One thing that I am looking forward to when I retire is the chance to hone my skills as a photographer. I stumbled on the DPS (digital photography school) website last week, signed up and received my first weekly newsletter which included a weekly photo challenge. Taking the weekly challenge seems like a good way for me to start thinking like a photographer. The challenge this week is to photograph naturally appearing circles on my weekly photo walk. I didn’t even know I was supposed to be taking a weekly photo walk! I hoped to add that to my weekly cardio run, but the two things did not mesh (don’t want to carry my camera while running, don’t want to stop and cause the run to take EVEN longer, don’t want to use my phone camera as it is then likely to forget to time my running and GOD FORBID I have to start that over!)
So I decided to combine grocery shopping with my photo walk. As I walked through the grocery store, I searched for circles to photo. Wow there are LOTS of circles in the grocery store. Of course, I did not bring the Nikon to the grocery store as I did not want a large camera hanging from my neck to draw too much attention. I figured my phone could probably manage to take photos without losing my grocery list (maybe). I was tempted by the perfect cabbage circles, the round red tomatoes, but finally decided to make my first shot of the plump melons. But I needed some contrast, so why not rearrange the honeydews in with the watermelons? After spending several minutes trying to hide price tags, I took my shot then looked around to be sure my produce re-arranging had not aroused any suspicions. Just in case, I did not take the time to separate them again.
Too many people around the pies, cakes, pizzas and sushi – all great circle choices. OK, I love the salmon pinwheels in the fresh fish display, but how do I get the helpful meat person to leave me alone a few minutes so I can take the shot. I tried to distract him by sending him down to the chicken to package a couple breasts for me but I was not satisfied with the rushed shot I had to make before he returned. After reviewing it, I decided to return and try once more and he was right there to help me. I smiled and confessed that I just needed a picture of his cute little salmon pinwheels. I think that was enough to convince him that I was crazy, but probably harmless.
After that close call, I decided that my next photo had to involve less risk. I had all of my groceries and was on the way out when I spotted the self service flower booth. At last a place where I could take a picture without any interference.
Happy with this last one and tired of the stress incurred by grocery photography, I decided to check out. As I left, I wondered how long the security people would spend watching the surveillance video trying to figure out what I was doing.
