Spock Misses The Point

This was taken with my old Canon G3 digital camera.  I dug it out for the Amazing Sydney Flickrace.  As I was hunting for photographs for the event, I also took some for myself.  This was the only keeper from this camera’s lot.

The G3 was my first camera, and my only digital.  I had forgotten how much shutter lag this thing had.  I stood pretty much next to coffee girl here.  It would not have been more than 3ft.  For a good moment or two, I was waiting for the little beastie to make the exposure, but she didn’t turn away or walk away.  It was a surprise.  A pleasant surprise.  All through the day I kept checking this photograph on the screen.  The more I looked at it, the more I liked it, even on a little 2 inch screen.

This is probably the most up close photograph of a stranger in the street I’ve ever taken.  So it marks a kind of milestone for me.  It is also one of my favourite at the moment.  Not just because of the proximity, but because of the look in her eyes.  She was a stranger in every sense.  We never spoke a word.  However, that look probably sums up why I enjoy the kind of street photography that I do now, better than I can in words.

I’d also like to add this photograph of Max to the current train of thought.  I had a brief conversation with Max before this photograph.  So it’s not totally unposed like coffee girl, but it makes a similar point about eyes.

The eyes do have it, but what is it that the eyes have?

I’m not sure if I can satisfactorily describe what the eyes have, but I do feel that people who look into cameras share something of themselves, firstly with the photographer when the photograph is taken, and then with the viewers of the photograph when it is shown.  Perhaps what the camera records then is an exchange of some sort between two souls.  It’s almost magical that this kind of fleeting unquantifiable exchange which often defies explanation can exist in a photograph for eternity.

This is one of the reasons why I continue to scare myself silly and beat myself blue trying to photograph strangers.

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