Three Friends

[Orio]

I have a nice story to tell you today, with pictures and words.

I was out in a parc to photograph blossoms for my work (besides: first time that I use manual lenses for my work!). There are three young boys playing football near to the apricot tree that was my destination.
When they see that I have two cameras on my neck, they ask me if I am a photographer. I say "Yes, in a way". And they "could you please take a photograph of us three?" And I say "Sure, no problem".
After the first one, they ask for more: "Can we have one each alone, doing karate moves?" (and one of them explains to me, that they are in a karate course). I say "ok". And then they want one each with the foot ball. And finally a last one together again, with the foot ball this time.

They made me lose quite some time, but I did that happily. They made me think of me at their age, when I was playing football with my friends, on the street, and in the meadows, in the early 70s. Long lost friends. Some are gone for good, and will never come back. Many have been driven by life on to different ways, many I never saw since then, and many for sure, I will never see again anymore.

With these kids, today, I was thinking with myself, how good it would have been if somebody took a picture of us, back then. How good it would be to have a more tangible memory of those days, that were some of the happiest days in my life. But unfortunately, no one did take a photograph, and so I am left with only my memories of those times and friends.

So I was very happy to do this favor to these boys. Thanks to me, they will have a nice souvenir of their happiest days, in thirty or fourty years from now. I was happy to have done that.
One of them, after the photos, seemed to realize something and asked me with fear: "Will we have to pay for this?". And I said "No problem, kids. That's why I'm here"

They were very thankful. They must have thanked me, like, 10 times. Even too much. At one point I had to say "No problem boys. You don't have to thank me anymore. I was happy to do it". They were very, very polite boys. That was a surprise, also.
One of them also followed me a while while I was walking to the tree, saying that I should be careful because there is a cut tree root that is hidden and he fell on it, just a little before I arrived. He of course was caring for me and because I had my two very nice cameras hanging from my neck. He was very sweet

All in all, a nice meeting. It was especially nice to see that those young boys did care so much about their friendship, to be wanting so much to have their photo taken together. This hit me because when you are young, you usually don't think about these things. You just live, you don't care about the photographs, these are usually things that more adult people thinks about - people that have an experience of what the passing of time is, and what memories are.
So I think that maybe the youth is more wise and less stupid than we old folks think it is. To see those young guys value so much their friendship, in an age and society that only teaches you how to be selfish and to win over each other, gave me so much hope in the future.

I left the place after a short while. It got too dark to photograph my trees. But I made an encounter that really was worth the time and made my day.
These are the things that really make me love photography so much.







Direct links:
http://img390.imageshack.us/img390/1111/3friends01tt0.jpg
http://img400.imageshack.us/img400/6756/3friends02sb7.jpg
http://img354.imageshack.us/img354/7853/3friends03vw5.jpg
http://img378.imageshack.us/img378/3999/3friends04xn7.jpg
http://img472.imageshack.us/img472/6811/3friends05uq3.jpg

I was forgetting about the equipment used: EOS 5D, with my newly arrived Elmarit 2.8/35 mm.

[Katastrofo]

Some great photos by a skilled shooter and the equipment ain't bad,
either! Are you making prints or did one of the boys give you an
email address to send all these? I'm the same, so many memories
and no photos to share with someone, except words.

Made your day? You made theirs!

Bill

[Orio]

[peterqd]

Nice story Orio. In my book you can keep all your rusty nuts and bolts and bits of seaweed, THIS is what photography is for. Can't stop

[zipp]

I can feel the nostalgia leaking from the pictures and from your story. Touching, Orio. Touching.
...

[LucisPictor]

Very nice story and very nice of you, Orio!
That will be great for the boys one day.