Sunday, March 20, 2005
Moto-Photo
I've been commuting to my current job since mid-October, and I keep noticing potentially photo-worthy scenes along the way. Sometimes, a slight variation in the route will reveal new possibilities. I don't usually bring a camera along every day, so I rely on making mental notes when I see things of interest.
The other morning, I took B(2)(a), which has me sitting for a while in a left-turn-lane just across from Fishpaw's a local package-goods and convenience store. Waiting for the southbound traffic to clear, I noticed a row of green gooseneck lamps mounted on the side of the building. On this sunny morning, they cast long, graceful shows. Mental note.
Much closer to work, along the periphery of Baltimore-Washington International Airport, I had the choice to either zig or zag among the local street network on that end of the commute. I chose to zag, which took me placed me at just the right position and angle to see some cool reflections in one of buidings in the swatch of business parks around the airport. Mental note.
Amazingly, for me, I remembered my mental notes on each of the next two mornings before leaving home, but they were both very overcast days - the scenes I had scoped out needed sunshine to work.
But Friday morning dawned clear and bright, so the camera bag was on the passenger seat as I left for work.
Wouldn't you know - there was a giant beer truck parked right in front of the row of lamps I wanted to photograph. I had figured that a telephoto shot straight-on from the traffic island would work best. So change of plans - I took a few photos of some individual lamps further along the building, including this one.
Fishpaws in the Morning
Then I walked across the southbound lane and up to the building to take some more shots. At that point, a car with a license plate that read "FISHPAWS" pulled up and a very nice but worried-looking young woman got out and asked if she could be of any help to me (translation: what the hell are you doing taking pictures of my store?. I explained and showed her a few photos on the LCD of my Digital Rebel, which immediately brightened her disposition and seemed to ease her mind.
Onward to the morning's second target, Airport Square. The building sits at an elevation that's maybe 40 feet below the adjacent road. I had already taken a number of shots from the shoulder of the road when I noticed a young fellow driving by below, with that familiar worried look.
Airport Square Reflection
A few minutes later, there was a reception party of two, the young man and a woman, both from building security, to greet me as I walked back to my car. I went through my Friendly Fotographer routine, showed them a few of the photos I'd taken, and gave them my card. They seemed happy enough and said something about being relieved that I wasn't from the tax assessor's office (although I don't see how that would be within the purview of "security.")
People are just nervous about photographing any sort of infrastructure or property these days. I understand it, but it's really too bad. At least so far, I haven't run into anything as dramatic and frightening as what happened to Bill Emory, a talented professional photographer from Charlottesville, who had a run-in with a security officer near the White House last year (be sure to listen to the audio of the encounter on that last linked page.)
On a more fun note, as I walked from my car to my building Friday morning, I once again checked out the reflections in the cars. Aha! A shiny black Mercedes!.... so here is the latest in my Auto-Art series:
Eine kleine Tagesreflexion
There are two basic routes I can take on my 20-mile daily trek, let's call them A, the usual, and B, the alternative. A is pretty much fixed to follow a few highways, but B has a couple of variations and sub-mutations along this or that local street.Note to self: in your case, making a mental note may not be the best way to ever get around to doing what the mental note is for
The other morning, I took B(2)(a), which has me sitting for a while in a left-turn-lane just across from Fishpaw's a local package-goods and convenience store. Waiting for the southbound traffic to clear, I noticed a row of green gooseneck lamps mounted on the side of the building. On this sunny morning, they cast long, graceful shows. Mental note.
Much closer to work, along the periphery of Baltimore-Washington International Airport, I had the choice to either zig or zag among the local street network on that end of the commute. I chose to zag, which took me placed me at just the right position and angle to see some cool reflections in one of buidings in the swatch of business parks around the airport. Mental note.
Amazingly, for me, I remembered my mental notes on each of the next two mornings before leaving home, but they were both very overcast days - the scenes I had scoped out needed sunshine to work.
But Friday morning dawned clear and bright, so the camera bag was on the passenger seat as I left for work.
Wouldn't you know - there was a giant beer truck parked right in front of the row of lamps I wanted to photograph. I had figured that a telephoto shot straight-on from the traffic island would work best. So change of plans - I took a few photos of some individual lamps further along the building, including this one.
Fishpaws in the Morning
Then I walked across the southbound lane and up to the building to take some more shots. At that point, a car with a license plate that read "FISHPAWS" pulled up and a very nice but worried-looking young woman got out and asked if she could be of any help to me (translation: what the hell are you doing taking pictures of my store?. I explained and showed her a few photos on the LCD of my Digital Rebel, which immediately brightened her disposition and seemed to ease her mind.
Onward to the morning's second target, Airport Square. The building sits at an elevation that's maybe 40 feet below the adjacent road. I had already taken a number of shots from the shoulder of the road when I noticed a young fellow driving by below, with that familiar worried look.
Airport Square Reflection
A few minutes later, there was a reception party of two, the young man and a woman, both from building security, to greet me as I walked back to my car. I went through my Friendly Fotographer routine, showed them a few of the photos I'd taken, and gave them my card. They seemed happy enough and said something about being relieved that I wasn't from the tax assessor's office (although I don't see how that would be within the purview of "security.")
People are just nervous about photographing any sort of infrastructure or property these days. I understand it, but it's really too bad. At least so far, I haven't run into anything as dramatic and frightening as what happened to Bill Emory, a talented professional photographer from Charlottesville, who had a run-in with a security officer near the White House last year (be sure to listen to the audio of the encounter on that last linked page.)
On a more fun note, as I walked from my car to my building Friday morning, I once again checked out the reflections in the cars. Aha! A shiny black Mercedes!.... so here is the latest in my Auto-Art series:
Eine kleine Tagesreflexion
