Playtime

[RobN185]

I'm not too comfortable photographing kids these days, but this scene reminded me of my youth.

 

[The_Traveler]

It's unclear to me what is the real center of interest?
Logically it would be the boy in the foreground because he fills so much of the frame.
But his foot is cut off and the children in the back are well in focus.
The shot is missing all of the vital middle tones that make an image rich, this image seems almost brutally harsh (and perhaps over-sharpened)

 

[timor]

Old McDonald had a farm... And nowadays he is hosting kids and playing kids are not easy to hold in frame.

 

[RobN185]

It's unclear to me what is the real center of interest?
Logically it would be the boy in the foreground because he fills so much of the frame.
But his foot is cut off and the children in the back are well in focus.
The shot is missing all of the vital middle tones that make an image rich, this image seems almost brutally harsh (and perhaps over-sharpened)

The foreground boy playing with the stick, was my main interest when I took the image, and yes his foot is chopped, and yes, the key focus is behind him - my bad, but this was my problem catching this moment.
Of course, I could have asked him to do it again...

After a look at the histogram for this, it appears that I've lost much of the higher tones that would have offered better contrast and richness, I guess that my poor processing did this.

However, for me, whilst being technically poor (as you rightly commented), it caught the moment of innocent childhood play I wanted, after this shot all the children were aware of the camera, this was my only shot of these kids.