For Myself

I found these boys playing basketball on a rectangular concrete island, slowly becoming overgrown by grass. I approached the trailer nearest to them. I hollered a “Hello” into the sheet-draped doorway. Anna met me at the door. I’m not sure of her relation to the children, but I would assume she was an older sister to the Barajas boys. After a few minutes of translating my English to Spanish, for the boys’ mother, Anna told me I could shoot.

At first, nothing was spectacular with this scene other than the light. Then one of the boys lost the ball and it rolled into a puddle. I say puddle but it nearly swallowed my Honda.

I didn’t think much of it, two of the three boys were wearing sandals, but they wouldn’t go into the water to get it. It was pretty comical. Andrew Barajas, 6, and wearing yellow kept throwing rocks at the ball. Gerardo Moralez, 7, tried to reach it with a stick; he was the only one wearing tennis shoes. The oldest, Joel Barajas – teal and white tank top – didn’t really do much to help.

I think my favorite is the second to last in the post. All three of the boys are in it and have such strong body language relating to that central focus, the ball.