Monday, July 09, 2007

Pretty in pink


Fairy floss, cotton candy! At the park near the beach, Sunday 5 p.m. The sun has gone down and soon it will be dark but the pink van is still open. I find it very cute, but not at all attractive the fairy floss in plastic bags. As a child I remember loving it freshly made, huge, airy and still almost warm, softly melting in my mouth yet thinly crunchy, then leaving behind a surprising feeling of sugary emptiness...

Symphonie en rose pour mes trois images du jour. Barbe à papa, barbe à papa ! Il est cinq heures du soir ce dimanche dans le parc près de la plage. Le soleil est parti mais la camionette rose est encore ouverte. Je la trouve adorable, mais en revanche pas du tout attirante la barbe à papa sous plastique. Dans mes souvenirs d'enfance, je l'aimais faite devant moi, énorme comme un chignon crêpé, encore tiède, à la fois légèrement craquante et fondant dans la bouche, puis laissant un surprenant goût de vide sucré...

Central station 1:30 pm. As I walk idly on platform 17 waiting for my train to arrive (City Circle: Town Hall, Wynyard, Circular Quay, St James, Museum) I find a large slurpee cup left on a post along the railing - what a colourful perspective! What's a slurpee? A combination of fruit mixed in a blender with crushed ice. The result is very fruity and icy cold. Do you like them ?
bb
Gare de Central Station, 13h30. Alors que je déambule mollement sur le quai numéro 17 en attendant mon train (ligne en boucle autour de la city : Town Hall, Wynyard, Circular Quay, St James, Museum, Central) je tombe sur ce grand verre de 'slurpee' vide abandonné sur un pilier le long d'une grille - que voilà un bel effet de perspective ! Qu'est-ce qu'un slurpee ? Un mélange de fruits passés au mixer avec de la glace pilée. Le résultat est très fruité et très glacé. Vous aimez ça ?
bb
Pink again for this little girl's hat. What is it with girls and pink? Dresses, pyjamas, slippers and shorts, hot pink seems inescapable for girls here. Is it the same where you live ? Anyway, isn't it nice that the water here is clean enough for kids to play by the beach right in the middle of Sydney Harbour? By the way can you see the white wings of the Sydney Opera House in the background, flash lit by a quick ray of sunshine? I have to confess this photo is several weeks old. Now in winter the sea is cold and few kids play in the water.

Rose encore le chapeau de cette petite fille. Mais d'où vient cette passion des filles pour le rose ? Robes, pyjamas, pantoufles ou shorts, le rose Barbie semble incontournable ici. C'est pareil chez vous ? En tout cas, n'est-ce pas fabuleux de voir que l'eau du port de Sydney est si claire et propre que des enfants peuvent y patauger ? Voyez-vous les ailes blanches de l'Opéra de Sydney dans le lointain, éclairées par un rapide éclair de lumière ? Je dois avouer que cette photo est vieille de plusieurs semaines. Aujourd'hui en plein hiver la mer est froide et on voit peu d'enfants dans l'eau !

32 comments:

Anonymous said...

Interesting theme--pink. Nice photos of the pinks in your life.

By the way, if you want I can email you the URL for my son's blogs and websites. You can get my email address on my blog under my profile.

Brookville Daily Photo

Olivier said...

on a retrouve la caravane de Barbara cartland ;o) le rose va bien à sydney. j'avoue que j'aime beaucoup la derniere photo avec les enfants et sydney au fond. bravo a la photographe

Kate said...

We call ours "cotton candy", and altho my own children when small and now my grandchildren love it, I've never really cottoned to it.

Pink is definitely feminine; perhaps its the marketing and retailing but perhaps it's just innate?!

Peter said...

Pink + Kates remark referring to marketing makes me think about Eden Park, rugby (Aus - NZ 20-15, bravo) and bow-ties. Some may understand why, some not, but the story would be too long here.

Sally said...

Nice to see you "in the pink".

I used to like the freshly twirled fairy floss too! Must admit now it makes me feel a bit sugar-sick just thinking of it. :-)

Anonymous said...

Although again the theme is consistent, for me, as a photograph, number three wins hands down. Classic foreground/background contrast, colours focus on the subjects, atmosphere is excellent and composition/cropping (if any) well judged

Anonymous said...

.. I should maybe also add that when I say foreground/background contrast it's between the kids lost in the excitement of digging things out of the sand, and the background of "big adult things". Guess which I think is most important!

claude said...

Photos très chouettes ! Je préfère la 1 et la 3 avec un petit coup de coeur pour la petite camionnnette rose. Elle est chou tout plein !

Anonymous said...

Just returned to thank you for the visit and comment. And he is really looking at me. You can even see my reflection in his eye. I guess you could say he is looking at me with this eye. LOL

Anonymous said...

On the delicate topic of photographing children, I will add that I asked the parents of these two kids for permission to take photos of them - permission granted with no second thoughts!

Chica, Cienna, and Cali said...

:) Tickled pink to see the pinks here.....loved the third shot so much..and the second composition is great!!!

alice said...

Sans le savoir, je t'ai un peu prise à contre-pied ce weekend! Je comprends mieux ton commentaire.

Anonymous said...

ooh, pink! I have two daughters, so I have a three laundry cycles: whites, dark colors, and pinks!

I really liked that cotton candy stand photo (and the two others are fantastic as well!)

lv2scpbk said...

Now that's pink. My grandson probably wouldn't want to get anything there because he'd say it's too girly. He's 4 yrs old. Although, the candy cotton may get the better of him. I really like the cup photo with the lines and the one of the children is so cute.

Bergson said...

je ne savais pas que les barbe à papas se mangaient en conserve. ne pert on pas le côté festif de voir la confection? heureusement la caravanne est la

La photo des enfants ferait un carton pour une expo sur Sidney propose la à l'office du tourisme. ils vont être fans

Anonymous said...

Barbe à papa en conserve... Eh oui! Quelle horreur... Quand ma petite femme en a acheté la première fois, je n'y ai pas cru. Ils osent tout!

Rose: C'est devenu ma couleur favorite en matière de fringues. Chemises, polos, cravates... J'adore le rose. Les femmes ont dû nous le voler! Le rose est définitivement masculin! ;o)

La photo des enfants est géniale. On a même la sensation qu'ils sont sous le niveau de la mer. J'aime!

Merci!!!

Anonymous said...

love all three - the first brings back memories of childhood fetes - really enjoying all your themes.

Lilly said...

This is a very nice post. It took me bnack to my childhood.

Chad Oneil Myers said...

I like how wild the water looks.

Anonymous said...

You know how old you are, Nathalie, when you look at that Harbour scene, and start thinking about times there when you used a small rock to smash open the oysters, wash them in the water, and have a snack. None left these days, and if there were they'd probably poison you.

A far greater loss, however, is the freedom for youngsters to roam free. I didn't think about this till you mentioned concerns re even photographing youngsters at play. It made me realise how much kids have lost the freedom to roam across suburbs that was such a taken for granted, but never the less wonderful feature of my early life during the 1940s.

Anonymous said...

These are all beautiful photos Nathalie; particularly the one of the harbour and Sydney in the background. You do have an artist's eye. My memories of fairy floss are the same as yours - buying a bag is just not the same is it?
Didn't see anyone recovering from plastic surgery in Tahiti but saw a few private jets flying in for day or two. Prices are ridiculously expensive at the resorts but the island itself is beautiful and the people are very proud and beautiful also. The highlight was washing the Polynesian dancing - those girls can really Hula!

freelancer said...

Belle composition , tu es dans ta période Rose :)
J'adore la première ...j'en ai rêvé ...la caravane de Barbie grandeur nature :)

Cergie said...

Encore trois photos très différentes
Celle du haut me rappelle ma photo des seaux en plastique à cause de l'harmonie des couleurs très douces. Elle est assez "bordélique" c'est sympa
Celle du mileiu a une composition très raide, très composée et ce n'est pas anodin si le rose y est raide aussi
Séquence douceur avec les enfants qui jouent, indifférents tumulte qui se joue au dessus de leur tête
Ce beau spectacle ballet de l'opéra, de la baie et des voiliers n'entre pas dans leurs jeux ni dans leur relation à l'autre. Plus importante

Le rose en nature, c'est la fleur, la crevette, le flamant
Autrefois, je ne sais si le rose on savait le reproduire, le rose devait être du rouge un peu passé (maybe)


Nathalie, merci de ton cours de navigation sur mon blog
Je présume qu'en mer ce ne sont pas des bateaux qui remontent en rivière et que les support de signalisation ne sont pas les même : les phares ont moins besoin d'être vus de loin
Je n'y connais rien car je n'ai pas passé autant de temps que toi sur les fleuves et les rivières, ni ai jamais vêcu en bord de mer.

hpy said...

Barbe à papa et rose, pas pour moi. Quand j'etais petite ma cousine et moi avons eu la même robe un jour, elle en rose, et moi en bleu! Le rose, je le préfère dans la nature.

Maxime said...

Bravo pour l'exercice imposé... mais je ne suis pas fou de la couleur rose. Laisses moi plutôt goûter la composition de la photo du bas avec le contraste entre la tenue, le jeu des enfants et la ligne rigide des buildings et du pont dans la partie supérieure, les voiles et la silhouette de l'opéra (?). Aussi un beau dégradé des couleurs chaudes vers les couleurs froides... Il est bien des façons de représenter la perspective et l'éloignement....

Anonymous said...

Nathalie, these photos are remarkable, especially the last! What an image of them playing right in that clean water, wow.

I'm reminded of "Finding Nemo."

Monica said...

Nathalie this is the cutest van ever! It would draw my atention instantly and I would have one big pink cotton candy!!

I want to thank you for your sweet words, really appreciate it. And I think even not being elected Sydneys´s Opera House will attract even more visitors from now on, this whole campaign was very good for publicity (for all candidates), so it´s a plus!!!

Squirrel said...

Barbie Spun Sugar !

Squirrel said...

I still eat the spun sugar but the caravans that sell it here are not so pretty and petite

Susan said...

Beautiful scene, SHould be on a postcard!

pusa said...

love this pink series, specially the first photo.. guess i'm biased because i love the color pink :)

Kim said...

I love each of these three photos. Each has a very different charm for me. Nostalgic charm, strong design elements/urban, and a particularly wonderful human/nature/city panarama. Well done!!! There is so much art and thought to your series. Kudos!
-im