I guarantee you that every time you pass the Duke of Wellington statue at Royal Exchange Square, there will be a traffic cone atop its head. It has become a Glasgow landmark. As Wikipedia puts it: “Capping the statue with a traffic cone has become a traditional practice in the city, claimed to represent the humour of the local population and believed to date back to the first half of the 1980s if not before.”
… Until you’ve busted out your camera. That’s how I feel anyway. It’s such a pleasure to awake on a Saturday morning and know that I don’t have anything to do. No jobs, no meetings, no arrangements. Totally free to self indulge. Yesterday was one of those days, so I took my dog, Indie, into the city and did some street shooting (much harder when you have an over zealous dog on the lead).
Town was jumping and so there was no shortage of interesting characters. I still find I can be apprehensive with street photography. Sometimes it seems that everyone is so aware of me, it doesn’t matter how busy it is. I find it hard to blend into the background with such a big camera and lens, and I don’t think Indie was helping matters with her pigeon chasing antics. I did okay this time. I was a good ninja.
It’s Christmas Eve. Hiya Santa. What are you getting? I think he’s bringing me a Kindle. Yesterday I headed into Glasgow for a spot of last minute shopping. It was pretty hectic, surprisingly more so than today. I saw a couple of undercover Santas, but mostly just grumpy people. Everyone seems grumpy at Christmas. People I follow on Twitter are complaining, folk I follow on Tumblr are whining. Apparently 2011 was a ‘bad’ year. Well, it isn’t going to change with 2012, because guess what? It’s not a numerical thing – it’s life. It’s up and down regardless of what year we’re in, so shut it.
Whew, went off on a tangent there. Merry Christmas!
I’ve had a hard time feeling festive this year. Perhaps it’s because I’ve been so busy with work. Usually I take time off at Christmas to slow down and reflect, but I won’t be doing that this year. Or I’m not sure if it’s because I’ve moved to a new apartment where family rarely visit me, therefore I’ve decided to skip on the Christmas decorations.
With that said, I spent most of Saturday at Glasgow’s Christmas market, where I stocked up on mulled wine, Amaretto punch and other festive flavours. I took my 135mm for some street photography, but I actually got pretty tipsy and only snapped a few frames. Oops.
While shopping around for my Halloween costume (which is so far a secret, but I can reveal it is of course video game themed), I took my camera into town for some candid, street photography. I’ve been really digging street stuff lately; you never know what you’ll come away with or who you’ll see. Today I came across a parade of men dressed as penguins, as well as a group of kilted gentlemen.