I love taking photos of children, but I never ask them to pose. The challenge is getting their sweetest smile, their frowns, their cries, and just about every expression of innocence before either the uneasiness or the rambunctiousness of being the subject of a photograph sets in.

These are the children of Lapinig as they played, milled around us, and just be themselves.

Lapinig is a sitio (community) in barangay Marilog (a barangay is the smallest unit of governance in the Philippines; Davao City has 181 barangays in its more or less 255,000-hectare land area.

It’s in the remote areas of Davao City, upstream of Davao River.