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Monday 6 June 2011

The Boy at the Bus Stop

The first time I saw Ruben was over Christmas. It was after dark at a bus stop. He was walking alongside his dad, Andy, who asked him if he wanted to walk home or wait for the bus. Ruben replied with a short but sweet "bus". When the bus came we all boarded and four blocks down the road Ruben and Andy reached their destination.

Last week I was let down by my models who failed to show up - but you know what they say - when one door closes, another one opens. Went down to the North Inch and lo and behold! I found "The boy at the bus stop"!





Fun facts about Ruben:

He is 4 years old and lives in Perth (Scotland not Australia)
The triangular sticker on his t-shirt was a reward for doing a good job at school
He likes rolling in the sand
He also likes getting his picture taken
At the tender age of 8 and a half months he gave his first steps!!
His mom, Peggy, describes him as an unusually happy child which is evident when you meet him!
He loves to sing and will often sing to himself when he wakes up
Dancing also takes up a lot of his time and he especially loves to do ballet twirls
He is currently obsessed with all things Disney - princesses and fairies - no boy toys for him he says!
Because Andy always moves Ruben's toys around while he is sleeping, Ruben truly believes his toys come alive at night!
He is nicknamed the Haitian Highlander because he is half Haitian and half Scottish!!


Friday 3 June 2011

The Girls who Fooled the World

I remember when I was about 11 picking up a paperback - The World's Greatest Mysteries. There I stumbled upon one of the most inspirational stories about two young girls and how they managed to fool so many people for many years including Conan Doyle, the author of Sherlock Holmes. The Cottingley Fairies captured my imagination! Never believing that it was real, just being stunned by the art of creating those images.

Harold Snelling, a photography expert, said that "the two negatives are entirely genuine, unfaked photographs with no trace whatsoever of studio work involving card or paper models". He did not go so far as to say that the photographs showed fairies, stating only that "these are straight forward photographs of whatever was in front of the camera at the time."

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand." -Albert Einstein