A picture of a woman walking past an ATM. This was a picture I didn't erase from my camera for some reason and I offer it here from my computer file, to assuage the needs of those strange men who occasionally drop in on my website and complain about the lack of sex appeal. Wasilla Bill: I am trying to toe the fine line between intrusion and Alaskan reticence.
I find Key West and the Lower Keys endlessly fascinating for some reason. I enjoy the light, the play of shadows and colors, the peculiar architecture and the strange mores of people on vacation who wear clothes and behave as though they are strangers in town, mid Western rectitude be damned. And then I get endless requests for pictures of women. Having complied let me move on. As befits a man of my limited sense of humor the bicycle below struck me as an extreme way of evading the tow away zone restriction. The car driver should do likewise.
I noticed this magnificent flight of stairs worn by the passage of time and doubtless many feet. It probably leads to numerous dingy apartments the building was never originally designed to accommodate. Rents are probably quite high as they have to be in a town where property ownership is expensive and people probably forget to notice the things that amuse and interest me.
So who, I ask myself would defile this lovely flight of stairs from another time, with a bottle of beer in a brown bag? Someone who no longer notices his surroundings perhaps. But the bottle was not alone, there was a companion sitting on the sidewalk. I see a recycling opportunity but I took a picture instead. It's what I do.
I love louvered windows in the old fashioned Florida style. I'm not sure I want to live with them through the summer but to look at in someone else's home they are perfect. 
Wandering Key West is all about noticing. And if you are me photographing.
I find Key West and the Lower Keys endlessly fascinating for some reason. I enjoy the light, the play of shadows and colors, the peculiar architecture and the strange mores of people on vacation who wear clothes and behave as though they are strangers in town, mid Western rectitude be damned. And then I get endless requests for pictures of women. Having complied let me move on. As befits a man of my limited sense of humor the bicycle below struck me as an extreme way of evading the tow away zone restriction. The car driver should do likewise.I noticed this magnificent flight of stairs worn by the passage of time and doubtless many feet. It probably leads to numerous dingy apartments the building was never originally designed to accommodate. Rents are probably quite high as they have to be in a town where property ownership is expensive and people probably forget to notice the things that amuse and interest me.So who, I ask myself would defile this lovely flight of stairs from another time, with a bottle of beer in a brown bag? Someone who no longer notices his surroundings perhaps. But the bottle was not alone, there was a companion sitting on the sidewalk. I see a recycling opportunity but I took a picture instead. It's what I do.I love louvered windows in the old fashioned Florida style. I'm not sure I want to live with them through the summer but to look at in someone else's home they are perfect. 
Wandering Key West is all about noticing. And if you are me photographing.
7 comments:
Mr Conchscooter:
I think you need more lessons from Jack "what's his name" from PA.
which is better ? a female photo in front of a bank machine, or a female photo at the beach ?
bob
Riding the Wet Coast
And I -one who makes money at photography somehow, some way- thinks you need to keep noticing the details. The true beauty is in them.
Every blog post should include at least one detail shot, Michael.
Greg P. in WV, where it's hotter right now than it is in Key West. I kid you not.
Dear Bob, jack gives his advice freely and effusively but he is off Key West diary because I post too often or something like that. Greg thinks this blog is part of his editorial board and every comment comes with gratuitous unsolicited advice from a pro. Whatever. I fumble along doing what I do because it pleases me. That it pleases a thousand other people every day astonishes me.
I don't think there is such a thing as "Alaska Reticence" and I fear that even with my clarification my statement has been misinterpreted.
When someone is in public, then of course, photograph them as you see them. That is how they expect to be seen, whether in a parka, dress, bikini or not even.
Your statement was understood perfectly and I take heart from the idea that photogrpahing them as you see them in public is spkendid.
My joke was misunderstood. We don't see bikinis in evidence in your blog, not because of reticence I dare say but temperature. Enforced reticence if you like.
Once, I photographed a lady in a bikini at -36 standing outside her beauty saloon in Barrow for a story in a national publication. It was so long ago I cannot remember which one.
It was a very brief photo shoot.
... I meant "salon" although a beauty saloon could be interesting.
And it was part tanning salon.
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