Fast times at SFMOMA

I was dropping off my wares for Shadowshop & thought the museum might be a nice change of pace from all those food & transit photos. Plus, perhaps a tad more touristed & therefore less weird of a place to request a photo.

My photographer was leaning up against the corner of the building, doing nothing. He looked like he had all the time in the world. Don’t know why I provided him with a bit more direction than usual: “Would you mind taking a picture of me in front of the museum?”

He responded very quickly & efficiently, taking the camera as he uttered a small syllable that communicated both his assent & the fact that English was not his first language. We stepped backwards away from each other, I toward the windows, he out to the middle of the sidewalk. He snapped the picture & then handed the camera back to me, I thanked him, looked at the picture, showed it to him, he nodded & I thanked him again & was on my way, wondering how much, if any, English he actually spoke.

The whole thing took maybe half a minute.

Rockridge BART

I threw items willynilly into a big bag & tore out of the house afraid of missing BART. One of the things I grabbed was my camera, because we were going out for Mom’s birthday. When I flung myself onto the platform I realized that 1) I had a whole 3 minutes before my train, & 2) I could get a photo session in!

I walked down the platform toward my preferred end where you get a nice view of the city, thinking maybe I’d get someone to take my picture with that view in the background. However, when I approached my photographer we were facing the wrong directions for that & I realized that if I walked around to have the view in back of me, it would force her to turn around & away from her bag that was between her feet, & furthermore the other people sharing her circular bench (is it still a bench if it’s a circle?) would be in the way.

I’m not sure why she decided she had to stand up to take the picture; my guess is for a more flattering angle since I was standing. She expressed a mild lack of confidence, I explained how to press the button halfway down first & then all the way down, & then I watched her kind of struggle with it a little bit. She kept moving the camera around within a fairly small range quite near her face (bearing out my theory about camera-eye proximity correlating with age) & neither of us seemed sure that she was even taking any pictures. She asked me to repeat the thing about halfway & then all the way. Finally she seemed to get the hang of it & asked me to check to make sure that she actually got a picture. I thanked her, she complimented my coat, & I thanked her again for that. Yes I am a lucky duck to get hooked up with this coat!

I know, I said this wasn’t a fashion blog, & truly I gave so little thought to what I was wearing as I ran out of the house, it’s completely ironic to then be documented in such fancy togs.

Tuesday market

The Tuesday farmer’s market is actually a pretty tough place to do this project. It’s not like weekend markets where a lot of people are just hanging out. During the week, everyone is on a mission, intent on the food. Hands are full of produce carried in a thousand awkward ways, fingers are sticky with fruit juice from all the samples, there is much jockeying for position to weigh & pay. People are not really available for this sort of thing. Last time I fudged one of my rules & asked an idle massage therapist.

I didn’t want to do that this time. I was almost out of the place & about to give up (as I have in weeks past) when here came a man carrying nothing at all, & if he wasn’t exactly strolling, he wasn’t beelining either.

He asked, “Do you want the fruit & everything?”

Of course I want the fruit!

Beach

Harbor porpoises (I think) curve out of the water in the distance. Sea lions poke their heads out of the waves like friendly dogs. Sanderlings run along ahead of me, eating teensy little crabs. Naked kids playing with umbrellas. Not too many people, even though it’s a holiday. Then, a man & a woman walking toward me. They smile & say hello. When I ask for a picture, the man says “She’s really good at it.”

She immediately goes for the vertical & asks if I want my feet in it. I tell her it doesn’t matter.

Sure enough, she’s good at it.

Bus Stop

By this time I was thinking I should look for an older African American man, but then I spotted today’s photographer, a plump woman with close-cropped graying hair, waiting at the bus stop. “I’m not good with electronics,” she cautioned me. I assured her that it was really easy, gave her instructions, & she tried a couple shots. I showed her the results, saying “See, you did it!” Still she preferred giving all credit to the camera: “It’s one of those wonder machines.” (Remember what I was saying before about younger people being more comfortable with technology?)