My son, the photography teacher.

These photos are all from a day about three weeks ago, when there was a strike. In Nepal there are a lot of strikes and what they mean is that all the shops (or most of the shops) are closed and no traffic is allowed on the streets. I have tried for a long time to understand the purpose of the strikes, (they are more appriopriately called "bandhs" because they simply mean "closed,") and all I can come up with is that one political party is trying to make a point and tells all the other parties to CLOSE UP SHOP or ELSE!

A side-effect is that you will see children EVERYWHERE in the streets. The first time we noticed, YaYa remarked, "That's not very safe," when she saw three young children playing badminton in the middle of the street. By the fourth set of children playing badminton or soccer, we knew something was up.

Strike for kids = THE STREET IS A PLAYGROUND.

So we headed out one strike day to spend some time with friends who were leaving Nepal for India. And sat most of the day at a tiny restaurant while the kids played in the street.

Leafy took photos. I adore his photos.

When he took the first one, the shutter hadn't opened completely. We fixed that problem.

There is no such thing as too strange an angle.

He takes photos of all the things I second-guess myself about, feeling self-conscious.

As well as getting more candid pictures of me with others than I've seen in years.

And candid shots of others...

I LOVE this shot of YaYa.

As well as this very ordinary one, where she is buying water for me.

Also, he doesn't worry so much about people's heads.

He knows that for a real journalistic feel, you can play with angles.

And he's not afraid to go wide.

And that to accentuate action in a shot, you can leave lots of space.

To RECAP: The Leafy Boy says:

1. Make sure you open the shutter.

2. Sometimes point the camera straight up.

3. Take photos of whatever you want, even signs.

4. If you want to get candid shots, it helps to be really short.

5. Don't worry about how mundane your subject matter is.

6. Every once in a while, just do away with the heads.

7. Tilt it, give it a wide angle, and put a lot of space in for an action photo.

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He's a genius, I tell you!