The One That Got Away

I was going to take a picture of three identical stone crocks lined up on a shelf, and I was busily trying to figure out what you did about the rule of thirds when you had three items of prominence lined up in your intended shot. The guy with the disposable camera was also trying to get a picture taken and I told him not to mind me, I was working on a project for school and I did not know what I was doing. That’s when he told me he had left his good camera at home, thus, he was stuck using a throw-away camera.

I am like my mother in that I can strike up a conversation with almost any complete stranger if they slow down long enough and so we talked a little about photography (he has an enlarger at home, “just sitting around”, dang, I should have gotten his number) and watched the old man stirring the syrup. It was the stranger who suggested I try to get a picture of the fire in the syrup cooker. He said it would make a nice picture, with the clay around the oven, and the stainless steel smoke pipe and the fire. I told him I only had one shot left, and when I pressed him for details as to how he thought I ought to set the aperture and shutter speed, he suddenly did not have much to offer in the way of opinions, except to tell me to just try it.

It would have been a good picture, according to the stranger, if it would have come out. But it didn’t. And that being the last of the film, the photo of the three stone crocks also got away. Too bad, I just know it would have been a good one.