Young dreams

This is one of my favorite photos ever (I mean of my own photos)!

I was walking through the gardens of the Palais Royal in Paris, deep in conversation with three people. This was my second ever visit to Paris (May 2008) and I was there on an assignment for a client who needed specific art-related photos taken (this photo was NOT one of them).

Out of the corner of my eye I saw this young French boy standing there with a huge football, gazing off into the distance. I had my camera around my neck fortunately. I abruptly broke off the conversation I was in the middle of (my client was one of the three people I was talking to), went down on one knee and took this one photo very quickly without thinking about camera settings or anything. I had about two seconds. (I usually leave my camera in Program mode when I’m walking around and may need to react quickly to a vanishing situation like this one, and set the ISO high enough so that the shutter speed will be adequate.)

This was not a thought-out shot. I didn’t even analyze what I saw in it. It was just instinct taking over and I only had time to see that there was a shot here that I should not miss. I did look around for his parents afterwards to make sure they didn’t mind my taking the photo and to send them a copy, but there was no one around.

The next moment the little boy’s dreaming was over and he was off. I took another photo as he was leaving but it was not the same (see below).

This is the original image, straight out of the camera. As you can see, the quality is not very good. I did not think about the settings, I did not think about the rule of thirds or any other composition rules. I instinctively went down on one knee because it was important not to look down on this lad as he gazed off into the distance or the future. I did not look around to see if his parents were there. I did not ask permission to shoot the shot. There was no time. I just shot it.

This is the full size photo after processing. Exposure, color balance, shadows and highlights, straighten up and crop, noise reduction, sharpening. The person on the left carrying a shopping bag was just a distraction (I didn’t even see her there at the time) so I cropped her out. The empty sky above doesn’t contribute to the photo so that also went. But the photo is the photo. It cannot be manufactured.

I did a black and white version as well which I think works very well too. Gives the image a slightly more timeless feel. And the message and story remain the same otherwise.

This was the only other photo I managed to take at the time. It was literally two seconds later. It does not have the story and message of the first one and I haven’t even bothered to process it.

This photo is not really about THIS boy. It is about the dreams of youth and the story is far more universal than this one boy whose name I never found out, whose parents I did not meet and who never even knew that he was the subject of the photo.

This photo has sold many times to people who I think appreciate the story it portrays. Recently a grandmother bought it as a large canvas (the black and white version) for her young grandson’s bedroom which was in the process of being redecorated. She was thrilled. And so was I. That young grandson will look at it every day and perhaps will extract some sense of the value of dreams. I don’t know what he will see in it, but I certainly hope it will be inspirational.

This photo, as with all the photos on my website, is available for purchase as a print on archival paper, canvas or metal here.

Feel free to have a look through my portfolio albums.

Any thoughts on the image? I’d love to hear what you have to say so leave me a comment. Or a question. I reply to all comments and questions as soon as I receive them.