Feeling unsafe and subject to the "female gaze" while out testing a new lens today. I should have brought my pepper spray...

I'm sure this happens to you all the time. You're sitting on a bench because you are too old and feeble to walk very far. You're playing with your camera to pass the time. You're hoping people will just leave you alone because you revel in your identity as an introvert. A loner intellectual. It's a hot day and the heat has already made you forget your Social Security number.  And then, when you least expect it young women harass you just because you're so damn good looking. Happens all the time. And I'm getting a little tired of being objectified. 

This sequence happened just a few hours ago over on South Congress Ave. I was photographing myself and my Leica camera in a mirror on an A frame in front of a shop. Then, out of the blue I wound up with yet another group of admirers. I tried to ignore them and keep on shooting but ..... they weren't having it. 

I walked on after jarring episode this but about a block later they accosted me again and asked me to take their photographs with the city of Austin in the background. With their own battered iPhone. 

And they'd recruited two more friends to share in the process. 

I guess what the smart people on the web say is true, it's hard to approach strangers on the street and ask for their photos. Especially when there is an age and gender difference.

Pepper spray?

Maybe it's the bucket hat that attracted them...