A (parking) lot of conflict for a dull photo

Posted by Unknown
lot-of-conflict

Winding my way westward from the bottle depot at Ontario Street I stopped in a parking lot that I use as a shortcut between a street and an alley. I got it into my head to try and catch the multitude of specular highlights the setting sun was bouncing off the parked cars.

I was aiming the camera at the cars like you'd aim a rock you wanted to skip across the surface of a lake. I got one shot off before I heard:

"What the @%#☄ are you doing?"

The interrogative was much louder than that and came from behind me; a gentleman was inquiring about my occupation.

I answered with a question of my own: What did he think it looked like I was doing. Then I showed him by a sweep of my hand what I was photographing, and I urged him to come see for himself.

"What? The sun on the cars? Doesn't look that interesting!"

He'd obviously never seen my blog -- I offered to write down the URL for him, but he wasn't interested.

Turned out he was interested in car thieves. He took a good look at my bike and trailer and then at me and declared he didn't want people casing the cars in his parking lot.

I explained that I thought his head was in a difficult position to allow him to see things clearly. And then I reminded him of his right and obligation as a citizen to call the police if he suspected criminality.

Then we critiqued each others' attitude.

He got into his car. I took two more photos and got on my bike. We were both exiting the parking lot via the alley but I was in the lead. I slowed down to make extra sure I didn't rush into the lane and into the path of a delivery truck then I made room to let him by. We waved goodbye at each other.

Photos taken in anger are rarely much good. Click the image to enlarge it.
0 comments:

Post a Comment