Camera Boxing, A Holiday Sport My Son Invented
Our six year old had an assignment at school right after the Christmas break. The teacher asked the class to draw about their vacation. Not just anything, but the thing they liked most. In the two-week break we did several things, including a mini-cruise from IJmuiden in The Netherlands to Newcastle in the UK.
It was a great trip. Adventurous, because for the first time we would travel by and sleep on a ship. We do have our own little sloop that we take out regularly, but this is a different thing. We enjoyed every aspect of cruise travel. Exploring the ship, dining, sleeping in bunks even visiting the nightclub to dance and play bingo.
A Day Filled With Things To Like Most
On shore in the UK we visited Newcastle and Gateshead, where we were in the amazing Baltic Art Centre, that had an exhibition for kids where they could play in. In short, we did some wonderful, fun things, all that, in our minds, would easily qualify as thing to like most. Not just because we thought so, but because we saw how much the kids enjoyed them.
Traveling on the same ship as we were, was also a small group of young men. Three of them. They seemed to be nice guys, but they had one annoying thing about them: the were constantly filming. Probably because they were (trying to be) YouTubers, or just because it’s what people do these days. I have to admit, I take out my phone and camera to snap shots probably more than I should, but these guys were of a different level. Where I take great care to not get other people in my shots, these boys were acting rather careless about the privacy of other people. I really don’t like my kids appearing in shots of other people, especially not when it’s video that is constantly being shot and very hard to avoid. These guys literally were almost everywhere we went.
Trapped By A YouTuber
So, at one point, I had quite enough of it. We were getting off the bus that took us from the port to the city, and there they were, filming again. To go where we wanted to, we had to pass them. That meant, getting in their shot. I felt trapped. I did not want to be in their video, and I didn’t want my kids in it. But we had to get past them to go about our own business. So, I put my hand in front of the lens. Taking care to not touch it, or the guy holding the camera, but just to be able to let my kids walk by without getting filmed.
From all the great moments we had in that two-week break, celebrating Christmas, watching New Year’s fireworks, sleeping in bunkbeds, visiting that art center, watching the ship dock at port, this was his most fun moment of all of that: his father ‘boxing’ the camera of that guy. Obviously I explained how much I did my best to avoid contact, and how I think that you should respect the privacy of other people. He understood. But still, the moment his dad ‘boxed’ the camera of that guy was the moment he most liked of his winter holiday.
