I was going to need all the power I could get to pull the boys out of the shadows. My next move would have been to move the flash closer to the boys, but I didn't need to do that.

At that point I heard my wife say, "can I hold my hand over the lens to protect it from the sun's glare?" It was a good idea, but I chose to hold a reflector over the top because I needed something larger and because I'd be looking through the viewfinder. That meant it would be easier for me to move it if I got it in front of the lens. My new plan gave me a more dramatic look, but it worked well. I would not have been able to get the photograph had I not been using additional light to brighten up the shadows created by the sun which shed it's contrasty light over the entire scene. The years of education and training had saved the day. The first example is from before the sun arrived in full force. The second image was obviously taken in full sun. They are both good images, but different. You can see the boys in both photographs and that is the most important thing. Which do you like?