Philippolis, boys will be boys...

At 1030km...

As we drove out of Philippolis on our way to Trompsburg I saw these youngsters playing soccer in the street. I stopped and asked them to form a group and made some exposures. Then one of their friends a little further up the street saw what was happening, shouted and said he wants in as well. So then I asked each one to grab a pillar on the 'stoep' (veranda) and to give me a 'serious' pose...

When I do this type of image I usually don't direct at all..apart from asking them to stand where I want. I usually, subconsciously, select a backdrop...By this I mean what are they going to stand against or what is the background going to consist of. Here I would look at things like, is it too busy, will it work in B&W, how is the light and how will it influence the composition. All this happens while I talk to them. I try to be quick before they are even aware or have though too much about what's happening. I try to make the whole process casual and completed before the initial excitement of being photographed wears off.

Usually their concentration wears off quickly but a stern voice will bring them back again for a moment or two....

 All in all I took 21 images of this group. They gave me three poses of which I am showing the last two here. The first pose is usually the one they want to do, I oblige and take a few and then I ask them to stand where I want to and in this case a third group when the extra boy arrived. Now even this is too many photographs but for some technical reasons I have to use my little X1 camera on continuous shooting and then it bangs of 6 images in 2 to 3 seconds and then there is a wait while the memory clears...After the first image I would quickly look at the lcd screen to see all is ok and perhaps show them what they look like on camera... which helps in the building of trust when I make photographs of people...

click on images to enlarge...

I am showing two groups here because, well,  I just like them both...

thanks, Ivan