'The Magic Garden of Childhood Play'

There's a lot going on in this scene of boys in a playground acting

out in their play fantasies the roles they likely will play in adulthood --

test flights for life if you will. Your ratings, critiques and observations

are invited and most welcome. If you rate harshly, very critically, or

wish to make a remark, please submit a helpful and constructive

comment; please share your photographic knowledge to help

improve my photography. Thanks! Enjoy! John

I had babysitting duty for a friend's children at this playground, brought my camera as expected, took some really great portraits (which will NOT be shown here), then settled down for a long afternoon.  These playing boys, play fighting at times as here, caught my eye, for the organized way in which they played and play fought, and for the great time they all seemed to be having. 

No 'play dates' in this part of the world -- you play with whomever happens to be on the playground; one child might be the miscreant child of an alcholic and another the child of a deputy in the Rada (parliament).  The playground is the great equalizer for such children . . . . though I suspect few look on it that way - it's just 'the way it always has been' with few suspecting 'social engineering' at work.

In fact, when I grew up, the play friends were whomever was nearby and friendly enough not to bully and somewhat 'play fair' without regard to social status, parental status, or other 'adult' concerns.  Just playing was enough.  No 'play dates' there either.

Nobody would have understood such a thing or understood the justification.

john

John (Crosley)

"The Magic Garden" is well named. Of course I looked at your photo but thought of the countless times I've been to a playground with my own young 'uns and observed the same sort of interaction. In this case, the light makes all the difference. Its brilliant, blessed illumination is accented by the Christ-like pose of the boy on the right. I think it's really well captured and brings a much needed smile to my face today. Thank you, John

Thank you for the general compliment.

Thank you for the comment on the captioninng (title).

Thank you for the acknowledgement of the worth of this capture on the playground of free-spirited kids enjoying their youth - adulthood may not treat them so kindly.

Thank you for the acknowledgement of capturing the lighting - that one I'd like to divert to both Nikon for their Matrix Metering's having been 'dead on' in this difficult backlighted situation, then Adobe CS5 for allowing me the adjustments necessary to preserve and slightly enhance the dark tones, to 'bring them up' as a sort of d-lighting, if you understand that. 

The greatest capture in the world is lost if the exposure is wrong-- simply lost where it's as ephemeral as this one -- no chance for do-overs compared to shooting portraits or still life photo.

Thank you for the knowledge that this capture brought some pleasure in your life.

An unhappy acknowledgement:  If I tried to take this same photo in most of the USA, I would have the police breathing down my neck; not so in Ukraine where parents are happy to show off their kids, especially to an American with professional looking photo equipment and where playgrounds are central and well policed always by the babushkij and dedushkij (grandmothers and sometimes grandfathers) who have lots of time on their hands as well as plenty of parents who are nearby or looking out frequently from apartment windows above this central playground at their charges below, and most cities have such a setup around high rise housing - playgrond centrally located, highly located in the middle for maximum security.

That's the unhappy truth about America; Out of 300 million Americaans or more, if just ONE child goes missing, which is a statistical inevitability, soon the TV airwaves will be full of that name as though the world were full of abductions, and of course every photographer with professional equipment is a suspect . . . . because those who have nothing to hide are the most visible (why hide if you're not up to anything?) but street photography requires sometimes photographying clandestinely as well and all the more then the street photographer may raise unwarranted parental alarm bells, all provoked by the television attention to just ONE horrible child abduction or murder - as though that were happening everywhere all the time, which is simply untrue.  An auto death or severe injury is far more likely by many, many times than any such fate.

There are television personalities (celebrities) who make millions enhancing their reputations by mock 'tracking down' suspected child abductors seconds after the first report of missing, all for the sake of their celebrity, and at the cost of instiling panic in every parent's heart.

I am certain when I was young, child molestation, abduction, murders were far, far higher than later, including today but most went unreported . . . . .or if they were and caused attention they were largely not the subject of national hysteria -- though the Lindbergh kidnappings -- well before even my time -- were something else again. 

Same in San Jose, CA where the heir(s)? to its famous department store (Harts) was (were) kidnapped, the kidnappers caught, a mob sprung them from jail and hanged them in the city's central park . . . . mob justice style, with no adverse legal consequences for the murderers in the mob, there in '30s Depression-era America.

Ukrainians too, care about their children, but they are not whipped to a frenzy over their television about issues that do not exist -- the police keep a very watchful eye, and if there's any problem afoot, they do act . . . . I was around when the country's most famous mass murderers were doing their thing (and could have targeted me if I were less vigilant) and police employed thousands of detectives to catch their prey without causing mass hysteria and did it within 30 days.

Russia, its neighbor, had a mass murder, a horrible pervert, who is well known to every former Soviet, a man named Chikitilo, whose name raises hairs on the back of every parent's neck . . . . and eventually he was caught, but with the help of the FBI, no less, even though it disgraced the former Soviet Union to have to ask for their help.

If it bleeds it leads is the Los Angeles motto for what dominates the TV 'news', and in the greater US news world, it might be 'if it's a missing kid, it leads, from start to finish' or 'a missing kid on vacation who does not come back from Aruba' the same.

It's what Americans want to read and hear, because they listen, watch and buy the newspapers to find out the latest developments, and no one puts these things in perspective in a land dominated by TV news crime stories, and TV detective entertainmemnt dominated to police reality shows, crime scene investigations, cops and prosecutor dramas.

A decade ago it was comedies.

This decade it's crime.

And victims.

it's a winning combination, which means a photo such as this will not be taken by an American photographer in the United States. . . . . .

For society's loss.

For in the future, there will be sparse, serious photographic record of the play of today's kids taken by serious photographers (as opposed to photos for the family photo/video album).

I just don't generally take photos of kids in the US, but in Ukraine, I'm welcomed and reward that trust by being trustworthy.

Thanks for the comment; I hope you don't mind enduring the long reply . . . . it's about the freedom to take such photographs and why this one may be special . . . . . for reasons that I think are highly regrettable and some of those reasons may be unnecessary.  (I'm for safe kids too, don't get me wrong and might lay my life down to protect a charge or even a stranger.)

john

John (Crosley)

As I wrote the above comment a stranger had been viewing this photo from not too far away, unknown to me.

As he left, he asked about its origin, and I told him. 

He complimented me, and also noted that it was especially good to him "because of the 'Christlike figure and pose of the boy on the right"-- something I had not realized but right on the money.

It's sometimes amazing the things that even strangers will see that pass my trained eyes, which is why I like showing my photos to others - I am sure I will remember that comment forever because it's just good photo criticism and important to understanding the potential impact of this photo.

john

John (Crosley)