"Is it artistic or a memento?" These are the words that introduced this would-be stranger, and first to be added to the Walkabout's Cast of Characters, to me.
So there I was, cooling down from a simple, yet tiring mountain bike excursion around Burke Lake, VA. Minding my own business and trying to become intimately familiar with the complexities of a newly acquired Nikon 60mm Macro Lens, a gentleman's voice - with a lisp - to my left asks, "Is it artistic or memento?" At the moment of his inquisition, I was shooting some close-up photographs of my newly muddied mountain bike. Being slightly caught off guard by his question, and not really knowing which answer was more truth-laden, I simply replied, "Memento...ehh, no artistic...wait..ehh...I guess a little bit of both."
The seasoned gentlesir made his way over towards the Kodiak, with bike in tow, and immediately started dropping photography knowledge. After speaking for about 30 seconds he could tell right away of my amateur photographer status. He graciously gave insightful pointers on lighting, the angle of the sun, and flash compensation and knew way more about my camera than I did. Its almost like he knew the exact type of image I was trying to capture...its almost like...he was ME from the future. I would normally dismiss such mental nonsense but his ability to pull off flannel...GREEN flannel...left me no choice but to secede from the realm of reason and blindly accept the fact that I just had a brush in with me from the future...nay!... the Spirit of Me Yet To Be. I suspect this apparition will perhaps manifest itself in many of the characters introduced on this quest.
As soon as this sage-like stranger imparted his wisdom he politely said his fairwells, and with the wave of a hand he was gone.
P.S. Once this post is...posted...you will immediately see a Cast of Characters List on the left hand side. It is much like the Gear List and will allow visitors/followers to have quick links to, well, the Gear and Characters posted throughout the blog.
Oh MikeQuine, I love this. I wish you the best in your travels. The pictures are amazing too! I'm definitely impressed. I look forward to seeing some beautiful MikeQuine-original landscapes in the future. I hope you're doing well. Take care of yourself!
ReplyDelete