It’s been a busy summer. There, that’s my excuse for not keeping my blog up to date. Part of that busy summer was our vacation back home to Newfoundland, which just happened to be during one of (if not THE) worst summer weather the province has ever seen. So bad that the meteorologist was arrested for trafficking RDF.

Despite the bad weather, we did get a few nice days where I was able to get out and take some photos. I believe this particular shot was taken on our last day in the province. After having missed sunset the night before, and running out of time, I grabbed my bag and headed to the beach to catch the amazing sunset as soon I saw the clear skies.

Of course, given the streak of bad weather, the beach was packed with people enjoying the warm day. Including a bunch of kids swimming in the ocean… right in front of these rocks, which apparently are great fun to climb around on. But I decided I’d go plop myself on the beach and setup and wait for the sunset anyway. I figured, in the worst case scenario I could use multiple exposures or a super long one to get rid of any pesky kids in the frame. Fortunately, once the sun started to go down the temperature dropped and the Atlantic Ocean was no longer an inviting place to swim.

Things were shaping up nicely and I had captured a few nice frames that I was happy with, when out of nowhere I hear this little boy right behind me ask in his tiny munchkin voice:

“Are you taking pictoors of dophwins or whawes?”

“Neither, I’m taking pictures of the sunset,” I responded.

Puzzled, he looked at and said “Why you do that silly? The sunset is already gone!” The expression on his face, body language and tone had me in stitches.

“Well, no it’s happening right now” I pointed to the sunset in front of us “see?”

He tried to convince me that the sunset had already happened, but it became apparent that he was confusing sunrise with sunset. Simple mistake, which we cleared right up. Convinced that I was legit, my new friend then threw his arm around my shoulders and demanded to see the sunset photos I claimed to be taking. So I showed him on my LCD screen what I had been up to. He was clearly impressed and immediately insisted that I take a photo of his rock, which he insisted on holding directly in front of the camera and too close for comfort. So I pretended to take a photo. Anything to get him to take that rock away from my camera!

“Let me see it.” he said as he sat on my knee. I should have known I wouldn’t fool him that easy.

At this point, I started to wonder where this boys parents were while all this was going on. Surely they would be concerned about their son befriending a stranger on the beach? I looked around and saw no parents frantically looking for their son. Nobody looking at us to give me an indication that things were cool. Nothing. Then I realized, I was in Newfoundland, not Ontario! I also realized that he was not going to leave me alone until I had a picture of his rock to show him.

By now, the sun had set (or risen depending on who you asked) and I decided that it was a good time to pack up and leave. But still no sign of my new friends parents anywhere. I asked him where his parents were, but he was far too concerned about his rock’s portrait to answer. So, I just decided I’d start walking towards my car and eventually he’d realize I was leaving and go find his parents. That worked like a charm.

Oh, and I’ll also be working more on my blog again!