Impromptus photo shoot of pan handler (shooting from the hip)
Blind shooting
Was anybody awake during this morning's earthquake? And I mean that in the 30 JUL 2020 sense. Was it really 4:30 AM? I wear my wrist watch in bed because I was always trying to be ready to record how long a temblor lasts, but I've never really started the stop watch when an earthquake has hit in the past. Maybe I should consider taking my watch off at night. I might sleep better.
Been seeing black and white patrol units on my way to wherever I go these days and I'm always ready to start the camera on my smart phone. In fact, when I do step out, I usually have the app already on, so I don't have to wait for it boot when I need it This morning's copper had his left arm dangling from his window, as though signaling the person behind him that he's about to change lanes to the right. Kinda resembled 'the bird' as these days coppers are pretty much the nemesis in the the American scenario portraying government trying to run a country dictatorship style
I wasn't quite quick enough to capture the spectacle, and though it will stay in my memory as a symbolic memory byte of how I view law enforcement workers, I know now they know I'm attempting to spark a trend to go viral and coax everyone to shoot away when a patrol unit/peace officer appears (on their little smart phone cameras, with cheap smart phone photo apps that conserve memory space, yet still sustain metadata information like GPS location data and time and date info.)
So today at lunch, I walk several blocks to an eatery. Perhaps I will shoot the building and blog about it next time. As always, everywhere in L.A., somebody is down and out, either homeless, begging, both, defacating, peeing, etc. along my path. This one guy, comfortable sat upon the concrete sidewalk blurts out something in spanish. Possibly the term spanish speakers use to ask for a quarter: peseta. As I walk past him, my phone in hand, I think how perfect a picture would've been had I been carrying the camera in my other hand so as the lens was pointing at the subject. Well, on my way back to work from lunch, the same guy was still sat there. Obviously he wasn't waiting for a bus to come by and take him away, as I'm sure if a patrol unit came by and decided to harass the gentleman, he would simply have to claim that all he was doing was waiting for a ride (in front of the bus stop.) This time, although my hands were now busy carrying my lunch back to the office, the camera lens was pointing in the right direction where my subject lay.
Now the only thing I had to do was discreetly press the exposure button at just the right moment while I walk past the gentleman loiterer without altering my walking pace. Little did I know that the camera would make a sound effect that a photo was taken, which in one way is good in that I acknowledged that I indeed pressed the button when I had intended to, and it prove that I'm not in training to be a spy by doing this. Most people would simply just pull a quarter from their pocket and toss it at the poor guy.