Assignment 1: Reflections

Lake Daniel Greenway
I started down the Lake Daniel Greenway from the N. Mendenhall end. The park was fairly empty, and only a couple of people jogged past me as I walked down the path. From a distance, I saw two people on the basketball court, and I decided to approach them. I explained I was a photo student and asked if they would mind me photographing them. "They" were a man, probably in his mid-forties, and a boy, probably in his early teens. I don't believe they were related, although they might have been. I also don't recall how they called each other, except the man called the boy "Buddy" a few times, which I believe was as a term of endearment rather than a name. The man seemed to be some kind of mentor, nonetheless. I moved around the court and took pictures for about ten minutes, as the two practiced shooting, passing, and guarding, perhaps for actual practice or maybe just for fun. I don't recall the specifics of their conversation, partly from lack of basketball terminology knowledge probably, but I don't remember much beyond some friendly taunting and advice. I was also fairly focused on the shots I was taking, and capturing both their fast-paced practice and the brief moments of respite between. I didn't interact with the two beyond asking if they minded me shooting them and thanking them before I departed.

Downtown Greensboro
I started strolling through Center City park--there were maybe a dozen people total, a few small groups scattered about. A couple of children were playing with a football near one fountain, and a couple of young women watching after them at the base of a nearby fountain. After several minutes of running and play, the little girl in the red coat went and rested her head on the lap of one of the conversing women. I did not interact with any of them, and they left not long after I took a few shots of them--perhaps they knew I wasn't just taking pictures of the sunset-lit buildings. I never got close enough to hear any exchange between the children or the women, and could only visually read the affectionate gestures between them.
I continued wandering some of the streets downtown that evening, searching for shots I could take as unobtrusively and inconspicuously as possible. It felt rather strange and awkward, much more so than when I did similar things in Japan. Part of it I think is because this place is home to me, even though not those streets specifically--but I'm native to this area. People are always wandering around with cameras in Japan, especially in Kyoto, where I stayed for several months. Even the locals are camera-happy. Now, shop and restaurant owners there can be twitchy about people taking pictures of or in their establishment, and I actually had more leeway in situations like those just by being a foreigner. In Japan, they see clearly that you're a foreigner (at least if you're clearly not Asian as I am not) and the next sensible conclusion is that you're a tourist. They don't exactly expect tourists to know all the rules...in fact, the Japanese in general expect a foreigner to not know their language or even customs. In Japan, it was expected that I carry a camera and take pictures everywhere I went, even in settings where it was not encouraged or allowed. Here, I don't look like a tourist, even if I have that same exploratory feeling in my gut. People on the streets here also tend to be more camera shy, or at least not busy enough to not be camera shy.
I found a fantastic site for a photo by a billboard, part of which said "What are you thinking?" Unfortunately there was not much pedestrian traffic along that particular sidewalk, but I made note of it as a potential site to stake out later.
As I was walking down--it was either S. Elm or S. Greene St.--a young woman caught my eye, sitting and smoking out on one of the porch-inlets of a restaurant which hadn't opened for dinner yet. I approached her, explained I was doing some street photography for a class, and asked if I could snap some shots of her. She agreed, although she seemed a little shy and embarrassed, and indicated she didn't want to be photographed with the cigarette. While I waited for her to finish her cigarette, two young men came over to us; one I presume was her boyfriend from the way they interacted and their body language, the other, a friend. She explained to them who I was. I told them not to worry about posing, and took several shots of the couple as they joked around and conversed with their friend. This was a more close-up interaction than the basketball court shoot, but it was still fairly minimal. I did not ask for their names, but I gave them mine and one of my websites when the presumed-boyfriend inquired about it.

Tate St. and Environs
In an effort to take some more shots of people as inconspicuously as possible, I parked myself on a bench on the sidewalk for a while, which allowed me to watch people standing about on Tate St. without feeling like I was stalking them. The downside was that sitting rather limited the angle of my shots. I took several pictures of a young man talking to a young woman through the window of her car parked in front of me. While I couldn't vary my angle, I tried to capture the different gestures throughout their conversation. As for the conversation itself, though they were maybe 7 ft in front of me, I could barely hear their voices, whereas the conversation of three men standing maybe 20 ft to my left was more audible. The young man and woman remained there for quite some time; perhaps the girl was waiting for something or someone and the friend or acquaintance was keeping her company in the meantime.
There were a few shots I took of a girl studying or reading alone at a table outside one of the coffee shops that are worth mentioning, though I was not particularly impressed with how they turned out--perhaps it was the lack of interaction.
The last set of photos I took was quite an enjoyable experience. I approached a group of animated young men lounging just outside some apartments on S. Mendenhall. I didn't listen to much of the conversation before I asked if they minded me taking photos for a class. As I started exploring different distances and angles for photos, I realized they were throwing around ideas for some kind of film project. I moved around to try different shots, I asked about their project here and there, to gain some more insight without derailing or interrupting their creative flow of thought. While all but one are UNCG students, this was a project they are looking to do on their own for fun: a comedic zombie-apocalyptic style web series. While I was there they were mostly discussing character ideas for the main cast...Francis "Fran, Franny" the musical theater girl and Bill ("My name is William." "Shut the **** up, Bill!"--the classically trained actor come to mind. I believe there was also a Dwayne, the token "black dude." I quipped in here and there with a couple of zombie genre and web series jokes, and asked if they'd come up with a title yet, to which they laughed and said they hadn't gotten there yet. I thanked them for the photos and the minor peanut-gallery opportunity during their brainstorm.