The DS Life: Playing outside

by Eric Caoili { Jan 30th 2008 at 11:00PM }

The DS Life is a weekly feature in which we scour the known world for narrative images of Nintendo's handhelds and handheld gamers. If you have a photo and a story to match it with, send both to thedslife at dsfanboy dot com.

This week's photograph hails from La Palma, one of the seven Canary Islands off the Northwestern coast of Morocco and Western Sahara. But really, this shot of children playing outside could've been taken in almost any neighborhood in any DS-populated country.

Three great details about this photo:

We used to crouch down in that exact position all the time when we were kids, except instead of playing video games, we were usually submerged in a Goosebumps book or some other equally trashy novella.
If you click the picture for an uncropped and larger version, you'll notice that the red thing hanging off the balcony is a Santa Claus ornament. Was this the only Christmas decoration put up or the only decoration left up?
The image gives you the impression that it was shot by someone just driving by, pointing his camera out the window to capture this scene. Both boys seem oblivious to the photographer.

It's the sort of suburb you can imagine as the backdrop to Belle and Sebastian's "If You're Feeling Sinister," this being a summarizing snapshot from the never-made music video.

Tags: fisheye-lens, la-palma, spain

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

manaman @ Jan 30th 2008 11:22PM

Oh my gosh,

Yeah, I totally used to--and still do sit in that position for . . . heck, all sorts of things. Reading books, playing video games, doing homework. . . . That is like the most comfortable way to play DS, sometimes! I still do it!

Later,

manaman

Matdredalia @ Jan 30th 2008 11:46PM

I can only do so much crouching due to back problems, and at 20 years old, my mom still nags me for doing this. I haven't done it with books in a LONG time, but I am frequently found pulling one of those crouches facing backwards on my couch or my PC chair with my DS. It really IS comfortable. Not to mention, people going "WTF, is the 20 year old hunched over POKEMON?"

Great picture!

Jose El Maton @ Jan 31st 2008 8:40AM

When I saw the crop on the front page, I thought, "I can see your barrel distortion!" But then I clicked the post and saw it was a wide angle converter.

Kailos @ Feb 1st 2008 5:34AM

Hi! I am the photographer ^^

The picture was taken the day after the wiseman days Jan, 7th (we have two presents days in Spain in XMAS).

I wasn�t driving, I was walking to my best friend house and I saw the boys and I just took my camera from my bag and shoot it!

Thanks for posting the picture ^^!

If you want to enjoy fully the picture use this link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kailos/2226497994/sizes/l/

RootiePatootie @ Feb 3rd 2008 3:49PM

This reminds me of a friend of mine who had two nephews who seemed to NEVER be without their Gameboy. But they were always laying on their back, usually on the floor, playing. Doesn't work for me but I'm an old lady :)