Travelogue: Australia – Still More Pictures I Couldn’t Take

There are a few taboos that as a photographer I am cognizant of. One of them is that I would never take a picture of someone else’ child without their asking me to do so! Well, except when I am at a party or similar event where I know practically everyone and it is more-or-less expected for me to take pictures of everyone there!

So the antics of the children on the ferry back from Manly were entertainment that I can only tell you about.

One family of children went straight to the hawsepipe at the bow of the ship and looked out it like a porthole. One of the best lines (and I was not even sure that the kids these days used this word…) was what the little girl yelled over to her brother on the other side of the bow. She looked about six, he was probably a year older. She looked out her little personal porthole and yelled with delight: “This is so cool! Look at all the bubbles!”

The other funny sight was the one of the little boy (from a different family) that was trying to see over the gunwales. He was standing near the bow and just not quite tall enough to see over the side. So he stepped back to the two big cleats that the mooring lines pass through. These things were about a foot-and-a-half tall.

You could see the through process as he ran it: He was only a few inches too short, this should be perfect. So he scampered up onto the cleat. The problem is that the cleat was further back from the bulkhead than it was tall. All the altitude he gained, he lost in the act of leaning over toward the gunwale!

That of course, didn’t stop him from trying the exact same thing on the other side with the identical cleat on the other side of the bow! Optimism lives on in the young!

Wherever you are this morning I hope that you have the courage to try even what might fail!

Don Bergquist – 13 April 2012 – Canberra, ACT, Australia