Excursion

My eyeglasses were an annoyance. Though it was painful to try seeing without them, they made it impossible to get a clear view through the viewfinder of my Mamiya. Every time I needed to compose a shot, I had to shove my glasses up onto my forehead to get them out of the way, returning them to their normal position as soon as the photo was taken.

This slowed me down quite a bit, and I felt I needed to hurry. Though I would have preferred to casually stroll the neighborhood, self-consciousness made me move rapidly through the streets, looking all around for subjects, composing and photographing quickly and moving on. For I felt that I really didn't belong here. The denizens of the neighborhood, who eyed me and my camera warily, were clearly not of my kind. While I felt no ill will toward them, I can't say they felt the same about me. The area contained nothing which was conventionally considered photogenic, so the presence of my camera and my obvious curiousity undoubtedly made them uneasy. And I lacked the charisma necessary to put them at ease.

So while the streets had no shortage of fascinating potential subjects, human and otherwise, my abbreviated stay resulted in photographs which were less than satisfying, and failed to capture the neighborhood's vital essence.