Manikins, Headless, on Michigan Avenue

I was attracted to this window display, looked at it so long that my photo Sherpa dragged me away muttering that he hadn’t been fed lately. That was a true statement, so we went to dinner, but then I insisted on walking down Michigan Avenue, mentioning what a romantic street it was for a late evening stroll.

Ha! In all honesty, I wanted to check out those manikins again. Something metaphorical about  plastic models with fake binoculars, all posed as if to be noticing something worth noticing. Yeah sure, the best part – the no-brain part.

Kinda like some photographers. Never really look, no I mean LOOK, at what they are photographing. Snap, snap, snap. Or even worse, snap because someone ELSE is snapping the shot. I LOVE when that happens!

A few days ago I was standing on a street corner and the metal rod structure of a trash can caught my attention. I liked the lines. Then I noticed a bumpy grille on the ground, painted orange. Hmm. I was composing in my head, trying for a combination using the trash can and the orange street. I walked around a few times. Lined up some shots, checked a few settings on my camera, I was fooling around, enjoying myself, doing some low angles, high angles.

And darn if this guy, perhaps in his mid-30s, maybe 5’5″, wearing a below knee length imitation fur coat, walks towards me and slows. Then stops. I can see him in my peripheral vision, and he’s watching me. He has a camera slung around his neck–big SLR, heavy glass.

Damn, if he didn’t, in a 3 second move – lift, snap, lower his camera. He got off a quick snapshot. I’m quite sure he wasn’t taking a photo of me, which may or may not have been amusing, but of MY trash can!

Here’s the photo I took:

Standing in Line for a Shot of THIS Trash Can?

Nice composition, yes? 🙂