Photos

I just rediscovered this photo that I took three summers ago while visiting Latvia. I was at a festival at the Cesis castle admiring the traditional Latvian costumes when this baby started whining for her mother. The mother reached for the baby and I snapped the shutter. In post-processing I did some color correction and added a bit of blur to the background.

The castle of Cesis was built by German crusaders of the Livonian Order in the 13th century. Today it is in pretty good shape, but not as magnificent as it once was. Still it is very interesting to visit. They gave us lanterns to light our way when we went inside the castle. Outside the castle were many people in traditional Latvian costumes, demonstrating different types of traditional cooking and handiwork. There was also a large area sectioned off for a tournament. It was fun to get a taste of the ancient culture of medieval Latvia!

Looking at this mother and child, for a minute I forgot the tourists all around, and I could imagine what life was like for mothers and children in the 13th century. Maybe they looked a little different from people today, but on the inside they were just the same as us. I think the mothers had children and they hoped to be able to raise them to live happily in a peaceful world.