Bows and arrows of outrageous fortune

Children playing with toy bow and arrows in the forest. Image © fotoVoyager 2009.

Every Wednesday I get the comic shuffle. This involves an eager seven year old dancing around my legs demanding, pleading and begging for me to buy them the latest edition of the Beano. Now to those readers outside the British Isles, this will mean nothing. My compatriots however will know exactly what I’m talking about, since there can be barely anyone who spent their childhood here, boy, girl, black, white, rich or poor who wasn’t raised reading this anarchic British institution. There are scruffy piles of them all over my house now from the bathroom to the garden and everywhere inbetween, since they are apparently sacred objects that cannot be thrown away or recycled after reading but must be stockpiled in case of an imaginary shortage of bad puns and excruciating jokes with which to torture parents.

So, you ask, what has this got to do with this picture? Well, most weeks the Beano comes with a ‘free’ gift (they put the price up when one’s sellotaped to the outside) of fantastically poor quality but whose Chinese plasticiness is irresistible to anyone under the age of 10. Fed up being menaced by the bow and arrow set on last week’s cover I decided to try to turn these toys to my advantage and set up the shot above. Not many children were harmed in the making of this picture, but large amounts of Easter egg chocolate were required as bribes.

Click on the image to buy it as low cost royalty free stock.

1/125 second, f6.3, ISO200 50mm

14440 x 3000 pixels. Please don’t steal this image, it’s how I make my living.