![](http://tomdills.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/DSF8781-1280x853.jpg)
We were sitting at breakfast one morning, waiting for our food. I was looking up at the dining room ceiling and decided to take a few pictures. A really nice man at the table next to me turned and asked, “could I see what you were taking pictures of?” I showed him the screen on my camera, and I can’t remember exactly what he said, but it was something like “fascinating” or “interesting” or “excuse me I need to go now.” Just kidding about the last one. 😉
![](http://tomdills.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/DSF8782-1280x853.jpg)
![](http://tomdills.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/DSF8784-1280x853.jpg)
![](http://tomdills.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/DSF8783-1280x853.jpg)
Wow! Your world, I believe, is a much more exciting world than for most of us who can’t or refuse to see what you see even while sitting at the next table right beside you! Lines, shapes, colors, light and shadows all make for Wow visuals.
Thank you, Don. Quite a testimony coming from one of my favorite photographers! Yes, there is plenty to see when we just take the time to look. Often in the least likely places.
Yes, some just do not look and see. I must count myself in that category for a few years of my life. I’ve been seeing much better the past 20 years or so. Keep on looking and seeing!
Consider it done, Monte! I need to carry my camera more, as I often see things to photograph when I’m ‘supposed’ to be doing something else. 😉
I don’t use my 4×5 camera much anymore (I miss it…) but back when 98% of the photographs I made were with a big camera on a big tripod, I’d often get this from bystanders:
“Is it taking a picture now?”
“No.”
“OK if I stand in front of it, then?”
“Sure”
And then they would line themselves up *right* in front of the camera so that their field of view was the same as mine (or so they guessed) and then they’d take a picture.
There is this sense that we must be seeing something that they can’t see… which I suppose is true in some ways, but… it’s there in front of everyone’s eyes. Looking vs. seeing.
Great images.
I’ve had similar experiences, including the two photos I’ll attempt to link to here.
The photo I was taking:
http://tomdills.com/glory/2010-06_glory-6/
The person who wanted to take the photo I was taking (house coat and all!):
http://tomdills.com/projects/poptp/2018-12_poptp-0272/
A NC photographer I’ve taken workshops with has a set of “rules” for photography. One of them is “Tripods Draw Crowds.” I can’t tell you how many overlooks I’ve pulled into on the Blue Ridge Parkway, when minutes after getting my tripod out the place is overrun by cars. Then many of them pull away because they couldn’t figure out what I was doing!