Samantha and Annette go back to school

Sam and Ann are two lovely sisters with birthdays just two days apart.  The best thing about this is they can have one huge combined party every year!  Parents Carlsen and Janice go the whole hog when planning for these parties - skin crayons, tracing games, fishing games, homemade "bear-toss" station, telematch...even a movie screening in an actual mini-theatre.

You can well imagine what pandemonium ensued when their friends arrived in school that day (yes it was a party in a school!).  T'was an afternoon of fun and games, food, and many, many activities for everyone.

Just goes to show what a little imagination can do to make school fun again.

Ariel - 22 months and running

The name Ariel reminds us of a Disney cartoon depicting a pretty mermaid who is friends with all around her, and swims very fast.

This Ariel (the human version) lives up to that name.  She is playful as an otter, and runs helter-skelter exploring every nook and cranny before returning to her parents...usually for a water break, or to show them a flower she had plucked, or an ant she rescued.

So inquisitive, so full of life, and so very hard to catch!  This photographer had torrents of perspiration gushing out from every known (and unknown) pore just running after her, cajoling her, and rounding her up for her costume changes.  Anyone knows how to air-condition a park?

The school of little people - Agape Little Uni

Recently I was asked to do a shoot for Agape Orange Grove, with the objective of capturing what goes on in a school day to include in their upcoming promotional material. 

At first I thought that I would be knee-deep in puddles of small children nipping at my ankles while I tried in vain to photograph them...I needn't have worried.  It was a clean and orderly school, overflowing with young brains learning and having fun.

To me as the total stranger of the day, the infants were very accommodating, smiling readily when I made contorted faces at them.  The toddlers were more suspicious, though their fears were slightly allayed when their teachers seemed to expect me there and smiled at me (teachers were briefed beforehand).  A brave young girl did however come up to challenge me:

"Why are you here?"
"To take pictures of you guys."
"My parents are coming in the afternoon, they don't like you being here."
"..."  <makes funny face in feeble attempt to appear friendly>
"You're ugly."
"..."  <lost the will to go on>

I admit it was a new experience for me, being surrounded by young children asking why I was there, why I have two cameras, why does my flash go off...basically why everything - to which I have no ready repartee.  It takes a while to adjust the brain to questions that you probably have not asked yourself for a long long time.  In the end I made friends even with the older kids and got them hopping around following me like I was the Pied Piper of Hamelin, but how I did that is a story for another time...