BUS STORY # 386 (Every Picture Tells A Story)

On the buses, © All Rights Reserved, a photo by La cervelle en été on Flickr.

There are times I wish I could just pull out my camera and take a picture of certain co-riders.

But I don’t.

I don’t because I’ve seen and heard about too many folks who get upset when some stranger takes their picture.

I had such an experience myself way back in 2006, when I was taking the photo for Bus Story # 14. I was standing across the street taking a picture of the Rapid Ride stop in front of the Talin grocery store, and a guy waiting there called out he didn’t want his picture taken.

He was the only person there -- I’d waited on purpose until after the bus had come and picked everyone up so there wouldn’t be anyone in the picture.

I called out to him that I didn’t want him in my picture, either, but I wanted a picture of the bus stop, and would he please move.

To my surprise, he did. I framed the shot, then motioned him to move further away. And he did.

I remember thinking maybe the guy was wanted somewhere, or wasn’t supposed to be in Albuquerque, and was afraid his photo appearing God knows where would give him away. And I remember laughing to myself because I knew he was too far away for my point-and-shoot to come anywhere close to capturing his face. But given today’s technology...

I’ve thought about sneaking photos with my phone, but the sneaking part leaves me feeling uncomfortable. I once saw someone angrily accused of doing that. I don’t know whether he was really sneaking a photo or he just had the bad luck to run into a paranoid.

I know from pouring over what must by now be thousands of Flickr photos that a lot of amateur photographers simply ask their subjects if they would mind being photographed. But I worry such a request would be taken as an insult, as a foregone conclusion that whatever it was I’d found noteworthy about their appearance could not possibly be complimentary.

And so I keep my camera and my phone to myself.

Lately, I’ve been reading about Google Glass, a computer you wear like glasses and can use to take pictures or videos of what you’re looking at. Even at this early stage, outside developers are already working on apps that will make the picture-taking a stealth behavior.

However, there have also been some very unpleasant encounters between Google Glass wearers and people who recognized what they were wearing. One fast food customer in France had his glasses ripped off his face by an irate counter clerk.

I don’t think I’d try wearing those on the bus anytime soon.

The consolation for not having the photographic image is the exercise of describing what I’ve seen, and why what I’ve seen is noteworthy to me. That has also been one of the real pleasures of the portrait series.

Still, there are times I’d love to have the photographic image. Next week’s portrait of an old cowboy is one of those times.

__________


The photo at the top of this story is titled “On the buses,” © All Rights Reserved, and is posted with the permission of La cervelle en été. You can see all La cervelle en été’s photos on Flickr here.

__________


Thanks to BB in Boston for this week's featured bus story: One January in: Boston.