Recognition

her expression... eternal... an expression that we must remember to carry into adulthood... strange and wondrous. a crystalization of all it means to be human, all in this beautiful capture of a little girl enjoying an experience. an essential capture, Olaf! ;-}

Exceptional indeed! I guess it's reflection in some puddle! It makes a great painterly look and integrates the beautiful color of the sky!

Congratulations Olaf!

Best regards!

PDE

A very nicely composed beautiful shot, Olaf!

Hartelijke groeten,

Ruud.

The girl is sitting in a Water-ball with at the bottom, some water in it. The latter does happen by changing the persons. De ball does have a zipper and by that the going in en out is possible. By the changing the ball gets nearly flat like a rubber boat, but after the change some air gets blown in to get the round shape again.

There is no sky to be seen here, the blue is the water in a roud blue plasic basin and being about twelf meters wide. At the same time, each five (?) minutes, four or five waterballs get used. I'ts a fantastic, brand new attraction for kids. Svetlana did show a ball-image for the first time here, last week. After shooting about twenty shots and watching them at home.. Oh my..,  I wished I would have been there much earlier..! Here it's rather late, about six o clock, just after the going on of some (spot) lights. Thanks all for enjoying and reacting..! Olaf. 

In getting the image as close as possible to the reallity only a fraction of light, contrast and color got added, one or two stripes each. Irene did assist in keeping it as natural as possible. She succeeded in keeping the ball soft plus the face. The different toned shadows on the latter are caused by the use of 800 ISO, normally I never use that. Every fraction more contrast here would make the light reflection on the right side a terrible spot, only pulling attention away. By darkness the focussing was manual.

What a beautiful, dreamy photo. I give credit to both of you. I was in a flea market one day, when I saw the children going into and out of these balls which were filled with air. They were having a wonderful time. They crawl and that makes the ball move in the water. I love the expression on her face. It is a mix of wonder and uncertainty. Very well done!

Unusual and very eye catching image , I thought at first that it was a painting , until I read your explanation ! Great shot . Bill