Portraits and Children's Spontaneous Poses

Chinese girl in Playground

Sometimes a nice spontaneous pose really makes the difference.

This beautiful girl, the daughter of the Chinese family running the bar at the corner, was not looking at my camera as I caught this with a telephoto. I should have come closer with shorter lens but that day I was taking pictures of a show at the local square and I needed more powerful lens. I thought the wooden framework of the slide was great to isolate her while she was in the middle of such fantastic and improvised performance. The light and kids in the background did the rest.

Sometimes kids are sort of funny actors rehearsing for the stark reality that lies ahead in the path of life.

Small Girl Playing at Restaurant

Small girl hiding under restaurant menu. I hope you like another sample of pure innocence. Have a nice week everyone.

Kid Portrait: Spontaneity

There was this long bench and the daughter of some friends was running towards my camera every time I pointed at her. It was like some kind of game for her in which she was supposed to shout and improvise some sort of attack. She came running like hell and I had to shoot fast and take the lens away from her. There was no posing, no strategy because we were playing games and we were accomplices. Complicity with the subject generates spontaneity and that is gold in kids photography, specially if it is a portrait.

Innocent Happiness

It all started one day when you were cast onto the stage of life without permission, from nothingness. You showed under the limelights with an impeccable brand new soul, a pure heart and a neat innocent smile. You just wanted to know and you asked for nothing in return. Magic ruled in the small kingdom of your playroom and worries were not part of your vocabulary. And then they taught you manners and gave you some tuition so you behaved like them. It took a lot of work but finally they managed. You became one of them but you lost something along the way, your innocent happiness. Where did it go?

Swing Kid

Anonymous kid standing on a swing under the last rays of the sun in a lonely cold winter afternoon at the park across the street as taken by my daughter, Sara, from our bedroom window. Happy Easter everyone!

Thirsty

Some kids drinking and playing with water at a fountain located at the base of the Dr.Robert monument in Tetuan square, Barcelona. There is not much to say here but I liked their innocent game. Check previous post to learn about the monument: Dr. Bartomeu Robert Monument.

A Baby's Frown

I still don't know why babies make faces so often, wearing a frown like elderly people. At least that's how we interpret such gesture in Spain. We call it La Viejita (old lady). How do you call it when kids frown and they have all these wrinkles on their faces? Here is a very funny video of what they can do, although in this case the frown is somehow different to the one I meant.

Kid Feeding Pigeons at Placa Catalunya, Barcelona

While there's a happy kid on Earth, there will be hope. Nothing is more pure and sacred than a child's innocence. Nothing is more beautiful than a child's detached view of the world around him, free of all evil, ambition, prejudice and hate, wrong teachings and bad influence. The face of this kid reveals many things, things we once lived unknowingly, things we can have no more. We won't bring them back but we can work to guarantee that this happiness, the flame that moves this world, the joy of life forever lasts.

The Feminine Touch

Routine is something that I really hate. Posting always the same kind of topic is really boring not only for you but for me as a blogger. Let's leave art aside for a while and refresh ourselves with an innocent image, that of a baby girl photographed from a different angle. Some friends came by and left the girl toddling on the wooden floor. I noticed she was wearing this tiny hair clip that barely succeeded in its task but clearly gave her the feminine touch.

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Iberian Ruins: The Lichen Boy

A boy sitting on the foundation walls of an old Iberian town in Lleida, Catalonia. Obviously the kid is not surfing the imaginary waves of time to picture the ancient civilization that once lived in this vast prairie but he is rather amused by the curious surface of the rocky wall. What's this greenish-yellowish thing? Perhaps his parents not faraway, listening to the explanation of the local tourist guide, already told him that the odd thing is a symbiotic organism called lichen. Please check old posts: Lichen on Ancient Rocks, On the Tracks of my Ancestors and IR Iberian Ruins in the Spring.

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Blue Princess Costume With Crescent Moon

A lovely princess in blue looking the other way as if to look into the future with sorceress intuition. I love it when kids stop to think this way. Is it that their innocence just gives them a detached rose-colored vision of the world or do they really see beyond? Do you remember what we used to think when we were staring like this? No, you can't, but they do look as if being somewhere faraway beyond the yellow brick road.

Carnival Time in Barcelona!

Hereby I want to make clear that this blog is not dead. No way! With this enthusiastic cry of joy I want to declare carnival season open in Barcelona Photoblog. I know many of you wanted to know about this important event in Barcelona so I have a whole set of carnival images coming your way. Please forgive my irregular posting, I think sometimes we need a little break to gasp for some fresh air. By the way this February my photo blog will be two years old. I don't believe in celebrations but I am happy to be around and be able to share some time with you.

Children Photography: Tres Tombs Parade, Sant Andreu, Barcelona, Spain

This two children were driving a small coach in the Cavalcada dels Tres Tombs (Tres Tombs parade) in Sant Andreu district, Barcelona. I won't give you details about the parade because I want to concentrate on the kids' pose and due to the fact that I will post many more related images next week. I have pointed out sometimes in this blog that I love the way children behave in front of the camera showing that part of the soul we stubbornly try to hide every single day of the year. Take a look at each of them, dressed in elegant aristocrat costumes...the boy is concentrated so much on the reins that nothing in this world could distract him away from such magic experience; and what about the little girl, with that stern look, half conceited, half irritated and still finding some time to wave a hand with noble grace. Children can always surprise you with the most spontaneus gesture and they almost always look great in pictures, but still there are ways to take the most out of that sudden improvisation. Here are some tips about children photography:
The Complete Guide to Children Photography: This is a good course to get a general idea about how to approach a child in photography to get the best results in your pictures.
Depth of Field: DOF is used consciously or by chance but to make the best out of it we must know how it works in detail. Discover this excellent tutorial about DOF.

Chocolate Trade Show, Barcelona: Kid Drinks From Ice Sculpture

Chocolate Trade Show, Barcelona: Kid Drinks From Ice Sculpture. Not that it has to do much with chocolate or a trade show, the subject here is the kid and perhaps the ice sculpture. Well, in fact the left side of the sculpture was stuffed with small chocolate treats but the presence of people nearby made me disregard that part. It was some kind of game. Kids could drink from the ice in the hope that it tasted like chocolate but obviously he chose the most insipid portion.

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The Harp Player: How to Pull The Right Strings

I was dying about posting a BW picture again in Barcelona Photoblog but I just didn't have enough inspiration to find the right occasion nor the best subject. As a matter of chance, I happened to sit upfront in the small concert hall where my daughter was supposed to play the piano. It was a long program and many kids were to perform each one with their own instrument. What I never expected was to be so close, camera in hand, to this boy and his harp. He played the notes gracefully, with that self confidence only promising musicians of his age would have and not even my imprudent flash was able to deviate his attention or stop him from pulling the right strings on his way to success.
Two good links for the road: The History of the Harp and on a different line of content Harp magazine

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Kid at Las Glorias Shopping Center

Every shopping center shall have a fountain, according to the marketing gurus. It shall be placed at the very center of the premises. Then there shall be McDonalds, KFC and Burger Kings. Kids shall come by the dozen. Let them kids splash or trample on water, happy parents prove to be big spenders.

The picture was taken in Las Glorias Shopping Center at Diagonal Avenue, near Agbar Tower. I like it because it was just a lonely kid staring at the jet of water in the middle of a hypnotic trance.

See Picture of Las Glorias Shopping Center on a Google Earth Map.