Tag Archives: street

Guitar Man

Guitar Man

So, out shooting around Grandin Village and I’ll be darned if this guy didn’t come walking around the corner. Not what you expect to see often, though perhaps it’s not unusual around Grandin Village.

A moment or two of uncoordinated bluster and almost without thinking, I’m asking if he minds me taking a photo of him. “No” he says, and strikes a suitably musical pose.

“Ka-Chunk” goes the F-1, I wind on and thank him. We head off on our separate artistic ways. I could get the hang of this street portraiture thing, perhaps.

On street shooting

I’m not sure I’m cut out to be a street shooter. I like photographing city scenes, but I’m not much good when it comes to asking strangers for permission to take a photo and not much better at just taking a photo without asking first. Even though I personally wouldn’t be bothered by either of those things happening to me if I even noticed; it’s a public area after all.

A recent photo walk in Roanoke did teach me something though: pack hand sanitizer in your gear bag, or in your pocket if you’re going light a-la Cartier-Bresson. You never know who you might end up shaking hands with. I’m no clean freak by any means (I hate those commercials which imply you’re a bad parent if you don’t spray everything your children might so much as look at with anti-bacterial chemicals!) but sometimes, it just seems like a good idea.