Word of the Day: Street
(Joe, it turns out, can shoot from the hip with a camera. Accurately! He said it came from shooting guns and that, if I can point my finger at a target, I can point the camera also. He is teaching me how and it made taking street pictures at the 4th of July celebration much easier psychologically.)
The phrase “watching your children” has always mystified me. Does that mean, I wonder, that you happen to be looking when your child falls down and splits open her head? I know, I know. It’s supposed to mean that you are watching and that you anticipate situations that might lead to head splitting so that you can swoop in and keep them out of danger. But the line is never-the-less not always crystal clear.
When Liam was young, he was a climber. He climbed trees. He climbed walls. He climbed anything that could be climbed. But since he was fairly cautious and not a risk taker, I pretty much let him use his own judgment about what to climb. One day we were strolling by the lake, I on the pavement and he, about 3 years old, on the wall separating the pavement from the harbor. I had a plan ready if he fell in, which basically involved jumping in after him. Some old ladies came by and scolded me for my negligence in letting him walk on the wall. I just smiled and shrugged off their concern. They walked away, shaking their heads. Nothing bad happened. I reminded myself and I sternly reminded myself not to get into a twitter about the interfering and nosy ways of Swiss adults. In the U.S., it’s not customary to speak to a parent about either a kid’s behavior or his safety (unless extreme danger is present). And it’s definitely taboo to speak to the child directly! It had taken me a while to get used to the absence of these social restraints in Switzerland, but not long because I soon realized how great it was to have a large body of adults looking after my child.
A year or so later, Liam climbed a pine tree in front of the elementary school. He was about 20 feet up in the air. I was ready to go and I told him to get down. “Hurry up!” I said. He promptly fell the rest of the way down. Luckily, his fall was broken by all the branches that had allowed him to climb up so high in the first place and his only injury was a gash near his waist. But I was watching. I saw him fall.
Nice! Thanks for sharing the story. (and I usually shoot street w/ my camera away from my eyes, usually by my waist, or hold it like I'm looking at the back and just to a quick flip up. Much less intimidating.)
You were my kind of parent. I also watched my son fall twenty feet. He was two and I took him up a twenty foot slide, left him sitting on the top and climbed down to go around and catch him at the bottom. He stood up and took a step backwards and scraped his face on every step. Bruised and scratched for weeks after
Great capture. I must try shooting from the waist. My friend tells the story of when her small daughter came in from the garden saying her brother had fallen out of the tree and was asleep on the ground!! It all ended well but imagine what effect that remark would have on you as a mother!!
My son Erick was a climber as well. Unfortunately he was not young when he decided this was a fun thing to do and one day an irate upstairs neighbor came and said if he didn't stop climbing the tree outside and peering into the baby's nursery he was going to call the cops and have him arrested. He was only 8 years old! When I asked him why he was doing that he said, "I was just trying to see if I could get on to the roof!" Needless to say that aspiration was denied.
July 11th, 2015
Leave a Comment
Sign up for a free account or Sign in to post a comment.
My hip shots are hit and miss