Why I Snapped What I Snapped

I walked around Knoxville with the Fujifilm X-H2 and I want to walk you through why I took the shots I took. I bailed on a group photo walk with strangers, which makes you think, am I this weird? Probably. Moving on.

Pedestrian bridges and catwalks are my muse. Geometry, shapes, framing. That is my thing.

The day gave me a possible fugitive, a failed frame within a frame in a parking garage, and a man in a red hood against the town’s most historic graveyard who looked like the green Grim Reaper. A beige clad man matched against white bricks, just for the aesthetic. A woman whose hair matched the flowers in a bush. She did not want her picture taken. She is in public. I do not give a damn.

A green and yellow man next to a yellow fire hydrant. An operating toll booth. A man at a bus stop in complementary blue and red. A woman lighting a cigarette in a door frame. Blue on blue reflections. An orange and blue man at a Bird scooter. The intersection of color and light is why we shoot what we shoot.

A sequined jacket catching the light. A mom, son, and grandmother trio through escalator glass. A cropped photo of a woman in white, and I know some of you are against cropping but you can screw off.

My favorite shot of the day: a man who looked like James Bond from North Africa, with the light perfectly across his face. The eyes have it. Then a woman with light across her face digging for a cigarette. Then a squinting man who looked like Christopher Walken. No, that is not Christopher Walkin.

At my favorite intersection I waited for a bicyclist in a background matching shirt to ride through the frame. Later the light was only hitting the crosswalk with two people in it. I admit I stalked a woman with orange hair against an orange brick backdrop. I never did get her hair against the detour sign.

A vaping man backlit with the vape smoke lit up. Two skaters riding in tandem. I am not a big black and white silhouette kind of guy, but sometimes it works. Golden hour selfie girls. A sanitation worker doing his job. Girls with halos of light.

Technical note: I was shooting a Fujifilm film simulation with clarity turned on. Word of warning. Clarity slows your camera down to the point where you cannot shoot fast, and you will miss shots because of it.

That is why I snapped what I snapped. And the best Fujifilm camera for street photography is the X-H2, because the best way to take pictures is in manual.