Category Archives: People

As the sign at the back of the bar reads, “It’s five o’clock somewhere”, and for these two people that was true…but not in Roanoke…it was only 3PM. Oh well…

Statue I saw recently in a small pool with water spouts, located near the entrance of St. John’s Catholic Church near Munster, Indiana.

Dick Tracy is a comic strip police detective created in the ealry 1930s and popular through the 40s, 50s and 60s, ultimately culminating in a 1970s movie staring Warren Beatty. I saw this statue of the famous detective recently, and thought it captured this comic-book character at his best…with trench coat, dapper hat and wrist telephone. I wonder what he’d have done with an iPhone?

I was fortunate to recently be in one of the nicest small cities I have ever seen in the United States. Located 28 miles west of Chicago, Naperville, Il, is home to approximately 145,000 people. This vibrant, thriving city consistently ranks as a top community in the nation in which to live, raise children and retire. While there, I made a few images of people I saw while walking along a river trail in the city center…a really NICE place to visit!

I have decided that one of my more photographed subjects during 2012 will be “people.” Last year I became more relaxed when making photos of people “on the street” and many times would ask for their permission first if they cared if I used my camera. Sometimes they saw me first and asked me to take their picture. In this case, I saw these two young ladies talking on the street in Greensboro and used my telephoto lens to get up close. No, I did not seek their permission first. What the scene made me think of when I first saw it, is how much time these days people spend “texting” each other on cell phones, rather than standing face-to-face conversing. Our grandkids could learn a good lesson from this example.

This “lady” is obviously not looking out. I saw “her” in a window over the holidays and wanted to make a photo…my eyes being drawn to the red shawl “she” was wearing. Nice details. “Looking in versus looking out” has another meaning to me, and as we enter into a new year perhaps there is some wisdom in that phrase. For example, it’s good to look inside yourself from time to time to determine how you’re doing in your life. Looking “out” comes later…mainly so you don’t get hit upside the head by some unexpected event.

As my granddaughter Molly and I were walking through the main lobby of the Hotel Roanoke looking at all the beautiful Christmas decorations recently, we spotted a group of ladies in the hotel’s main dining room eating lunch together. They each wore red hats and if you look closely you can see one in the middle. Obviously not being a part of this tradition, it’s my understanding that these usually older ladies gather for lunch in cities and towns across America while wearing various sorts of “red” hats…most being of a kind hardly seen elsewhere. Not wanting to go inside the dining room and make a nuisance of myself taking pictures, I just looked through this window while standing in the hallway and got the scene I wanted.