Farmer's Market
I got my butt in gear and went out to the market to see if there were honeydew melons out yet. Nope. Nothing but beets and meats. But I did get some good photos.
I really like the photography. I think I'm pretty good at it. I wish I'd figured that out sooner. Of course, I think I would have been fairly BAD at photography back when that required math and a lot of fiddling around with knobs. All things in their time. There was no way of knowing that this would be something that I'd love so much and derive so much pleasure from doing until digital cameras became accessible enough that all you really need is a good eye and a watchful heart. That's kind of an understatement - I know I've learned a lot from experimenting with cropping (that's my primary means of "fixing" a photograph) and from a really fantastic book titled How To Photograph Absolutely Everything. Anyone who is interested in improving their casual/point-and-shoot photographic skills is bound to discover that just skimming it leads to a kind of stunning exponentially big leap forward. The author is all about teaching the little things that are easy to do and make a big difference.
Now that I'm home and am not doing high intensity travel I think I'm ready to move into a DSLR. My dad is getting a high-end DSLR through his university budget and I'm looking forward to getting to play with it. Having access to a really nice photographic rig will be Bonus #438 of living in Manhattan next year.
Here are my favorite snaps of the day:
(This one was a lucky accident - I'd actually been focusing on the flowers when this chick walked in front of me, and I didn't refocus on the tat in time to get a tack-sharp photo, not to mention the degraded quality of having to crop hard for composition).
Every time I see beets I think of Tom Robbins' Jitterbug Perfume, and Alobar's song:
...Alobar again directed his steps toward the east. His was the gait of expectation, a pace set more by intuition than by reason, a clip fueled more by vague hints of wonderment than by steady assessments of purpose...And as he passed through one exotic environment after another, learning languages, wearing out boots, he sang his little song:
"I love the ground-o, ground-o
A ball beneath my feet
The world is round-o, round-o
Just like a frigging beet."
Hope everyone is having a great weekend.