I Wonder What They Were Talking About:

It was probably something meaningless. Perhaps how they were looking forward to summer break. Maybe they were complaining about their town being overrun with tourists. How about who their latest crush was? It could have been complaining about school or how happy they were to finally be done. I start to think about all the dumb conversations I've had with friends, most of those topics were indeed meaningless.

Then I think if they only knew I was taking a photo. How would they have reacted? Should I feel guilty for snapping it? I was 20 feet above them and just happened to hear talking as I walked by. I could hear them chatting away and laughing with each other. I didn't know what they were saying as I don't speak the language (I was also too far away to really make any of it out). Would they have been embarrassed? Or maybe they would have yelled at me to stop as has happened to me in other cities. I never mean any harm, I just like taking pictures.

Honestly this is a rare case. I usually don't like humans in my photos. It may seem a bit odd to some but I am more interested in landscapes or architecture. I like observing spaces and buildings uninfected by people. Maybe that word is a bit harsh but it's often how I feel about it. The rarity of this photo though is that it's one of my favorites. I'm not sure if it's the perspective, the contrast of light and dark or simply the beauty in three young girls enjoying an afternoon alone and away from the rest of the world.

When I think about it more I realize it reminds me of my childhood. One of my favorite activities was riding my bike to the store with a friend. We would buy candy and then find a spot to sit and talk about meaningless things. Usually girls or the girls we had crushes on. But then it would be about music or different ways we could make money or how long we had to wait before fireworks were on sale to celebrate the 4th of July. Meaningless stuff. But to us, or to me, it was the world. It was one of my favorite things to do.

I'd like to think that if any one of these girls saw this photo they would love it. I know I'd be happy to come across a photo of me and my friends sitting around on grassy knolls or hanging out on rooftops. The memories it brings back for me are always positive ones. At the very least I wish they knew how proud I am of this photo. It's not because I think it's a masterpiece of beauty or that I took tons of time considering the picture I was taking. I literally held my hands out, pointed my camera down and snapped a few shots.

The sense of pride comes more from the idea that I captured a moment that will never come again and has long since passed, both for them and myself. Their moment together reminds me of my own moments, in my own past, and I hope they will one day be lucky enough to have something that reminds them of the time they sat around with friends talking about meaningless things for no reason at all.

Later on it was my brother who pointed out that you can see the shadow of my camera. I could have easily taken it out with Photoshop and that's usually something I would have tried to do. But after some consideration on it I decided not to. As I stated before, I'm proud of this picture. I want whoever sees it to know that it was taken with a camera for the reason of capturing a moment we all sometimes tend to forget.

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