Children at La Cuvette
I was walking on La Cuvette beach in Mauritius and these two boys were playing in the water with these sticks. I watched them awhile, and I was fascinated at ho...
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I was walking on La Cuvette beach in Mauritius and these two boys were playing in the water with these sticks. I watched them awhile, and I was fascinated at how much they laughed, and how much fun they were having, entertaining themselves with such simple natural pleasures.
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Jul, 2017Views
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Absolute Masterpiece
Superb Composition
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Peer Award
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Virtuoso
Magnificent Capture
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Behind The Lens
Location
This image was taken on a little beach called La Cuvette in the north of Mauritius. It's a small cove-like beach with hardly any wind so the water is always calm.Time
Around mid-morning on the 8th November 2014, I was taking a walk on the beach. Since it's a small beach I was walking up and down watching the few people around me. It's summer in Mauritius at this time, and the sky was perfectly clear with the sun shining bright and warm.Lighting
As a landcape photographer, I always work with the available light. Whether it's morning, noon or evening, I believe the natural lighting can always be used to create a feeling in the image. As it was mid-morning, the sun was not yet directly overhead. It was shining at an angle on these children, creating shadows on their skin but highlighting the water beautifully.Equipment
This was shot on a Canon EOS 600D with a 300mm lens (at f8, shutter speed of 1/500sec and 100 ISO).Inspiration
As I was walking up and down the beach, I noticed these two boys playing in the ocean. I'm not sure if they could swim or not, because they only played in the shallows. They each had these long sticks and would prod and poke the sand. They looked so serious but then they'd laugh out loud. I couldn't figure out what they were laughing at, but they just kept laughing and the happy sound was so contagious that every time I walked past them I would start laughing too. It's as if they thought working hard and laughing went hand in hand. I wanted to capture the seriousness of the fun they were having.Editing
I took three images, one at f8, one over-exposed by 2 stops and one under-exposed by 2 stops. I then merged these 3 images so that I would get all the highlights and all the shadows of the boys' skin without blowing out the highlights of the water.In my camera bag
Firstly, I have to say I am a Canon thoroughbred! I have two camera bodies that I always carry with me: my Canon EOS 7D MarkII and my Canon EOS RP (full-frame, mirrorless). My favourite lenses are the Canon 75-300mm zoom, the Canon 18-55mm zoom, the Canon fixed 50mm and the Canon 8-15mm fisheye. These 2 cameras and 4 lenses cover any type of shot that I envision. I don't often take a tripod - only when I know I'm going to be doing long-exposures or portraits and this is rare. I prefer walking the landscape, getting low, getting high and getting dirty.Feedback
Patience and observation are key to photographing landscapes and particularly children within those images. These boys were running about, jumping in the water and on each other. I wanted to create a natural shot that showed movement captured in a moment in time, movement of both the boys and the ocean. I had to be patient as the boys frantically moved about and in observing them for awhile, I could almost anticipate when they would slow down for a moment...before erupting in frenetic play again.
