I set out this (ridiculously hot) afternoon with no particular plans other than to hope that I'd find some interesting things to shoot. I started, as I often do, in the nearby park. As it happens, there was a group of people there even more insane than myself; while I was walking around in this heat, they were playing baseball in it. The area they use is fenced off (presumably to stop the game from interfering with the regular park users), and while I was watching them play, an idea came to me.

Some time ago I was made aware of a quite wonderful photograph by an American photographer by the name of William Albert Allard. Rather than put it here (which could be copyright infringement), I'll link it instead : 

http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/.a/6a00df351e888f88340134885c71d9970c-800wi

If that doesn't show up as a link, just copy and paste it.

Jay Maisel (who's one of my favourite shooters) referred to this photo as "the definitive picture using a fence", and I can see what he means. Given that I was looking at a group of people playing baseball surrounded by a fence, I figured that it would be worthwhile trying to shoot in the same way. The aim was to put the focus on the fence itself, but to use enough depth of field that the players were clearly recognisable. Not particularly easy, but an interesting experiment. Anyway, this is what resulted.

OK, I didn't even get close to matching Allard's photo (not that I expected to!), but it's interesting to see what happens when you focus on something that's not the usual point of focus.

Thanks for looking!