All the things you can't take pictures of

   Walking around in the world, camera in my pocket, frustrated by all the things you can’t take pictures of.  The homeless man holding the sign that he made.  The pretty girl on the subway wearing a funky outfit.  The small construction worker who appears to be in his sixties, moving slowly under the weight of an iron bar on his shoulder.  It would be rude, or worse, to take their picture.  Wouldn't it? 

   I know what any photojournalist would say.  “What do you mean you can’t take their picture?  What could possibly be better to photograph?  Another cluster of Asian bittersweet?  Another band of geese?  Photos need people in them in order to tell a story."  

   And I know what I would say.  “I am not a journalist.  And I am not trying to tell a story.”  And then maybe they would say, “I wasn’t either, until I was.”

   Also not to be photographed, in this case by rule, are all of the fine wooden objects in a shop on the main street in Gloucester.  Tables, mirrors, bowls, models of ships and boats of all kinds, and innumerable carved fish.  

   A sign says no photographs are allowed out of respect for the artists’ work.  This seems odd to me.  I am not going to buy the carved fish, or anything else here.  But I might enjoy looking at a picture of something here from time to time.  The artist, if he were standing here, I think would agree that if I am not going to buy it, there is no harm in me enjoying a picture of it.  

   I suppose the prohibition is not about me.  It is about people who might take the photo in order to study it and recreate the artist’s work for themselves, or worse, for sale.  

   Yes, it must be about those people.  The ones who have to ruin things for everyone.
   In the meantime, here is a photo of hand-carved figures from a much less serious shop on the Cape. No artists, photographers or shopkeepers were harmed in the making of this picture.