“Walking Through Darkness With Thoughts Full Of Colors”
My photo’s title, “Walking Through Darkness With Thoughts Full Of Colors” is a quote is from poet, Prajakta Mhadnak. It’s a shot of a man sitting on a sidewalk barrier playing music. The music, the spring flowers, the nice day, his colorful clothing all sent a message of joy and contentment. However, his posture sent a completely different message. This is because he simply sat there, head down. There was hardly any movement; not even in response to the music he was playing. All of this gave me the sense that he was despondent and lost. That quote seemed to convey the sense of the scene. So, I have used this quote as the title even though he isn’t “walking”.
Was he really despondent? Was it really some internal turmoil or was he in his mind “Walking through darkness with thoughts full of colors.”? Perhaps, I simply misinterpreted his posture as reflecting some internal darkness. The truth is, I will never know for sure. However, what I did take away from this was a reminder. Sometimes, we present a happy “face” to the world to mask our true feelings. Because of this, we all need to look more closely at what those around us are truly experiencing.
I Got Lucky
This shot is one of those “happy accidents”. When I went out last week, I had a particular shot all planned and did not intend to do any street photography. Despite all my careful planning and poring over Google maps etc. to verify my sightlines, I wasn’t able to even get a single shot. As the photography gods are wont to do, there was an unexpected and permanent obstacle blocking my view completely. All of my careful planning was for nothing.
Luckily, if over 45 years of taking photos has taught me anything, it is to expect the unexpected. Since I was already downtown, I decided to try some street photography. Despite being the fourth largest city in the country, Houston is not a fantastic place for street photography. This is because that for a variety of reasons, you don’t see as many people out in downtown as you might in other major cities. This is not to say you can’t find a good street shot; you just have to be more patient and work for it.
I was walking up Main St. and could hear that someone was playing music and soon saw that it was this man. There he was, sitting quietly on the barrier playing music. He was wearing a very joyous and vibrant outfit that fit in well with the beautiful spring flowers. I almost passed him by. But something about his pose in contrast to his clothes and the spring flowers kept tugging on my imagination. So I went back to get this shot. It was the right place at the right time. I guess sometimes you just get lucky.
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How have you had to adjust when you planned photo shoot didn’t work out? I’d love to hear your comments and feedback. Please leave a comment in the comment box below.
