Diary of a Failsauce Photographer

[olivermoss]

I was passed by someone riding a bike that was hauling an art piece with BLM posters on it and fire on top. I missed the shot because my camera settings were all wrong. I'd had them set to try to get pictures of the Fairy Graveyard in someone's garden. Makes sense with all the fairy houses here they they also have a graveyard somewhere. Anyway, it was my fault for not being ready because I ignored his herald, a guy on an adult tricyle with the upside down flag blasting a boombox at midnight down a residential street. You live in Portland long enough, you learn to tune out the hold over hippies cruising around.

Well, sort of. I realized that I hadn't actually seen a hold over hippy bicyclist trying to be attention grabby in years. Hold over hippy culture here is likely dying out here. I've fallen into the trap that a lot of photographers do, of dismissing interesting things they've seen too often.

Since I knew I couldn't get my camera settings fixed fast enough I tried with my iPhone and this is all I got:



I am so pissed I missed the shot. On my actual camera the shot is a blur because I had it on a slow shutter speed.

I've lived here a long ass time and 'I missed photographing the protest art on wheels with fire on top because I was trying to shoot a fairy graveyard' might rate as one of the most Portlandy sentences I've ever written.

Comments

[sperrywink]

Hippie Portland is the stuff of my PDX nostalgia.

Better next time getting the shot.

[olivermoss]

I haven't seen much of the holdover hippies since they were protesting the measure to add fluoride to our water. I really wish I'd gotten those shots last night.

[lynnenne]

The photo you DID get looks almost like a watercolor. Maybe you could turn it into art?

[olivermoss]

Eh, maybe. That watercolor effect is what is looks like when the camera phone is going 'I can't actually see what I am shooting, so I am going to use an algorithm to guess!' A lot of camera phones do that a lot anyway, but when it really borks out it looks like that.