Growing old is never easy

by Rashonda Claire Harris
(Kalamazoo, Mi, USA)

I was walking around the area that I live in looking for the most common things to shoot, but make them seem like they aren't all that common, and happened to see an abandoned trike sitting randomly on the sidewalk. Seeing the trike reminded me of being young and careless and I wanted to capture the innocents.

I edited the picture to make it look like it was taken with an old fashion type camera because my opinion the older style seems to go back to the roots of the original photography.

I wanted to remind people that are old and young that their childhood is not long forgotten and they still have a long time to live.

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They'll all look like something out of the 1950s, which would be strange!

There's lots to like about this shot - I like the central path disappearing into the image, the child's trike, and of course the old feel to the image.

It's this last part that usually generates the most controversy. On the one hand there are those who say a photo should be taken "as is" - in other words, as you saw it and without any image manipulation.

Then there are those who think that the process of image manipulation is part of what photographers do. They set up scenes, fiddle with the image afterwards, and have been doing so for decades.

Here I've written about image manipulation (or post processing) and why it's right or wrong. I suspect that Rashonda used something more up to date though - perhaps one of the many apps that are available that give images a certain feel.

I've written about some of the more popular ones, like Instagram, Hipstamatic and Camera Awesome here. Read that page and you'll understand my slight concern; if we all go around re-creating old-style photos today, what will the old style (i.e. photos from 2012) look like in years to come? Possibly, they'll all look like something out of the 1950s, which would be strange!

But anyway, back to Rashonda's photo. All in all, it's a nice photo. The old style feel looks appropriate and it's a image that is easy to relax into.

I can imagine it as part of a 2013 calendar, representing October on account of the bare trees, entitled "the magic of childhood in the suburbs" or maybe something a bit snappier!

And if it's good enough to look at for 31 days of a year it can't be bad!

Thanks for the submission Rashonda,

Darrell.

My son (that's him below) loves F1. He's started his own YouTube channel and would love it if you could take a look at one or two of his videos.
Or, if it hurts your ears as much as it does mine, pass the link on to someone who'll really appreciate it.

(probably someone a lot younger than I am!)

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