It occurred to me yesterday, while a cinematographer friend and his two girls (4 and 6) were hanging out at our place, that I don’t have many photos of the boys playing outside. During the first hour of my friend’s visit, Reina (my daughter), his girls, and several other kids from the neighborhood, were playing in Reina’s room while the twins, Ryder and Bryson (also mine) were taking naps and playing in the living room.
Since my friend always has a camera on him, he took it out, borrowed one of my lenses, and started taking some delicious close-ups of the kids. Naturally, I grabbed my camera too and we began to compare photos, discuss gear, and relish in the rare discussion where so many kids were present and yet we needed to do no more than take photos (okay, I changed a diaper or two).
When the numbers had whittled down to just his kids and mine, we decided to take the girls outside to play. It was a gorgeous day and my wife Savvy wanted to take the boys outside too, so I suggested she leave the ayi at home to tidy up and that we’d look after the boys. I thought this would be a good opportunity to get some new photos of them outside. I think I also thought she would bring them in the stroller.
When she got outside I heard her call out for help. It was suddenly apparent that she had two wobbly toddlers at her feet and on the loose. Naturally, one went left and the other took off to the right. As I approached to help, I had my Canon 5D in hand and fired off a couple of quick shots before shouldering the camera and chasing after one of the boys. Honestly, it all happened so fast that I’m not really sure if I got off more than one photo or not.
For the next 45 minutes or so, Savvy and I ran a zone defense on the boys. If one crossed paths with the other and headed towards the opposite parent, we switched kids as we tried to prevent any major catastrophes around stairs, the odd cyclist, or falls into the dry streambed. One thing I wasn’t able to do was take any more photos of the two boys, though I did get some lovely images of the girls earlier.
Despite the absence of outdoor photos in their portrait portfolios, the boys have good coverage from inside the home. I think they are nearly at the age when we will be able to let them go and simply forget about them. Kind of like what happened that day with the three girls (after the boys got outside). I know the girls came back home safely, but I have absolutely no idea what they were up to during the entire time I was on twin toddler-watch. In my defense, they were not in my zone.
Photo by Christopher Lay
