I was feeling chipper one day while walking around our quiet and messy downtown and I decided to drop by my bank and ask my bank officer for a ten million dollar line of credit. Did I have anything in mind that I wanted the LOC for? No. I just thought it would be cool to have one. You know, just in case; maybe an impulse purchase of an airplane. Or a big stretch, like a complete, collectible Leica camera system or something nice for the wife...
After my banker finished laughing and calling people into his office to share the story with he calmed down and he asked if I was now insane or if it was just the heat talking. We chatted a bit about masters swimming (we've both swum on the same team for at least the last decade) and then there was a long silence which I interpreted as a signal that I should get the hell out of his office. I left with the assurance that he would keep my account open. For now.
I stepped out of the bank lobby and into the main lobby of the tall building which houses both his bank and several others. The lights and curved railings looked, in the moment, appealing so I took the Leica Q2 off my shoulder and set about making a series of shots. Architectural shots. (Here is where a famous blogger steps in to tell me, with intense directness, that I am NOT an architectural photographer. The fact of which I am well aware...).
In times past when I have pulled out a camera and blazed away on private property, inside a building bristling with banks and law offices it has elicited an almost immediate response from security workers hellbent on telling me where to go. And what not to photograph. Which is their right. I guess.
But nothing of the sort happened on this occasion. It must have been the authoritative look of those Birkenstock sandals. Or maybe the relative cleanliness of those khaki short pants. But truthfully I think it's the white hair and the bi-focals. I was exuding enough "old guy" harmlessness that I'm pretty sure I could have set up an 8x10 view cameras, ducked under the dark cloth and still not prodded the security team to stand up from their padded chairs and investigate.
Either one of those reasons or....maybe my bank officer called them and told them not to worry....
Shot in medium sized Jpeg set to Monochrom HC. The start of a new career..... not.
