School me if you must (& I know I will be schooled), but I took a great picture!1

[UTUSN]

This was at La Plaza Mayor in Madrid, on the only tourist tour I will ever take. I love the way the "models" worked at not objecting to having their privacy invaded while the onlookers clearly thought I was an intrusive boor. By the bye, this European plaza is WAY tiny compared to the New World "zocalo" in Mexico City. It's like how Mark TWAIN said in The Innocents Abroad that the European scenery was dwarfed by the spaciousness of the New World.

[MLAA]

1. Nice shot!

I was lucky enough to live in Madrid for a year not too long ago. Plaza Major is where I liked to go for a sangria and people watch 🙂

[UTUSN]

2. Thanks! I drank a Coke.

[MLAA]

4. Bet my sangria cost less! Haha.

[dweller]

3. there is a bit of circus quality to it

without the fanfare ..
some balance, distorted height, action in motionless inertia
bright sky, dark cavernous columns, and bored onlookers awaiting
stone balls to lead to an escape on a moped ...

go for it,

✌🏼

[UTUSN]

5. You're going all poet on me!1

[sprinkleeninow]

6. Hay now, dint realize you had this talent goin' awnnn... ❣

[UTUSN]

7. Wait'll you see my pic of the mid-watch thingy!1

[sprinkleeninow]

8. I KNEW THAT WAS COMING NEXT11IL!

Believe it or not, you do lend motivation.

When it surfaces, it's your'ns. No kidden...

[UTUSN]

13. Hah "motivation"! Well, first your story of the mysterious thingy is intriguing.

And then your Passive Resistence of being too busy to find it to resolve it keeps me hooked into nagging. Motivation, indeed!1

To be clear, just want a pic to see what it looks like, not asking to take it away from you ha ha!1 And be sure to put a ruler next to it.

[sl8]

21. I would have guessed that you'd had enough midwatches to last a lifetime.

[UTUSN]

22. You clearly know something of ships and swabbies. The backstory of sprinkleeninow is this:

Many months ago sprinkleeninow posted how a Navy grandfather or somebody had given them some kind of mysterious token with "MID WATCH" on it. The family had no idea what it was. Neither do I, but told sprinkleeninow that the Mid Watch is the duty time slot from Midnight to 4 A.M. and speculated that this token thing (which I'd never heard of) might be worn around the neck as an I.D. I asked sprinkleeninow for a picture of it for me to maybe make a replica as memorabilia. sprinkleeninow said that it is stowed somewhere in a box in the attic somewhere and doesn't have time to look for it. So whenever our posting paths cross I bring up the Mid Watch thingy to nag at sprinkleeninow.
Sounds like sprinkleeninow is inching closer to looking for it, to stop my nagging!1

[sl8]

27. I stood a few watches in my day.

Thanks for the explanation.

I had thought maybe you were losing it, but I see now there's a method to your madness.

[lunatica]

9. I think they watched you because you were interestingly doing something

I like your photograph. I’ve always been a curious onlooker. A people watcher. If I was there I would have watched you watching the young people.

[UTUSN]

11. Thanks but haha, me "doing something": Such as being a voyeur?!1 lol

[lunatica]

14. Well it makes you different in a public setting doesn't it?

Who doesn’t watch a voyeur if one is there?

[safeinOhio]

10. I have a large collection of post cards.

This would make a great one, in the days of post cards.

[UTUSN]

12. Wow, thanks so much!

[skypilot]

15. The only schooling I would offer you...

...is to crop out the scooter. Otherwise, it is a great photo.

[UTUSN]

16. Here ya go. However, my private collection (hah!1) will be as is, just because

1) It was a spontaneous shot, meaning whatever was there was there.
2) Cropping the scooter removes 1 1/2 of the columns & moves the central figures off the center, throwing the onlookers over.
3) Cropping both the scooter and the onlookers for balance and restoring the center makes it cramped and takes out the corner of Nature (sky) from the human-constructions.
4) The scooter is the see-saw with the onlookers, is an interesting scooter both kewl but economy class and contrasts modernity with the oldness of the background.
5) The random details throw in more story possibilities.

But other than that, I'm glad you liked it, thanks!1

[skypilot]

17. A master of taste, i guess.

I think your first cropped photo is an improvement. The couple is still central in the photo even if they are not literally in the center. And since the scooter is already partially cropped in the original photo I would crop it out altogether. I hope you don't think I am being obnoxious. I just really do think cropping out the scooter improves the photograph.

[UTUSN]

18. No snit from me, and I hope you don't think I was being sarcastic with my thanks!1

[skypilot]

19. Ooh, ooh, ooh..

...here's another idea. You could crop out the onlookers and leave the scooter. Cropping the photo right at the right edge of the sphere that the girl is standing on makes for another great photo. Ok, I'm done. Now I feel like I am being a bit obnoxious. It's just a great photo that could be worked in many different ways.

[hunter]

20. The scooter made the photo for me...

... that and the twin lens reflex camera.

[UTUSN]

23. "twin lens reflex camera" - ?? Is there such a thing in the picture? Will you point it out please?

[hunter]

24. It would amuse me greatly if I was seeing things that weren't there...

... as frequently happens to me, but isn't he taking a close up picture of her face, staring into the top of the camera?

That's how you took photos with an old Rolleiflex or East German knock-off.

The shutter release of the camera was in the front, which explains the positions of his fingers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolleiflex

[UTUSN]

25. Wow, not only is your knowledge of cameras/photography admirable, but

so is your observation, since I never paused on whatever he was doing, just thought he was looking at a phone (although this was back in 2010? when phones weren't that rampant). So, it's just my lack of knowledge, not an implication that you were "seeing things that weren't there."

At most I didn't spend more than a glance at the picture, just the overall look of it, the lines of perspective and balance, the reactions of the onlookers and so on. And I didn't plan it out while snapping it, just saw the couple and stopped walking and pushed the button. It wasn't until seeing it larger here and able to zoom in that I noticed the older male onlooker seeming to have his hand up to the side of his face as if disapproving of my effrontery. And now I wonder how the dude got up on the pedestal and what that post is for, and other such stuff. Now that you mention it, if he *does* have a vintage camera, it would seem to me not for lack of his being able to access modern/expensive stuff, not needing East German knockoffs. I myself didn't have a phone back then, used a $100 snap thing. Only now does the possibility occur to me that the scooter might have belonged to the couple since it's not tied down for security and they're nearby.

[Hoyt]

26. Me too, scooters and young love are so European.