Cousins

I didn't really have cousins growing up. I have one cousin that I didn't meet until I was 15 or so and then only saw him a couple of times. I had loads of second cousins, but only saw them on rare occasions. Unfortunately, my kids are in a similar boat. They have cousins, but they all live in different places around the country, so they don't see each other much. The wonderful phenomenon about young people is that they pick up right where they left off like it was yesterday. We recently had an opportunity to get one whole side of the family together. The cousins all jumped right in to playing and harassing each other like, well... like family. It is a lesson we all could learn, not to hold petty grievances and hurts from years past, but just to love and enjoy one another like kids do... like cousins do.
I took this photo with my Graflex Speed Graphic 4x5. This is the first photo I took with this hand-held as opposed to using a tripod. It is heavy and sort of unwieldy, but I had the light metered already and the shutter and aperture were all set. I just had to focus and shoot. I used the built-in range finder, lined up the two images and "click". It is kind of hard to go unnoticed with a monster like the Speed Graphic in front of your face, but in this case only one of my victims er... subjects noticed and looked over. The others were busy being kids, so I got a pretty candid shot of them being themselves. I didn't take enough care sealing up my darkroom (bathroom) when I unloaded the film holders, so it looks like there was a bit of a light leak in the lower corner. I did a little dodging in Photoshop, so it's not quite as noticeable. I will probably crop it out if I decide to print it. That is one of the beautiful things about large format. There are plenty of pixels for cropping before printing. The development was done in Caffenol-CL for 70 minutes. I like the look of Caffenol-CL with a number of different films. Being fairly inexpensive and environmentally friendly makes up for the hassle of weighing and mixing ingredients. I hope you enjoy this photo. Maybe it reminds you of summers with your cousins.

Crossing the Line

I read a blog entry by another photographer the other day and it really bothered me, but I couldn't put my finger on why. It was about a man who had the police called on him while he was taking some photos of his niece at a playground. The blogger thinks that's just fine. There are dangerous people out there and we should endure a bit of harmless discomfort in order to keep our children safe. What she said sounded sort of reasonable! I'm all for safe children. The following day, my wife mentioned the name of someone and the blog and a bunch of memories came flooding back. Wait! Something very similar had happened to me once! I was at a school camp-out at a nearby beach with my family. I don't think I was even taking photos (though I may have been) but just sort of hanging out on the beach while the kids played and my wife socialized. Then she comes over to me and says that someone reported me to the principle as "a creepy guy watching the kids". My wife works at the school, so the principle knew exactly who I was and put their concerns to rest, but suppose the principle hadn't been there and they had called the police? Then the police show up and start questioning me in front of parents and kids that I have to interact with on a regular basis. Then someone hears or mentions the word 'stalker' or 'pedophile' and I am pretty much done in that community. I've been labeled and there is no amount of explaining that will take away those words and images from people's minds. I am forever 'that guy the police were questioning in relation to pedophilia'. Maybe that is a tiny bit of hyperbole, but maybe not.

So here's my point in response to the blog I linked above. Don't knee-jerk your way into a 911 call. Walk up to the person you are concerned about. If they are a bad person, they will most likely leave once they figure out they have been noticed. If they are not a bad person, they will probably talk to you about their child and the playground and why they are taking photos. Frankly, the bad guys don't even need to get out of their cars these days with digital SLRs and long lenses. I doubt one would risk walking around the playground in the first place. Always be aware of the people around you (wherever you are), but be very careful about making or implying accusations of improper behavior toward children. That is a witch hunt that can't be undone. I for one will continue to enjoy photographing my kids as they grow up and I pray that people will talk to me before notifying the authorities.