At Play Photo | TrekEarth

Photographer’s Note

Some local girls playing their version of pick up sticks. When I was young in Canada, we played this as well, but we used pre-manufactured plastic sticks. Here, they are using pieces of bamboo that have been cut to size. It seems they have more fun with their homemade sticks than I remember having with my plastic ones.

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Critiques | Translate

chalcone (761) 2003-09-01 5:41

The smile on their faces are awesome! You really captured *the* moment with a snapshot.

billyt (101) 2003-09-01 7:15

A classic unposed naturel shot of what children do best PLAY. A good triangle composition adds movement and life to the picture. They obviously knew you were there but perhaps unlike western kids thet remained completely naturel and carried on with their game. excellent.

gringofil (0) 2003-09-01 9:02

This is nice, Darren, but I don't like it as much as your other shots. The framing seems to be quite tight here and you also cut off the feet of the girls. I would have liked the feet to remain in the shot. But you've managed to capture these girls when they are heaving fun playing without even looking at you. This is the strong point of the image and if there was a bit more space and if the feet were in the shot as well, this could have been excellent.

I find it amazing that they were so comfortable with you. Really an insight into daily life.

dsidwell (9745) 2003-09-03 9:50

The expressions you've captured here are almost magical! You capture the essence of childhood in Cambodia. I would agree more with the cropping comment of gringofil, except that the subject of your photo is the girls' game and their faces, and cropping reminds us to look where we're supposed to. Any wider cropping and you're suddenly inviting extra and irrelevant thoughts about Cambodia itself, which seems to be inappropriate.

keir (242) 2003-09-30 10:58

Love how close you got here without the attention being on you, and their expressions were just right when you pushed the shutter. Because there is a sort of symmetry to the missing feet it doesn't really bother me, better to be in close and lose the feet than step back a bit I think (perhaps ideal might have been to crouch a bit more...but not sure if the extra trees up top would make the feet worthwhile). The facial skin tones of the girl on the right look a little strange and the contrast seems a bit high, but that could be my monitor.

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maciekda (19599) 2004-02-11 2:30

very nice moment, great smiles, so natural... just a beautiful and joyful scene.
and I like such scenes a lot

fadingstar78 (404) 2005-12-12 11:54

nice scene! I would have liked to see more of the smiles of the little girls! :)