Over a month of shooting the action on Mission Beach’s boardwalk from the vantage point of an overhead balcony, I was able to make dozens of portraits of runners, walkers, skaters, and cyclists. In this portrait of a man and young child slowly cycling below me, I express contrasts in age, scale, gesture and costume to tell a story about protection. The child is seated within a vividly colored plastic safety seat, his colorful helmet incongruously larger than the head within it. The boldly tattooed man protectively touches the child’s shoulder with one hand, and grasps a handlebar of with the other. Stripped to waist, he starkly contrasts in scale and costume to the child. The child gazes towards us, as the man carefully moves his bicycle through, and then out, of my frame.