Bokeh Junior

Now that my five year old son has discovered the joys of public transport it is no longer possible to make a quick dash into town on my bike to pick up essentials. Now he comes with me. We nearly always have to run to catch the bus, we always sit on the back row and he always talks in a loud voice about our fellow passengers.

One particular Saturday I took my camera along to shoot some street entertainers. We had lunch sitting on tall stools at the window of a cafe and then I dragged him from shop to shop to buy said essentials – I did warn him that it wouldn’t all be fun. We bought an exploding volcano at a toyshop and then went in search of street entertainers. We found the usual assortment of jugglers, human statues, and fancy-dress animals but none of them really grabbed the attention of my boy and my photography wasn’t up to the job either. I explained how it was good form to give a small amount of money to people that had entertained us, but I suspect that he thought, even at his tender age, that we weren’t getting particularly good value for money.

We walked to the market square and found the guitarist strumming away whilst his daughter passed the time drawing in her book. The guitarist was the first street entertainer that day who really looked like he enjoyed what he was doing. I showed him my camera and he nodded back at me. I put the camera to my face and focused. I re-framed and waited for the decisive moment. I had a flashback to my own childhood and remembered long afternoons when I accompanied my own dad on his business, how I had to amuse myself for endless hours, how I had to look like I was enjoying myself, how I thought I’d never do that to my kids. I felt a tug at my elbow and my son saying, “Dad, can we go home now?” I took the picture, gave my son a pound to put in the guitar case and then we went home on the bus.