Here is a similar picture...I was in matrix, but metered off of the green tree canopy, locked, recomposed, and shot. It's not perfect, but the best I could do in harsh conditions. Sometimes you can meter off of any shaded green area, and then adjust the exposure a bit in either direction.
<img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3171/2636545908_40a283fffa.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="hideandseek" /img>
The shot of your boy is more interesting to me becuase of the framing and depth of field (blurred background). I'm not sure what you are asking about 'focus', but you should usually focus on the eyes in portraits like these.