Stop Press!

This was just going to be a photo of randomly parked bicycles and scooters set against the impossibly beautiful Grand Theatre in Bordeaux, then this chap came into the frame….and stopped suddenly….and made the photo! Clearly page two of his newspaper was so engaging that it stopped him in his tracks.  Thankfully, the widespread adoption of pedestrian areas in many places is allowing people to wander around and stop when they please, rather than being channelled on to a narrow strip at the side of a road, the crossing of which usually needs to be done in a state of high alertness in order to avoid a collision with a vehicle.

Sorry there I go again.  Anyway, the chap probably didn’t know I was there, let alone taking a picture, particularly as I was using a Nikon 4500 which, with a screen that could be revolved independently of the lens, made for quite a good stealth camera in “waist-finder” mode….despite the shutter-lag, lack of pixels, sensor noise, very small screen, slow zoom etc. I could go on at length about how bad the camera was from a modern day perspective, but I actually loved using it and was disappointed that Nikon didn’t carry on with the swivel-body concept. It enabled the world to be viewed as you wanted it to be rather than being restricted by the use of a viewfinder or fixed screen.  A Canon G11 has replaced it….sort of.

Back to the photo. Bicycles and scooters (the connection with the photo in last posting) are commonly found parked randomly in towns and cities all over mainland Europe. People in Britain might regard such informality as untidy and worthy of some regulation.  It’s probably better however to accept the randomness, obviously ensuring that it doesn’t affect how disabled people get around etc, because people will feel more inclined to cycle in and around their localities.

As for the next photo, I can tell you that the connection will be the colour pink.