Friday Night, April 10

Without getting into a long explanation that is extremely unimportant to this post, I was invited to someone's birthday party at a local pub a few Fridays ago, but I had prior plans.  The plans didn't last as long as I expected and I ended up meeting the birthday group later that night.



The party isn't all that important, except for the fact that it made me walk around the Market for a good 40 minutes.  (My buddy was tired, I left his place and got to the Market about 40 minutes before the party was to meet there.)  I spent my time, of course, walking around taking photos.



I hadn't done that, at night, in the Market, for a long time.  I am easily a creature of the night.  I dislike mornings and seem to wake up when the sun goes down, especially if I'm already outside.  I love walking around at night taking photos; I just don't get much opportunity to do so.  I suppose I could easily go out and do it any night I choose, which is absolutely true, it's just rare I am outside at night waiting do to something with some time to kill.



I feel that the city during the day is functional, and not much more, especially during the week.  People wake up, go to work, and come back home, occasionally going to some store or other to buy something.  It's all very sterile and orderly.  At night, especially getting closer to the weekend, the city comes alive with vibrancy and diversity.  During the day, people have to dress appropriate to their jobs, and have to act appropriately; at night people wear the clothes they want so they can act like themselves and have fun the way they like to have fun.



With my trusty Canon S100 (though I don't know how long I'll be calling a Canon camera 'trusty'), I set out to wander the Market as soon as I got there, as I knew I would be waiting for people to get where they're supposed to go.  The camera is small and discrete, but has good focusing and good low-light performance.  I've never really been disappointed by this camera.



Walking around, I generally took shots of what I wanted to take shots of.  I did miss one photo opportunity, though I'm not too disappointed I missed it.  I did walk past it (which is bad), but got my thoughts together about the shot I wanted and did a 180 to go get the shot (which, I consider, for me, a good thing).  It was somewhat chilly outside, and there was a girl in front of a club, waiting for friends, being very cold, in clothing that was more appropriate for inside the club.  By the time I got back, the shot was gone, but I was proud of myself for trying.  (Again, this come down to my goal for 2015.)



You'll see things at night that you probably won't see during the day.  For example, as I rounded a corner, I saw this guy doing one-handed push-ups on a corner.  I had to run to get a shot of the guy before he got up and collected money from the people he was performing for.  At night, people are a lot more lubricated and a lot more likely to entertain this type of performance.  Again, more life and diversity at night.



I hope I can do this many other times this year.  I guess that's up to me, but I suppose that if I have a reason to be downtown, I'll feel a bit better.  This can be another goal this year: be more active at night, which I like.