I did shoot photographs today at lunch. I know, I know, that's the only place I shoot these days (the Chinese New Year Parade being the exception), but I ran through a roll and a half of black and white just sitting at the table as we were talking, eight people, three OATS along with someone from my section in range of the camera. I've got to be careful not to wear out my welcome, but everybody seemed to be in a mood to ignore the camera. Ignore the dweeb. A very satisfying shoot, almost sensual. That's the way hobbies should be, deedle-dee-dee, sensual and engrossing. Not all the time, not even a very large part of the time, but enough of the time to keep your batteries charged and your camera up.

Since I was only shooting four or five people, I'll be lucky to get a decent photograph of each, maybe fewer, one good photograph, maybe one single acceptable photograph out of fifty. Still, that's worth it and I haven't had a chance to shoot more than one or two pictures of any given subject in a long time. A fashion photographer will shoot hundreds of photographs to get one good one for a client. There was a piece on television recently about one of the swimsuit models that appeared in the annual Sports Illustrated issue. An older woman, 29 or 30. The photographer shot well over a thousand frames to get the two photographs they eventually used. I'd like a chance to shoot maybe five or six rolls, 150 to 200 photographs of a single subject. It makes it easier to see the mistakes when you've got a stream of images in front of you and forces you to see and think.

I tuckered myself out just writing that. Summer's coming and I'm low on film.