When You Overstay Your Welcome As a Street Photographer
Interacting with me.
I got called on something last weekend. It was a fair call, too. I have talked about fishing. It turns out under certain circumstances I can fish for a long, long time at a fairly close range. At some point, it stops being fishing and starts being stalking or maybe creepy intrusion. I over stayed my welcome and was asked to move on.
Now, I don’t always get called on it. This fellow just cheerfully ignored me. He was having a happy time being a greeter. I was having a happy time being a photographer.
What I get interested in are the folks who are hired to stand outside of the honky-tonks and act as greeters. Their “uniforms” are often cowboy hats and boots. Did I mention beards? That is cool. They check IDs, provide security, and encourage people to go into their bar. The greeters at The Stage on Broadway are particularly good at getting people in the door. It is fascinating to watch them, but really hard to get a picture that is self-explanatory. Getting both the greeter’s gesture and the person he is greeting in the same frame is practically mission impossible for me. On those rare occasions when things appear to be lining up, someone walks through the frame. So, I will stand and wait long periods of time. Last weekend it was too long.
To be honest, the particular greeter had my attention because he was so darned cute. But that is the nature of The Stage on Broadway greeters. I do not have a picture of him because it seemed only right to delete the three that had been taken, since he was offended. Further honesty, it was an easy decision because none of the pictures were anything to write home about, as we say colloquially in the US.
This fellow also did not call me on it. He chose to interact with me, as evidenced by the pose on the side picture.
I can take censure pretty hard, so when I returned to Nashville on Saturday, a pretty deep breath was required in order for me start taking pictures. It turned out to be a fairly straightforward day. I did not stalk any greeters, but considered it fair game to take a photo and keep moving. I did hang around a happy crowd at Johnny Cash’s place. I have not looked at the bounty yet. I usually wait a couple of days before I download. I am hopeful because I can feel my mood lift when things are going well. I must have communicated that because a nice young man insisted on taking this picture of me with my phone.