Well, so much for good intentions. First the weather was off for about two weeks, then Da Beat was off feeling "under the weather" or however the saying goes, and then it was just too busy, so Da Beat hasn't taken the chance to roam the streets.
Interestingly, he did find out that good street photography apparently is more about missed opportunities than it is about decisive moments. Three brilliant scenes come to mind:
1. A man came walking right towards Da Beat wearing a polo-shirt which read "Polo Challenge", probably referring to the game. He however was of such constitution, at the verge of obesity, that a polo shirt just didn't fit the character at all and appeared to be a challenge of its own.
da Beat doesn't generally like to make fun of people, but he supposes in case of streetgenre you have to overcome some of your inhibitions.
2. A little girl was standing in front of a giant rack of sunglasses for sale. "Sungazer"
3. A couple of kids are playing at a local fountain. it's a wall with several fountains spraying sideways. One kid is staring intently at the fountains, but his posture looks like he's peeing. It was a good balance between a kid fascinated by the fountains and the suggestive posture.
What then is Da Beat's bad excuse for not shooting these images? Well, he really has none, other then maybe the startup time of the camera which is horribly long and it doesn't have a sleepmode. In addition, it has no viewfinder, which feels just plain stupid when holding the crappy thing somewhere at armlength trying to judge a decisive moment off of a little screen with zero brightness. But Ihe's working on the gear and hopes to have something with an actual viewfinder soon enough.
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da Beat did manage to shoot a scene just today, but it does require a bit of background story. I don't believe the image has any merit of its own.
When Da Beat was young he used to read the Karl May westerns and he has always remembered a description of an excruciating method of torture apparently executed by the natives. They would tie a subject to a tree, fix his head, shave it, and then let water drop slowly on to the forehead. The subject would eventually go crazy. It struck Da Beat as an effective means of torture.
The guy in the picture is waiting for his breakfast, an excruciating ordeal of its own, and with the sign and all Da Beat was reminded of Karl May.