Showing Off

One Street: Market Square, Shipley #80

Boys will be boys, and it's good to see - although perhaps these two should properly be called young men rather than boys. I had to react quickly and just had the one chance to take the shot so I was pleased to get the timing right. It's rather apt because Mr. John and I had just this weekend tabled a discussion point around the photography of children and how difficult that is these days. He's been looking recently at quite a few exhibitions of photography from the 60s, 70s and early 80s, which depict a lot of children at play. They are a wonderful subject of course.

I know that I'm very hesitant around photographing children. On a few occasions I have asked permission from whom I've thought to be the parents, but in doing that the spontaneity is invariably broken and the shot is lost. I guess the same hesitancy applies to photographing younger people in general. I'm definitely more reticent when it comes to taking candid shots of teenagers. Perhaps I should be bolder, rehearse my justification in wanting to capture the broadest cross-section of life on the street, and just go for it!