What you looking at?

Today's blip is a bit of and experiment by me (the motives for which I am keeping to myself for the moment) and I actually had a series of shots that I could have used for this purpose before choosing the one I did.

For example, I got one shot of a lady putting her child into a child seat in the back of her car. I took a few shots mostly because I thought is was lunacy that she should be stuggling with this task on the 'traffic' side of her car right in front of a bus stop. It was clearly difficult (or the child was playing up more like, arching her back to avoid the constraint) and she took forvever - long enough for me to get my camera out of my bag, switch it on, compose, focus, re-compose for several shots, and then review and shut down and put the camera back away before she had succeeded - all the time holding up the bus and traffic behind her because she was hanging out of her back door...or at least, ber backside was. That's when I realised (rushing to get my camera back out to review) that the track suit bottoms she was wearing were way less flattering than she would have liked. They were being eaten. The sort of situation your best friend would definitely alert you to. Very similar to my blip a couple of weeks ago...only way way worse.

Then there was the discrimiation I noted on a shoe shop window that had proudly displayed "Ladies Boot Clearance'. So it's OK is you're a Lady, you can just drive up and they'll clear the boot of your car for you? What about the men. My boot needs clearing! But oh no, I'm not a lady! It's like those "Massive Rug Sale" signs. No good to me, I only buy small rugs.

But the shot I used, I chose because it demonstrated to me the constant problem we (particularly male) photographers have when out and about shooting. I was doing my favourite thing...Costa Coffee before making my way home, and was interested in the reflection in the recently cleaned Costa Window. It wasn't until afterwards that I noticed the two guys at the end looking straight at me. They were not happy. I had to gesticulate to them that I was just taking a shot of the window, not them. Of course it's ended up as them, which it may not have, had they not given me such filthy looks. Now I couldn't help myself speculating about them more;

They had arrived together. They stood outside presumably discussing what they were going to have. One entered to order whilst the other sat down. The orderer return with their coffees, syrup-thick looking expresso and one, more conservative, Latté. The orderer then sat at a different table. They then ignored each other, mostly watching girls go by when they would glance at each other and either grimmace or smile. They actually mouthed more at me, 20 yards away than they did to each other. (I think he mouthed "what?" at me, can't be sure, but it's what prompted me to gesticulate I was taking a shot of the window.)

Friendship undoubtedly takes many forms, but I couldn't help wondering if it was really me that was the strange one in the corner, by taking photos.