I have posted this previously on the "words" part of my plasticlens site, but thought it might be a suitable anecdote to share here for those who haven't discovered the incredibly wise and witty banter on my site
How many times do we drive down the road, busy, busy going places and we see something, say for example, an abandoned rusted out car, lit just right by the setting sun, or as another example, a large group of goths emerging from the train station after a big night out...so, we see something and think "That would make a good photo" - but do...nothing about it, we keep driving, or whatever, because we are too busy, busy, busy to slow down, pull over and take the camera out of our bag and snap a shot or two.
Hang on, lets stop for a moment ~ Q: Everyone reading this always carries
at least one camera with them wherever they go, right? Right? Of course we do! If not, why not? Sure, you can capture a moment in your memory, but as far as my current knowledge of neurological sciences goes, no-one can extract that vision from your memory to share with others...yet.
Anyway back to the potential photograph you
almost took - I know I've let many moments such as this slip past, and later on regretted it. I wonder how often others do. Do we really need to get to wherever we are going so quickly that we can't pause to smell the metaphorical flowers? This question brings to mind the occasion where I
did stop to take a shot I thought would work. It was of a golden Buddha sitting outside a local shop/cafe and looked so shiny and just plain photographable that I decided to make a u-turn pull over and take a photo. It was only when I got closer to the statue that I could read what was on a sign hanging round its neck (I hadn't even registered the sign as I was driving past, just the lovely goldenness of the thing itself) and what the sign said was this:
"More Buddhas and Gods Inside"
I don't know about you, but these words changed what would have been a "quite nice" golden Buddha statue photo into a very interesting (and kind of funny) one in my eyes. I wouldn't have even seen the sign if I didn't take the time to pull over and look.
There is an added photographic karma angle to this anecdote, because a moment after I took the golden Buddha photo, a local character named Des came out of the shop. Des is a spiritual healer & fondly known locally as "Papa Desi" "Baba Des" and "The Wizard" to name a few of his a.k.a's. He is frequently seen on the street dressed in usually colourful garb of eastern influence walking with a distinctive cane (he has over 20 different canes I'm told) on this occasion, one with a polished metal skull on top. As my wife put it, he looks like he could have stepped off the set of Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy.
As far as being a
wonderful subject for a portrait, well, say no more! Des is a great bloke and has kindly posed for my cameras before, so there I had another nice shot. But wait, there's more (that's right, not only do you get the steak knives, but you also get a free chopping board!) - right after I photographed Des, the owner of the shop, Chris, came out. Chris for all intentents and purposes, could be Frank Zappa's double. So I then captured both Chris and Des on film together. Sheer serendipity!
I think there's something in this little story for all of us...don't you?
Happy Snapping!
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