Eccentric Flower:199810/quick the light is going

one october ninety eight nine p m

quick, the light is going

I left work early and went to take photographs. I walked along the river by The Institvte (people drive too fast on Memorial Drive!) and crossed the Harvard Bridge and then walked up the Charles River basin on the other side.

I was wearing cutoffs, a large T-shirt (I like them too big for me) and an even larger denim workshirt (I like overshirts which are way too big for me) with the sleeves rolled up. It was extremely windy, which is what inspired me to go take photos in the first place. I love the way trees look when they're in a hard wind.

It was a red-flag day at Community Boating. Green flag means mild wind; red flag is rougher. The advanced sailing test can only be given on red-flag days, and they were seizing the opportunity - I saw several sailboats being paced closely by motorboats, which either means someone's being taught, tested, or rescued.

By the time the sun was almost gone, pink-orange, and I had used up a second roll of film, the temperature had dropped ten to fifteen degrees, and shorts were becoming incorrect. So I went home.

It doesn't matter if none of the photos come out - and they may not. I tend to ask impossible things of my film, and my hands shake so I tend to use a faster shutter speed than is good for me, so they won't be as likely to blur.

That's irrelevant. I had a good time, like I always do. I could probably just go out with an empty camera, have the same amount of fun, and spend less money ... but then I eliminate the possibility that one of the photos might happen to be that one truly amazing shot that the laws of probability apparently allot me, about once every five rolls.

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