More Bubbles

If the media is to be believed, the first thing children want to do these days virtually from the moment they leave the womb is play violent video games and happy slap people (some of those references may be a little dated). In my experience, however, there is nothing more exciting or appealing to a child than the idea of playing with bubbles in the garden. And why not?

I’m not just basing this claim on a single data point. I posted a bunch of images about 18 months ago of my nieces and nephews thoroughly enjoying bubbles (a post which remains one of my favourites), and whilst photographing London one evening I found a whole bunch of people wholly distracted by some big bubbles.

On this occasion, it was my niece Alayna’s birthday party, at which – between the downpours – the kids were all quite keen to get out and play with some bubbles.

This is Alayna. If you’ve been following since the early days you’ll have seen her grow up in fits and starts; she was born a few months after I started this blog so photos of her have turned up sporadically over the history of this site. This time, unlike last time, she was old enough to try doing the bubbles herself.

Before long Alayna’s dad got involved with some bubble blowing. As this was a birthday party, he was of course dressed appropriately.

Of course, it’s much more fun when daddy does it.

Fortunately the trees at the end of their garden gave me the chance to grab a ‘fairy lost in the forest’ sort of shot.

Fairies wear wellingtons sometimes.

It’s often difficult to photograph the blower of the bubbles in a flattering light. Blowing bubbles successfully often requires skilled gurning.

Speaking of unflattering, it’s probably best not to mention that the bubble dispenser looks a bit like a, er, well… you know. A thingy. Especially since there’s kids involved.

Clear your mind of such things. It’s all about the bubbles.

I’m really pleased with how sharp these images have come out. I haven’t mentioned yet that my dad only recently noticed I’d bought a new lens (the 24-105mm I bought in October). He noticed not from the several posts that mention it explicitly, or the entire post dedicated to photographs of the lens itself from various angles including some salacious closeups, but from my post of images of Freddie playing outside. The improvement in image quality over my older wide zoom lens was significant enough that he – admittedly a retired photographer – noticed the crispness in my web-sized photographs and asked if I was using a different lens. He was also impressed enough to now covet the lens and look at buying his own in the near future. I guess this makes me a trailblazer.

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Related Posts:

Bubbles
London in the Evening
Some More Portraits